Wiesenthal Center Urges Hungarians to Prosecute an Organizer of the Novi Sad Massacre of January 1942 at Annual Memorial for Victims

January 23, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES HUNGARIANS TO PROSECUTE AN ORGANIZER OF THE NOVI SAD MASSACRE OF JANURY 1942 AT ANNUAL MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS

Novi Sad, Serbia-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the Hungarian authorities to prosecute Dr. Sandor Kepiro, one of the Hungarian officers who organized the mass murder of hundreds of Jews, Serbs, and Gypsies in the Serbian city of Novi Sad (then under Hungarian occupation) on January 23, 1942. Kepiro, who escaped after World War II to Argentina, was discovered living in Budapest by the Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi-hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff in the summer of 2006.

In an impassioned speech at the annual memorial for the victims, Zuroff called upon the Hungarians to bring Kepiro to justice while it is still possible.

In his words:

“If there is anything that we must remember and internalize, it is that the crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators were carried out by human beings, who must bear full responsibility for their crimes… This is a sad truth that many governments would prefer to forget or ignore, because the practical implication of this basic fact is that a serious effort be made to bring the killers to justice. How else is it possible that Dr. Sandor Kepiro, one of the Hungarian officers who organized the Razzia, who was responsible for the roundups in the area of the streets Cara Dušana, Nikola Tesla, Futoška, and Jevrejski streets is still living in Budapest unprosecuted and unpunished… So let the demand for justice be issued from this place, not only in the name of the victims but by, and on behalf of, the living, and for future generations.

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO HOLD THE KILLERS ACCOUNTABLE. BRING KEPIRO TO JUSTICE NOW WHILE IT IS STILL POSSIBLE!!!”

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