The October 15th Chicago Tribune had an article about the state of the Nazi Hunt. The war ended over six decades ago, and like all people from that era, they are dying off of old age fast. But the German Office for the Investigation of "National Socialist Crimes, in charge of tracking the guilty ones down is far from shutting down. Actually, they are busier than ever.
Kurt Schrimm and his staff of six comb records from around the world in a final push for justice. Right now, they are pursuing 20 to 40 cases, including former US auto worker John Demjanjuk accused of being Nazi concentration camp guard Ivan the Terrible.
The office was established in 1958. A big problem today, is that the targets and witnesses are in their eighties and up, many have died, and others are too frail to stand trial. Most of today's leads come from documents as opposed to witnesses.
JOHN DEMJAMJUK
He has been fighting the Ivan the Terrible charges for 30 years now. After emigrating to the US in the 1950 Ukranian-born DemJamjuk worked at a Ford plant in Ohio and gained US citizenship.
In the 1970s, Holocaust survivors identified him as the feared Treblinka guard and he was extradited to Israel where, in 1988, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. That was overturned in 1993 after judges ruled there was reasonable doubt.
DenJamjuk,88, is now living in Ohio and has had his US citizenship revoked and restored. Germany is trying to extradite him on charges that he also took part in the killings at Sobibor Death Camp in Poland.
"As Nazis age, leads still live" by Laurie Goering. Notice the name.
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