International Nazi Hunter Discusses Campaign To Find Surviving War Criminals
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — An international Nazi hunter who has dedicated his life to finding justice for the millions of Jews killed in the Holocaust was in Los Angeles Monday to discuss a newly launched campaign in Germany that will help locate war criminals.
"We're talking about some of the biggest murderers in human history," said Dr. Efraim Zuroff.
Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter for the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, talked about "Operation Last Chance"—a campaign that urges Germans to provide information on the whereabouts of any surviving Nazi war criminals.
"We started the campaign to focus on the people who served in the death camps, as well as in the Einsatzgruppen, the special mobile killing units," he said.
Zuroff said of those 6,000, only 120 are still alive, but he believes younger generations have an obligation to hold criminals accountable.
"Old age should not afford protection for people who committed such heinous crimes. Just because a mass murderer reaches the age of 90 doesn't turn them into a righteous Gentile," he said.
Renee Firestone, 89, and her family were sent to Auschwitz, where she said her mother was gassed and her sister was tortured.
"I feel like justice should be done. (My sister) was used as a guinea pig for medical experiments and then she was shot," she said.
Over the years, Zuroff said the Simon Wiesenthal Center has turned over more than 100 suspects to local prosecutors.
Right now, they are waiting for legal action for some of their most wanted, including Michael Karkoc, a suspected SS commandant who is accused of lying his way into the U.S. and is now living in Minnesota, and Hans Lipschis, who was believed to be an SS guard at Auschwitz.
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