Wiesenthal Center Praises Indictment by Spanish Court of Three Nazi War Criminals Denaturalized and Ordered Deported From the United States

September 17, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER PRAISES INDICTMENT BY SPANISH COURT OF THREE NAZI WAR CRIMINALS DENATURALIZED AND ORDERED DEPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES

Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed today’s decision by a Spanish court to indict three Nazi war criminals who were denaturalized and ordered deported from the United States for concealing their World War II service as guards in German concentration camps and to issue international warrants for their arrest. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center praised the decision by Spanish judge Ismael Moreno and congratulated the NIZKOR group of Spanish human rights lawyers who initiated the effort to prosecute these Holocaust perpetrators in Spain following consultations with the Wiesenthal Center and Madrid attorney Gloria Trinidad.

According to Zuroff:

“Today’s decision is a significant victory for the efforts to hold Nazi war criminals accountable for their crimes and sends a powerful message that the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers.

It also represents a radically-different approach by the authorities in Spain, which for many years was a refuge for numerous Nazi war criminals.

“The NIZKOR project and Gloria Trinidad deserve special thanks for their dedicated work to achieve today’s highly-significant victory which we hope will pave the way for the criminal prosecution of these men who served in some of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps, where many tens of thousands of innocent civilians were murdered by the Germans and their collaborators.”

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