Highlights include:
• The implementation of a new legal strategy by German judicial authorities has led cases to be directed to local prosecutors throughout Germany - initial legal steps have already been taken in more than a dozen cases.
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Dr. Efraim Zuroff
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• The 'Most Wanted' list also focuses on death camps and mobile killing squads - those who served there are the most likely to be prosecuted in the coming years
• Lack of political will to bring Nazis war criminals to justice and/or to punish them continues to be the major obstacle to achieving justice, particularly in post-Communist Eastern Europe
• Campaigns led by the Baltic countries to distort the history of the Holocaust and obtain official recognition that the crimes of the Communists are equal to those of the Nazis is another major obstacle
Wiesenthal Center Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the reports' author who coordinates the Center’s research on Nazi war criminals worldwide, noted that:
– Statistics in the report show that a significant measure of justice can still be achieved
– During the past 13 years, at least 101 convictions against Nazi war criminals have been obtained, at least 91 new indictments have been filed, over 3,000 new investigations have been initiated
– Lack of political will, not the suspect's age, is the biggest obstacle to prosecutio
