60 THE SUNDAY POST/ January 17, 2010 65 years after Holocaust he still has war criminals in his sights

By Steven Bowron HE saying “old T sins cast long shadows” doesn’t There’s even begin to cover it when it comes to . Even 65 years after the world became fully still aware of the genocide of Jews and gypsies, fresh reminders of the crime of the 20th Century still regularly appear. plenty Miep Gies, one of the Dutch citizens who shielded Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis ■ Anton Gecas. and who was instrumental in saving her famous of work injected inmates with petrol diaries, died last Monday and removed organs from aged 100. still-living victims at Mauthausen concentration Earlier in December was the camp. theft of the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (work makes you Heim’s son Rudiger has free) sign that hung above the claimed his father died in gates of the Auschwitz for the Egypt in 1992 having lived extermination camp, later there for 30 years. retrieved after a nationwide Unconvinced, Efraim went hunt across . to Chile with a documentary crew in 2008 to talk to Heim’s illegitimate daughter, Murder Waltraud, whom he believed And in November the trial Last was in touch with her father. of alleged former Sobibor “She denied she had ever guard, Lithuanian John ■ Dr Zuroff (above) is still on the trail of Dr (below left). The so-called “Doctor Death” of Mauthausen concentration met him,” says Efraim. Demjanjuk who faces 29,000 camp (below right) supposedly died in 1992 but without evidence of this, Zuroff’s file can’t be closed. Bottom — Miep Gies, the counts of murder, began in “I’ve never met any Nazis Dutchwoman who was the last surviving person to have helped shield Anne Frank from the Nazis. She died last week aged 100. face-to-face but I’ve spoken to Munich. the children of them and they Indeed there’s no let-up in always defend their parents. the hunt for Nazi war “I think there’s a definite criminals across the globe, possibility Heim died in Cairo despite the majority of them in 1992 but I can’t sign off on now being in their 90s. the case because there’s no It was in acknowledgement forensic evidence to support of the former SS men and that conclusion.” women’s advancing years that in July 2002 Operation Last Chance was launched by Incensed Dr Efraim Zuroff, known as In Chile Efraim came up the Last Nazi Hunter. against protests, though on Director of the Simon this occasion these were Wiesenthal Institute in Los from a lone neo-Nazi incensed Angeles, Dr Zuroff, who is at his presence in the country. based in , produces “If push came to shove I an annual status report on could have taken him because developments in tracking he definitely wasn’t armed down these fugitives. and I was a lot bigger than The last of these, covering him!” jokes the 62-year-old. April 2008 to March 2009, “But I’ve had death threats showed 700 ongoing against me and a price put on investigations, a figure he my head. The fact I’m still describes as “the tip of the here proves it wasn’t enough. iceberg”. “Sometimes I use Incredibly there were also bodyguards, though not on a 80 new investigations. day-to-day basis in .” Rather than hunting Nazis, But after disappointments Dr Zuroff is visiting Scotland like Heim and Gecas there are next week to promote his two success stories for Nazi book, Operation Last Chance. hunters. That’s not to say none have There’s the imminent ever been tracked down here. extradition of from to to stand trial for the murder of Arrest an 18-year-old Jewish man in Anton Gecas is the only November 1944. And there’s person living in Scotland to the ongoing trial of John have an arrest warrant issued Demjanjuk. against them for Nazi war “I will be going to crimes. to see the trial,” says Efraim. While he spent his twilight “I think he’ll be found guilty in years running a guesthouse Munich and be imprisoned for in Edinburgh’s Moston 15 years, which should see Terrace, he’d been accused of him out. the mass murder of up to “I got a call last week from 34,000 Jews and civilians in the office of the President of . who apparently wants He died aged 85 in hospital because his victims were Court of Session to stop victims, lost a libel action To this day Efraim is to honour me for my work. in September 2001 before he buried in mass graves with no publication of his book grateful to STV for helping “I don’t know what I’ll be could stand trial. against Scottish Television funeral. accusing him of war after its 1992 documentary highlight the issue. getting, but I’m heading to “He was buried under a Croatia and will be stopping “I once door-stepped Gecas atrocities. stated he was responsible for false name in an Edinburgh However, his appreciation off in Munich while I’m in cemetery because his family at his home in Edinburgh, Lord Cowie issued a writ war crimes in Lithuania and didn’t stop his feelings of deep Europe.” thought there would be though he wouldn’t come and against the Southampton Belarus. This time the judge frustration at the Gecas case ■ talk to me. Dr Zuroff is at Waterstone’s protests,” says Dr Zuroff in a publishers effectively concluded Gecas had carried and Efraim has a similar in Newton Mearns next Brooklyn accent, not lost after “He just shouted for me to preventing the book coming out war crimes against Soviet sense of being thwarted in his Sunday at 6.30 pm and 40 years living in Israel. contact his lawyer.” out anywhere. citizens, though no charges search for the No. 1 Nazi still Blackwell, South Bridge, “You could say that was a Gecas successfully took But Ivan the Terrible, as he were ever brought due to at large, Dr Aribert Heim. Edinburgh, on Monday, historic form of justice Efraim to the High Court and was called by his alleged “lack of evidence”. Known as Doctor Death, he January 26 at 6.15.