Trisha Shetty (Editor)

List of Most Wanted Nazi War Criminals according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

Each year since 2001, Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center produces an Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi war criminals which, since at least 2005, includes a list of "most wanted" criminals that had never been convicted.

Contents

Nazi war criminals slated for possible prosecution

The following Nazi war criminals are slated for possible prosecution as of 2016, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Current country of residence is listed first, with country where crime was committed enclosed in brackets.

  1. Helma Kissner, (age 92) – Germany (Poland) – served as a radio operator in the Auschwitz death camp from April to July 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 260,000 cases. Ruled unfit to stand trial on 9 September 2016 by a court in Kiel.
  2. Reinhold Hanning, (age 95) – Germany (Poland) – served in the Auschwitz death camp from January 1943 until June 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 170,000 cases. Hanning was convicted and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on June 17, 2016.
  3. Helmut Oberlander (age 93)– Canada (Ukraine) – served in Einsatzkommando 10A (part of Einsatzgruppe D, which murdered an estimated 23,000 mostly Jewish civilians. In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that ordered the Canadian government to reconsider its decision to revoke Oberlander's Canadian citizenship. This means that to deport him so that he can be tried for war crimes, the government first has to prove that Oberlander was a willing participant in Nazi death squad activities.
  4. Hubert Zafke (age 95)– Germany (Poland) – served as a medic in the Auschwitz death camp during the years 1943 and 1944 – charged with accessory to murder in 3,681 cases.
  5. Alfred Stork (age 93) – Germany (Greece) – participated in the September 1943 mass murder of 120 Italian officers on the Greek island of Kefalonia.
  6. Helmut Rasbol (age 91)– Denmark (Belarus) – during the years 1942-1943 served as a guard in the Judenlager established by the Nazis in Bobruisk, Belarus, during which almost all the Jewish inmates of the camp were executed or died of the horrible physical conditions.
  7. Aksel Andersen – Sweden (Belarus) - during the years 1942-1943 served as a guard in the Judenlager established by the Nazis in Bobruisk, Belarus, during which almost all the Jewish inmates of the camp were executed or died of the horrible physical conditions.
  8. Johann Robert Riss (age 93)– Germany (Italy) – participated in the murder of 184 civilians in Padule di Fucecchio, Italy on August 23, 1944.
  9. Algimantas Dailide (age 96)– Germany (Lithuania) – served in the Saugumas (Lithuanian Security Police) in Vilnius – arrested Jews and Poles who were subsequently executed by the Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators.
  10. Jakob Palij (age 93)– USA (Poland) – served as a guard in the Trawniki concentration camp.

The 2015 Annual Nazi war criminals report lists ten men:

  1. Gerhard Sommer (age 95. Last known location: Germany.) Declared "unfit for trial" by a court in May 2015 due to severe dementia.
  2. Vladimir Katriuk (October 1, 1921 - May 22, 2015. Last known location: Canada) Reported to have died in May 2015, aged 93.
  3. Alfred Stork or Stoerk (Last known location: Germany.) Last known news: former corporal convicted in absentia in 2013 by Rome Military Court for participating in killing of 117 Italian prisoners of war on Greek island of Cephalonia.
  4. Johann Robert Riss (Last known location: Germany.) Last known news: on May 25, 2011, the former sergeant found guilty in absentia for participating in killing of 184 civilians near Padule di Fucecchio in Italy and sentenced to life in prison. Germany has declined to extradite Riss.
  5. X - Helmuth Leif Rasmussen wanted for murder of Jews in Bobruisk, Belarus
  6. Y - unnamed person (Last known location: Germany) wanted for being accessory to the murder of Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz
  7. Z - unnamed person (Last known location: Norway ) wanted for murder of Jews in various locations in Poland and Ukraine
  8. Oskar Groening (age 95. Last known location: Germany) Trial in Hannover, Germany, July 2015. Found guilty of being accessory to murder of 300,000 people and sentenced to four years imprisonment.
  9. Algimantas Dailidė (age 96. Last known location: Germany) Deported from USA to Germany in 2004. Sentenced to five years imprisonment by a court in Vilnius but in 2008 the Lithuanian high court ruled that he was in too poor health to be punished.
  10. Helmut Oberlander (age 93. Last known location: Canada.) Granted reprieve from possible loss of Canadian citizenship after decision by the Canadian Federal Appeal Court.

Named on previous lists

  • Hans (Antanus) Lipschis (age 97. Last known status: Arrested in Germany, 2013, found unfit for trial due to dementia)
  • Theodor Szehinskyj (age 92–93. Last known location: United States)
  • Søren Kam - listed until 2014, died March 23, 2015
  • Ivan (John) Kalymon - listed until 2014, found in United States, lost US citizenship, died in 2014 while awaiting extradition to Germany
  • Aribert Heim - listed until 2013, death uncovered a year earlier
  • Alois Brunner - listed until 2013, presumed dead. In 2014, it was reported that he had died in Syria in 2010.
  • Mikhail Gorshkow - fled to Estonia and stripped of his U.S. citizenship; listed until death in 2013. Cleared of charges in 2011 due to inconclusive evidence.
  • László Csatáry - listed until 2013, died 10 August 2013
  • Charles Zentai - listed until 2012, the Australian High Court ruled that Zentai could not be sent for trial to Hungary, alleging that the category of "War Crimes" did not exist at that time in Hungarian law.
  • Klaas Carel Faber - listed until 2012, died in the process of extradition from Germany to Netherlands on 24 May 2012, aged 90.
  • Sándor Képíró - listed until 2011, tried and found not guilty that year; died 3 September 2011.
  • Adam Nagorny - listed until 2011, died 2011.
  • Milivoj Ašner - listed until 2011, died 14 June 2011.
  • Samuel Kunz - listed until 2010, died 18 November 2010.
  • Adolf Storms - listed until 2010, died 28 June 2010 while awaiting trial.
  • Peter Egner - listed until 2010, died January 2011 while awaiting trial.
  • Ivan Demjanjuk - listed until 2009, deported to Germany for trial in 2009, and was convicted in 2011 pending appeal, died 17 March 2012. He died before his appeal could be tried by the German Appellate Court, and as a result, his previous conviction was not upheld. A few days after his death, the German court clarified that, according to German law, Demjanjuk was "presumed innocent", that he did not have a criminal record, and that his previous interim conviction was invalidated.
  • Heinrich Boere - listed until 2009, convicted 2010 and sentenced to life in prison. Died December 1, 2013.
  • Harry Männil - listed until 2009, cleared of charges in 2005 after four-year investigation, died 11 January 2010.
  • Erna Wallisch - listed until 2007, died 21 February 2008 while under investigation.
  • Lajos Polgár - listed until 2006, died 12 July 2006.
  • Ladislav Niznansky - listed until 2005, tried in 2005 and acquitted by German court due to lack of reliable evidence. Died 23 December 2011.
  • Jack Reimer - listed until 2005, extradition granted but died before he could be deported.
  • Nada Šakić - listed until 2004. Died 2008.
  • Rosemarie Albrecht - listed until 2004, died 7 January 2008.
  • Petras Bernatavicius - listed until 2004, found to have died in 1992.

    • References

    List of Most Wanted Nazi War Criminals according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA