Occupation, Nazi-hunter: The Continuing Search for the Perpetrators of the Holocaust

During the past fifteen years there has been renewed interest in the efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Sparked by revelations that Allied countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia had afforded a postwar haven to thousands of Nazi collaborators, Nazi-hunters continue their efforts to insure that those responsible for the implementation of the Final Solution are held accountable for their crimes. This task has not been easy as the passage of time, numerous legal and technical difficulties and the reluctance of host governments to deal with this issue have created extremely difficult obstacles in the path of achieving justice. This book tells the story of an individual who has played an important role in the recent efforts of two of the most important agencies in the field of Nazi-hunting - the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the U.S. Justice Department. As a researcher in Israel for OSI from 1980 to 1986, Efraim Zuroff found numerous documents and witnesses who helped convict Nazi war criminals living in the United States. He participated in the investigation to determine whether the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele had been arrested and released after the war by the American Army. He also uncovered a means of tracking down thousands of Nazi collaborators who had escaped to the West by utilizing postwar Red Cross records of refugees. It was this discovery which prompted his decision to leave OSI and become coordinator of Nazi war crimes research for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Over the course of the past eight years, the Center has submitted the names of over 1,700 suspected Nazi war criminals totwelve different countries and has helped influence Canada (in 1987), Australia (in 1989) and Great Britain (in 1991) to pass special legislation to enable the prosecution of Nazi war criminals living in those countries. In addition, Sweden, New Zealand and Iceland have also launched special investigations of Nazi war criminals in the wake of the Center's efforts to expose the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Occupation: Nazi-hunter discusses how Nazi-hunting was revived in the seventies, how it was carried out in the eighties and whether it can continue in the nineties. It chronicles the personal story of one of today's Nazi-hunters, a young Jew born after the Holocaust who has devoted his life to the pursuit of justice for the victims of the Holocaust.