Efraim Zuroff
Efraim Zuroff | |
---|---|
Born | [1] New York City, U.S.[1] | 5 August 1948
Nationality | American, Israeli |
Alma mater | Yeshiva University Hebrew University of Jerusalem (PhD)[1] |
Occupation | Nazi hunter |
Children | 4 |
Efraim Zuroff (
Early life
Born in
In 2000,
Career
Simon Wiesenthal Center
In 1978, he was invited to be the first director of the
He rejoined the Wiesenthal Center in 1986 and uncovered the postwar escape of hundreds of Nazi war criminals to Australia, Canada, Great Britain and other countries.[1] He continued to coordinate the center's international efforts to bring perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. These efforts have influenced the passage of special laws in Canada (1987), Australia (1989) and Great Britain (1991) which enable the prosecution in those countries of Nazi war criminals.
Since the
Zuroff's activities in Romania were met with failure, however. The country did not prosecute anyone as part of Simon Wiesenthal Center's Operation Last Chance and it also proved to be "technically impossible" to reverse the rehabilitations of Romanian war criminals.[4][5]
In 1993, Zuroff was appointed by then
Zuroff played an important role in the exposure, arrest, extradition and prosecution of
In his book Occupation: Nazi-Hunter; The Continuing Search for the Perpetrators of the Holocaust (KTAV; Hoboken, 1994), Zuroff chronicles the belated efforts to prosecute Nazi war criminals in western democracies and explains the rationale for such efforts several decades after the crimes. The book was published in German by Ahriman Verlag. Starting in June 1999, Zuroff's activities as a Nazi-hunter were the subject of five television documentaries. The first, entitled The Nazi-Hunter, was produced by ZDF (German Channel 2) in 1999; the second, entitled The Last Nazi-Hunter, was produced by SWR (German Channel 1-regional station) in 2004 and the third, The Final Hunt for the Nazis, by France 3 (Channel 3), was broadcast in December 2005. In 2009, the BBC produced "The Search for Dr. Death which followed Zuroff to South America in search of Dr. Aribert Heim, who committed horrendous crimes as a doctor at Mauthausen. In 2012, Israeli Channel 10 broadcast the documentary film, "Tzayad ha-Natzim ha-Acharon (The Last Nazi-Hunter).
In 2009, Zuroff criticized the Prague Declaration.[7][8] According to Zuroff, the Holocaust should not be equated with other tragedies,[9] describing the declaration as "the main manifesto of the false equivalency movement"[10] and stating it is supported by right-wing parties in countries in Eastern Europe.[11]
Operation Last Chance
In 2002, together with
His second book on the hunt for Nazi war criminals, Chasseur de nazis (Paris: Michel-Lafon, 2008), written together with French journalist Alexandre Duyck, continues with the story of the renewed efforts spearheaded by Zuroff to hold Holocaust perpetrators accountable, especially in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, and focuses on the results achieved by "Operation: Last Chance". That book was published in Serbian by the Zavod za udzbenike publishing company under the title Lovac na naciste in 2009 and in Polish by Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie under the title Lowca Nazistow in 2010.
Zuroff almost completely rewrote the French book about Operation Last Chance in a volume published in English in 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan: Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice.[13] That book was published in German by Prospero Verlag in late 2011 under the title Operation Last Chance; Im Fadenkreuz des "Nazi Jaegers" and updated versions were published in 2012 in Serbian, Hungarian and Finnish. In 2013, Propero Verlag published an updated German version. More recently, Romanian and Croatian versions of the book were published.
In 2006, his exposure in
Aribert Heim
Zuroff, continued the hunt for the Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim after Simon Wiesenthal died in 2005. On July 6, 2008, Zuroff headed to South America as part of a public campaign to capture Heim.[18] He elaborated on July 15, 2008 that he was sure Heim was alive and the groundwork had been laid to capture him within weeks.[19] In autumn 2009, his hunt for Aribert Heim, who committed war crimes in the Mauthausen concentration camp, was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled The Search for Dr Death, and a fifth documentary Tzayad ha-Natzim ha-Acharon (The Last Nazi-Hunter), was broadcast on Israeli Channel 10 on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2012.
Zuroff was lukewarm in his reaction to the reported death of Heim in Cairo in 1992. He observed in February 2009 that:
There's no body, no corpse, no DNA, no grave.... Keep in mind these people [Heim's children] have a vested interest in being declared dead - it's a perfectly crafted story; that's the problem, it's too perfect.[20]
Zuroff concedes, however, that Heim had undoubtedly lived in hiding in Egypt.
Publications and other activities
Over the years Zuroff has published more than 450 articles on various topics relating to the Holocaust, as well as other issues of concern in the Jewish world. His publications have appeared in scholarly journals such as
Zuroff has lectured extensively to audiences all over the world regarding the efforts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. During the years 1992-1999, he served in the Education Corps of the Israeli Defense Forces (reserves) and lectured to thousands of soldiers about his work.
In 1995 and 1996, Zuroff was invited to Rwanda to assist the local authorities in their efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the genocide which took place in that country in spring 1994, and he has served as an official advisor to the Rwandan government.
On March 4, 2020, Zuroff was invited to the Tennessee Holocaust Conference at The First Baptist Church in
Honors
In recognition of his efforts as a Nazi-hunter and Holocaust scholar, Zuroff was nominated by Serbian President
On January 22, 2009, he was granted the honorary citizenship of the Serbian city of Novi Sad, in appreciation for the exposure of Sándor Képíró, who allegedly helped organize the murder of the city's Jews.[23]
On January 15, 2010, Zuroff was decorated with the Order of Duke Trpimir by Croatian President Stjepan Mesić for special contributions against historical revisionism and for the reaffirming of antifascist foundations of the modern Republic of Croatia.[24]
On February 16, 2017, the President of Serbia Tomislav Nikolić awarded the gold medal for Merit to Zuroff[25] for "exceptional achievements" and his "selfless dedication to defending the truth about the suffering of Jews, and also Serbs, Roma and other nations during World War II".[26]
Criticism and controversies
Zuroff has repeatedly refused to characterize the Srebrenica massacre as genocide,[27][28] although those mass killings were ruled as a genocide by the International Court of Justice as well as by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Personal life
He is married and has four children and 14 grandchildren.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Round, Simon (February 4, 2010). "Interview: Efraim Zuroff". The Jewish Chronicle.
- ^ a b c d "Conversations with friends about their lives: The last Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff". YouTube. June 8, 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
- Ami. No. 65. April 4, 2012. p. 36.
- ^ Radio Free Europe, Newsline - April 22, 2004
- ^ Radio Free Europe, Newsline - July 16, 2004
- ISBN 9780739100271.
- ISBN 9783034303354.
- ^ "OSCE Human Rights Conference in Warsaw (5 October 2009), Antisemitism and Holocaust Distortion".
- ^ Ben-David, Ricky (6 August 2010). "Digging up the future". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- Israel National News. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
- ^ Heidemarie, Uhl (2009). "Conflicting Cultures of Memory in Europe: New Borders between East and West?" (PDF). Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs. III (3): 65–67. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ Crossland, David (January 14, 2008). "Operation Last Chance: Nazi Hunters More Than Double Reward to $25,000". Der Spiegel.
- ISBN 978-0-230-61730-8.
- ^ Oster, Marcy (May 3, 2011). "Hungarian court acquits Nazi hunter Zuroff of libel". JTA. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07.
- ^ "Zentai loses appeal against extradition hearing". ABC News. April 16, 2007.
- ^ Renáta, Hrecska; László, Sereg (2011-07-19). "Megbukott a nácivadász" [The Nazi Hunter Has Failed]. Magyar Hírlap (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 2013-08-20. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
- ^ Gábor, Miklósi (18 July 2011). "Felmentették Képíró Sándort".
- ^ "Most-wanted Nazi sought in Chile". BBC News. July 9, 2008.
- ^ "SS doctor 'still alive in Chile'". BBC News. July 15, 2008.
- ^ "Nazi hunters' doubt over 'death'". BBC News. February 5, 2009.
- ^ a b Fisher-Ilan, Allyn (February 5, 2009). "Nazi-hunters cast doubt over Heim death reports". Reuters.
- ^ Paterson, Tony (May 10, 2011). "Time is short in the last Nazi hunters quest for justice". The Independent.
- ^ "Zuroff Novi Sad honorary citizen". B92. January 20, 2009.
- ^ "Odluka kojom se odlikuje Efraim Zuroff Redom kneza Trpimira s ogrlicom i danicom". Narodne novine. January 15, 2010.
- ^ Serbian President Awards Efraim Zuroff Gold Medal(in English)
- ^ Nazi hunter awarded gold medal by Serbian president Archived 2017-04-05 at the Wayback Machine(in English)
- ^ "Zurof: Srebrenica nije genocid". 14 July 2015.
- ^ Solomon, Esther. "Jews Can't Let the Genocide Deniers Win". Haaretz.
Publications
- Ruta Vanagaite, Efraim Zuroff. Our People: Discovering Lithuania's Hidden Holocaust. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated, 2020. - 240 p.
External links
Media related to Efraim Zuroff at Wikimedia Commons
- "Hunting Nazi Criminals; Operation: Last Chance" (interview with Efraim Zuroff). Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. October 2, 2005.
- Lindsey, Daryl."60 Years after Auschwitz: The Twilight of the Nazi Hunter". Der Spiegel.
- Frysh, Paul (June 3, 2010). "The Holocaust in Lithuania: One man's crusade to bring justice". CNN.
- Jonathan Roberts (March 3, 2020). "Students get Holocaust history lesson from world-renowned 'Nazi hunter'". Johnson City Press. Retrieved July 22, 2023.