Wiesenthal Center: Kunz’s Death Unprosecuted is Result of Decades-Long Refusal to Prosecute Non-Officers

November 22, 2010

Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today issued a statement in response to the death near Bonn of former Belzec death camp guard Samuel Kunz, who was indicted and awaiting trial for his role in the mass murder committed at the camp. The Center’s chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, expressed the deep frustration of having justice thwarted shortly before Kunz was scheduled to be brought to trial.

According to Zuroff:

“The fact that Samuel Kunz lived in Germany unprosecuted for so many decades is the result of a flawed prosecution policy which ignored virtually any Holocaust perpetrator who was not an officer. It was only the recent, long-awaited change in this policy which led to Kunz’s indictment and the opportunity to hold him accountable for his crimes. We urge the German authorities to expedite all such cases, given the advanced age of the suspects, so that a measure of justice can still be achieved.”

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe, and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).