A wanted Holocaust-era war criminal, accused of having a hand in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to a Nazi concentration camp, has been found living in Hungary for the past 15 years after fleeing Canada.
Former police chief Laszlo Csatary is suspected of Holocaust-era war crimes.
Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary, 97, has been residing in a two-bedroom apartment in Budapest, according to Britain’s The Sun newspaper, which found him through a tip from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group in Jerusalem.
Answering the door in a long-sleeve shirt and underwear, Csatary told the newspaper, “I don’t want to discuss it,” when asked about Canada revoking his citizenship in 1997.
He was also questioned about his role in World War II helping to organize the Nazi’s deportation of Jews to death camps, according to The Sun’s report Sunday.
“No I didn’t do it, go away from here,” Csatary said in English before slamming the door.
ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images - Photo taken on July 16, 2012 shows the balcony of Dr Csatary L., alias Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary, on the last floor of a Budapest building.
He apparently went by his real name in the Hungarian capital, with “Smith L Csatary” written on an old mailbox, The Sun said.
Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s self-described chief Nazi hunter, said he’s concerned that Csatary might try to flee again — which would only make it harder for him to be brought to justice, especially at his age.
Csatary has been at the top of the group’s most-wanted Nazi war criminals list since April.
His “age (and) health can deteriorate from one day to another. We must act quickly,” Zuroff told The Telegraph newspaper. “The passage of time does not diminish his guilt and old age should not provide protection for the perpetrators of the Holocaust .”
In the 1940s, Csatary was a senior Hungarian police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, Zuroff said. He was in charge of the Jewish ghetto.
Csatary allowed 300 Jews to be deported from Kosice to the Ukraine, where most were murdered by the Nazis in the summer of 1941, according to evidence compiled by Zuroff.
He also has evidence that claims Csatary was complicit in allowing Jews from Kosice to be deported to Auschwitz in the spring of 1944, where thousands of them died.
STF/EPA - An undated file photo shows a prisoner transport from Hungary arriving at the Concentration Camp in Auschwitz, Poland.
“This new evidence strengthens the already very strong case against Csatary,” said Zuroff, who wants the Nazi crimes suspect to be put on trial.
The evidence shows that Csatary was an alleged sadist, beating women with a whip and enforcing a policy of shooting anyone who tried to escape, The Sun reported.
Csatary fled Hungary after World War II, and was tried in absentia in Czechoslovakia, where he was sentenced to death in 1948.
But for years he had been living as an art dealer in Montreal under an assumed name — until his cover was blown and he bolted to Eastern Europe.
ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images - A picture shows the door of Laszlo Csatary's hideaway building, only a few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012, on which activists of the European Union of Jewish Students have pasted 'No Nazi' symbols and a protest slogan.
Hungarian authorities have been investigating Csatary since last fall based on Zuroff’s evidence, although the government has yet to act on the allegations, according to The Telegraph.
Jewish students protested outside of his apartment Monday, calling for his arrest.
ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images - Activists and sympathizers of the European Union of Jewish Students stand with their hands taped to each other's in front of Laszlo Csatary's hideaway building.
“We are proud to do our part in bringing the world’s attention to this evil man and his horrific crimes,” Andi Gergely, the president of the European Union of Jewish Students, told The Telegraph. ( nydailynews.com )
No comments:
Post a Comment