Nazi hunters on trail of concentration camp doctor in South America

Americas News

Jul 18, 2008, 14:03 GMT

Buenos Aires - One of the world's most wanted Nazi war criminals, the former concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim, has been seen in the past weeks in South America, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said. 'He is very fragile, but he can still walk,' Efraim Zuroff, the head of the centre named after the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, said Thursday at a press conference in Buenos Aires. He did not identify who the witnesses were. Zuroff did not want to confirm speculation that the reports came from the southern Chilean city of Puerto Montt or the nearby Argentinian city of Bariloche. 'We are more optimistic that we will still find Heim, more so than when we came here,' he said. Together with the head of the Argentinian section of the Wiesenthal Center, Sergio Widder, Zuroff had travelled to both cities looking for traces of the 94-year-old fugitive. Zuroff said some of the evidence that Heim was still alive included the fact that his children did not claim his estate valued at 2 million euros (3.17 million dollars) in Germany. 'In addition, Heim's lawyers in Germany have applied for documents that would make no sense if he were dead,' Zuroff said. Suspicion that Heim was somewhere near the two towns came after several years of cooperation with German police. The Wiesenthal Center planned to place notices in local newspapers about Heim, offering rewards of 315,000 euros for information on his whereabouts. The ads were also intended to erode Heim's confidence. 'People under pressure make mistakes,' Zuroff said. Heim's daughter, Waltraud Diharce, lives in Puerto Montt. In past years, she has also travelled several times to Bariloche. The reasons for her trips were not clear. Zuroff reported that he and Widder had tried to speak to her, but she is currently in Austria for medicinal therapy. 'But honestly, we did not expect that she would help us,' Zuroff said. The Wiesenthal Center started 'Operation: Last Chance' last year, to find the last traces of Nazi criminals in South America. Heim reportedly was known as 'Dr Death' in the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria, during World War II, where he reportedly shot hypodermic needles into the hearts of hundreds of inmates or killed people by operating on them without anaesthesia. Witnesses reported he had made lampshades out of the skin of some of his victims to give to camp commanders. After the war, he worked as a gynecologist in Baden Baden, Germany, and has been on the run since 1962 after an international warrant for his arrest was issued.

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BubbaJul 18th, 2008 - 17:51:56

'Witnesses reported he had made lampshades out of the skin of some of his victims to give to camp commanders.'
So what's the problem? Once they're dead, they have no use for the skin. The guy should get a medal for being an Eco-friendly recycler.

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SwisspeasJul 20th, 2008 - 03:18:44

Yo Bubba ... You are rite except that they were not all dead... many of these people was skinned alive so you're insensitive comments are quite offensive...How would you like it if your aunts and unckles and brother s ands sisters had been in Jewish concentration camps like Malthhausen, Treblinka, Dachau, Valkenberg, and such??? How would you like for them to have been stuck in the heart with a hypodermic filled with gasoline or other volatile substance??/ How would like it if they had been cut oopen and their livers, spleens and other ograns cut out while they were still alive and without no anesthetics??? How would you like it, huh>>??? You are a vile, insensitive and ignorant (,...I mean, if we're gonna make generalizations what do I expect from a guy called 'BUBBA'??? ,,,,) genetic abnormality which comes from crossbreeding and incest (gee??? I wonder???...I wonder... if your Mom and Dad get a divorce...will they still be sister and brother???? GET yourself a life you filthy beast thing!!!!
Love and Peace Forever,
SWISSPEAS :) :O

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Neither Bubba nor SwisspeasJul 21st, 2008 - 09:06:27

Better to go after the criminals and rogue elements in your society than bother with this decrepit man.

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