JERUSALEM — Syria and Sweden received a failing grade, while the United States netted an “A” in the first Nazi War Criminals Prosecution Status Report being issued this week by the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office.
The center graded 18 countries on their performance over the past few years in prosecuting Holocaust perpetrators. Those countries are either the location of the crimes or the domicile of the suspects.
The report, compiled by Israel director Efraim Zuroff, who coordinates the center’s Nazi war-crimes research, harshly criticizes Syria and Sweden as “total failures” for refusing “to even investigate, let alone prosecute or extradite,” Nazi war criminals.
It gives a scarcely better “D” grade to Austria, Australia, Scotland, Estonia, and New Zealand for an “insufficient and/or unsuccessful effort,” citing limited prosecution efforts it said were particularly unsuccessful.
The report was published on Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day “to focus attention on the need to maximize the effort to bring Nazi war criminals to trial, while stressing the fact it is still possible in the 21st century to succeed in convicting such criminals,” said Zuroff.
“Despite all the technical and legal problems, we are achieving success, criminals are being uncovered and being investigated, and in many cases convicted.”
Those countries receiving a “C” grade, characterized as having “minimal success which could have been greater; additional steps urgently required,” include Great Britain, Argentina, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia and Costa Rica.
“B” grades, for having an “ongoing prosecution program with at least moderate success,” include Germany, France, Italy, and Canada.
Only the United States received an “A,” for having a “highly successful proactive prosecution program.”
“We would like to commend those countries that are making a maximum effort, especially the United States and the special work of the OSI [Office of Special Investigations],” says the report, “and at the same time to draw public attention to the failings of countries like Syria and Sweden, which in principle refuse to investigate, as well as to the failure of countries like Austria and Australia, where insufficient efforts were invested, and the dismal results speak for themselves.”
A 19th country, Venezuela, was excluded from the report, as the Wiesenthal Center recently submitted a list of 18 potential suspects, and is awaiting an official response from the government regarding its willingness to fully investigate those cases.
The report criticizes Syria for consistently denying Alois Brunner — responsible for the deportation to death camps of 128,500 Jews from Austria, Greece, France, and Slovakia — is living in the country, “despite abundant convincing evidence to the contrary.”
The report notes that he was recently sentenced in France in absentia to life imprisonment for the third time, and that Germany, Austria, Slovakia, France, and Poland are currently seeking his extradition.
Sweden is called to task for refusing in principle to investigate or prosecute Swedish Nazi war criminals or Nazi war criminals who found refuge there after World War II.
“We find it extremely strange that a country which has increasingly played a leading role in Holocaust education refuses to deal with those Nazi perpetrators on Swedish soil,” the report says.