The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center will begin a campaign in January to flush out the last surviving Nazi war criminals in Germany, the head of the center's Jerusalem office said yesterday. Efraim Zuroff said the campaign will finally begin after several delays on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The campaign is part of the group's "Operation Last Chance," a drive which has been under way across eastern Europe to catch World War II criminals who took part in the Holocaust.
The center is racing against time as both the perpetrators and survivors of war crimes grow old and die. Zuroff told Reuters last year there was a "window of opportunity" of three to five more years to catch Nazi criminals. The center planned to offer 10,000 euros ($12,630) for information leading to prosecution of Nazi war criminals, Zuroff said. He said it was difficult to estimate how many suspected war criminals were still at large, but he believed that it could number in the thousands. "It's difficult to estimate but there's no question in my mind that at least several dozen people could be prosecuted," Zuroff said."The key is the testimony of fellow perpetrators and that is very difficult to achieve."
Britain this year awarded an honorary knighthood to Simon Wiesenthal, who is in his nineties, for "a lifetime of service to humanity" pursuing Holocaust perpetrators. He spent the best part of five decades tracking down more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals responsible for the mass murder of Jews and played a role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann. |