Rise in arrests of Nazi war criminals

by admin
Jan 23, 2013
10 Nazi-era war criminals have been arrested in the past year, stated the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a five-fold increase on the previous year.

In a report looking at the period from April 1st 2011 until March 31st 2012, 9 Nazi war criminals were convicted by Italy and 1 by Germany. The two countries were praised, alongside the US, for leading convictions against war criminals.

A total of 7 countries have handed down convictions to Nazis since 2001, with Italy leading having prosecuted 45 cases and the US 39.

Written by Dr Efraim Zuroff, the report particularly praises a 2011 conviction of Sobibor guard Ivan Demjanjuk, stating,
"Germany could easily have ignored the case of Demjanjuk, who was neither German nor Volksdeutsche, nor had he committed his crimes in Germany, but the prosecutors in Munich nonetheless made the effort to bring him to trial and achieved a landmark decision".
However, countries such as Syria, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Ukraine, Canada, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Austria received a 'failed grade' for prosecuting war criminals, with the report saying,
"Despite a large number of potential suspects, Austria has not convicted anyone for crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust for more than three decades."
See the full report here.

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