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Worldwide hunt for last Nazis moves in fits and starts By The Associated Press Tags: Holocaust, Nazis For Heinz Heister, presiding judge of the court where wanted concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim has been indicted, it's a familiar refrain: "There's often people who say: 'He's in his 90's, why do you bother?'" Heister told The Associated Press in a recent interview at his Baden-Baden state court office. "But his age has got nothing to do with it. It is our duty to pursue this to the best of our abilities." Advertisement The question cited by the judge is part of what Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff calls misplaced sympathy syndrome - a reluctance to go after war crimes suspect just because they're old. Jerusalem-based Zuroff is with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which reports that although total investigations worldwide are down from 1,019 last year, 202 new probes have been opened in the past year, versus 63 last year. "There are a lot of good things happening, the new investigations have tripled in the last year, but the number of convictions is down and we face serious political problems in many different countries," Zuroff said. "The absence of political will to prosecute or devote the energy and resources to do so are the major obstacles of the final prosecution of Nazi war criminals." In London, researcher Stephen Ankier has pushed for more than 20 years for a greater effort to go after Nazi war criminals in Britain, where only one person has been convicted out of 300 cases that were being investigated when a War Crimes Act was passed in 1991. A special war crimes investigative unit was set up but disbanded eight years later. "People are saying, 'We haven't got the dedicated manpower, we've got the problem with terrorists, we don't have the budget,'" he said in a telephone interview. Meanwhile, he estimates 50 to 100 suspects are living in Britain. "It's totally unsatisfactory," he said. "I think we have to pursue every last one of them until not one of them is left alive." U.S. laws don't permit the prosecution of war crimes in Europe that don't involve Americans. Instead, investigators have concentrated on deporting suspects on immigration violations, with 65 sent home since the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations was opened in 1979. In Germany, war criminals can only be pursued for murder because the statute of limitations has run out on all other crimes. It and Britain are among scores of countries whose efforts receive low rankings in the Wiesenthal Center's annual report released Wednesday. But Germany has shown recent signs of progress. Two weeks ago prosecutors charged 86-year-old Heinrich Boere - No. 6 on Wiesenthal's most-wanted list - with three wartime killings in the Netherlands. About 20 cases are under active investigation in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Another 14 investigations remain open in Baden-Wuerttemberg besides the Heim case, said Norbert Kiessling, head of the state police's Nazi Violent Crimes unit. One major stumbling block is getting witnesses to testify against wartime comrades. "Our honor is loyalty," Kiessling said in an interview in his Stuttgart office, citing the SS motto embossed on the unit's uniform's belt buckles. Often it remains so. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Deterring Tehran Bush: Disclosure of IAF strike on Syria sends a message to Iran. A lesser evil In Haaretz issue from 1932, Hitler makes a better impression than expected.

Read & React Y. Sheleg: Lessons of the Holocaust prove fundamentalist Islam must not be appeased Responses: 25 Top Syrian emissary: We won't sever ties with Iran for peace with Israel Responses: 84 Nadav Shragai: New E. J'lem Jewish areas the best news we've heard in a long time Responses: 6 Uzi Benziman: Israel mustn't jump to blame enemy for tragedies like Gaza deaths Responses: 18 Rosner's Domain Is Israel finished? five questions Ziad Asali: deal with Hamas would hurt the moderates Poll: truce with Hamas, good or bad? Wright, the race issue won't leave Obama alone Is suicide bombing rational? (WTR) More Headlines 11:51 T.A. University: 6.6% rise in violent anti-Semitic attacks worldwide 11:43 Top Syrian emissary: We won't sever ties with Iran for peace with Israel 10:30 Gaza militants fire 7 Qassams at Negev, continuing barrage 02:50 Israel objects to outline of Gaza cease-fire deal 07:48 Disgruntled Palestinian ex-employee may have carried out deadly Nitzanei Oz shooting 11:49 Concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim tops list of most wanted Nazis 10:10 IDF shuts down Hamas-affiliated offices in West Bank 04:59 Jewish partisans remembered; their story to hit the big screen later this year 07:44 Nadine Gordimer defends decision to attend J'lem writers conference 10:53 Israeli-Palestinian paper criticizes 10 W. Bank roadblocks 10:18 Police to up activity against places of entertainment open on Holocaust Day 03:51 ANALYSIS: Livni and Aboul Gheit starting to sing harmonious duet 02:39 U.S. Jewish leaders call for boycott of Beijing Olympics 06:09 Senior Laborite: Barak acts like a bull in a china shop Previous Editions Select Day 29 apr 28 apr 27 apr 25 apr 24 apr 23 apr 22 apr 21 apr 20 apr 18 apr 17 apr 16 apr

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