A
Nazi-hunter is a private individual who tracks down and gathers information on alleged former Nazis,
SSThe Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
members and Nazi collaborators involved in the
HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, typically for use at trial on charges of
war crimeWar crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s and
crimes against humanityCrimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
. Prominent Nazi-hunters include
Simon WiesenthalSimon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
,
Tuviah Friedman,
Serge and Beate KlarsfeldSerge and Beate Klarsfeld are activists known for engaging in Holocaust documentation and anti-Nazi activism...
,
Ian SayerIan K. T. Sayer is an entrepreneur, noted World War II historian, best-selling author and investigative journalist. His Sayer Transport Group became the foundation stone for the British and European overnight door to door express parcels delivery industry.He is a noted World War II historian and...
,
Yaron SvorayYaron Svoray is an Israeli author and investigative journalist whose six-month infiltration of Germany’s neo-Nazi groups was documented in his book In Hitler’s Shadow, co-written with Nick Taylor...
,
Elliot WellesElliot Welles whose original name was Kurt Sauerquell was a Holocaust survivor who for more than two decades until his retirement in 2003, directed the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League's task force on Nazi war criminals...
, and
Efraim ZuroffEfraim Zuroff is an Israeli historian of American origin, who has played a role in bringing Nazis indicted for war crimes to trial...
.
History
With the onset of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, both the Western Allies and the USSR sought out former Nazi
scientistA scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s and operatives for programs such as
Operation PaperclipOperation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II...
. Cooperative former Nazis, such as
Wernher von BraunWernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
and
Reinhard GehlenReinhard Gehlen was a General in the German Army during World War II, who served as chief of intelligence-gathering on the Eastern Front. After the war, he was recruited by the United States military to set up a spy ring directed against the Soviet Union , and eventually became head of the West...
, were occasionally given state protection in return for valuable information or services. At the time, Gehlen had been chief of the German
BundesnachrichtendienstThe Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
secret agency, founder of the Gehlen Org and co-founder of the
ODESSAThe ODESSA, from the German Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning “Organization of Former SS Members,” is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up toward the end of World War II by a group of SS officers...
network, which helped exfiltrate Nazis from Europe. Other alleged Nazis used ratlines to escape post-war Europe to places such as
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
In response, Nazi-hunters sought out
fugitiveA fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
s on their own or formed groups, such as the
Simon Wiesenthal CenterThe Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
. Methods used by Nazi-hunters include offering rewards for information, reviewing immigration and military records, and launching civil lawsuits.
In later decades, Nazi-hunters found greater cooperation with Western and Latin American governments and the state of
IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. By the end of the 20th century, pursuit of former Nazis declined, because most of the generation active in Nazi leadership during the Holocaust had died or reached extreme old age.
Notable individuals pursued or found by Nazi-hunters
- Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
was pursued by Wiesenthal before being kidnapped and smuggled from ArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
by the Israeli spy agency MossadThe Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
and tried in IsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, after which he was then executed.
- Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie was an SS-Hauptsturmführer , Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.- Early life :...
, the "Butcher of Lyon" was extradited from BoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
after earlier attempts by Serge and Beate Klarsfeld to track him.
- Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...
, the "Angel of Death", was sought in various South American countries by Mossad, Wiesenthal and the Klarsfelds before his death.
- Eduard Roschmann was sought by Wiesenthal in Argentina.
- Gustav Wagner
Gustav Franz Wagner was an SS-Oberscharführer from Vienna, Austria. Wagner was a starter deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, where more than 200,000 Jews were gassed during Operation Reinhard...
, the "Wolf", was sought by Wiesenthal in Brazil.
- Erich Priebke
Erich Priebke is a former Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen SS. In 1996 he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, for participating in the massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome, on March 24, 1944...
was sought in Argentina.
- Boļeslavs Maikovskis
Boļeslavs Maikovskis was a Latvian Nazi collaborator who served as chief of police for the second precinct of Rēzekne while the Germans occupied Latvia in World War II.After the war Maikovskis went to Austria....
was a Latvian Nazi collaborator, pursued to Mineola, New YorkMineola is a village in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from a Native American word meaning a "pleasant place"....
by Welles.
- Josef Schwammberger
Josef Franz Leo Schwammberger was a member of the SS during the Nazi era.During the Second World War, Schwammberger was a commander of various SS Arbeitslager in the...
was traced to Argentina by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Welles.
- Dinko Šakić
Dinko Šakić was a convicted Croatian war criminal, an army leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia , established under Third Reich and Italian tutelage, and commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II.-Biography:He was born in Studenci, in the Kingdom of Serbs,...
was pursued to Argentina by Zuroff.
See also
- Pursuit of Nazi collaborators
The pursuit of Nazi collaborators refers to the post-World War II pursuit and apprehension of individuals who were not citizens of the Third Reich at the outbreak of World War II and collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war...
- List of former Nazi Party members
- Ratlines (World War II)
- ODESSA
The ODESSA, from the German Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen, meaning “Organization of Former SS Members,” is believed to have been an international Nazi network set up toward the end of World War II by a group of SS officers...