SHOTLIST
1.
Various of
Nazi Hunter Efraim Zuroff
2. SOUNDBITE: (
English) Efraim Zuroff, director of the
Simon Wiesenthal centre:
"There's no hundred percent in this business. The only hundred percent is when they lead us to him and we find him, that's a hundred percent. And anything else is zero, on a certain level. The problem is that it's all or nothing, basically. But the encouraging information was from people who have a direct connection to the family, let's put it that way. And that was not the case until now.
3. Mid of Zuroff speaking during interview
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal centre:
"
Going to Puerto Montt I think was the turning
point. That's our sense. In other words when we went there, and we came to enemy territory you could say, not anything against
Chile,
God forbid. But enemy territory in the sense this is
Waltrude's (daughter of
Aribert Heim) town, Waltrude's city, and she is the one who lives there and we were able to bring the message to these people and to get it across, I think that might have been a turning point."
5. Mid Zuroff
6. Wide Zuroff waiting for elevator
STORYLINE
The world's top
Nazi-hunter said on Thursday he had made progress in finding 94-year-old Aribert Heim, known as "
Doctor Death," a former concentration camp physician accused of torturing and killing
Jewish prisoners and who may have been living for decades in
Argentina or Chile.
Efraim Zuroff, head of the
Israeli branch of the
Simon Wiesenthal Centre, told a news conference that his mission to the southern reaches of the
Americas led him to at least four people who claim to have seen Aribert Heim in the past 45 days.
"The encouraging information was from people who have a direct connection to the family, let's put it that way. And that was not the case until now," Zuroff said.
Zuroff launched the investigation last week in the southern
Chilean fishing town of Puerto Montt, where Heim's daughter lives, although she was reportedly overseas at the time.
Zuroff said during the past three years she had travelled several times to the
Patagonian town of
San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina, which he visited this week. The
Nazi hunter believes Heim is hiding out somewhere between the two towns, separated by the
Andes mountain range.
"Going to Puerto Montt I think was the turning point. That's our sense. In other words when we went there, and we came to enemy territory you could say, not anything against Chile, God forbid," Zuroff told the
Associated Press.
"But enemy territory in the sense this is Waltrude's town, Waltrude's city, and she is the one who lives there and we were able to bring the message to these people and to get it across, I think that might have been a turning point," he added.
Zuroff also said that he believed it was a turning point because he was able to speak face-to-face for the first time with acquaintances of Heim's daughter and raise awareness among locals.
According to the centre's
Latin representative, these people brought them specific details that gives them something concrete to latch into.
Heim was indicted in
Germany after
World War II on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at the
Mauthausen concentration camp in
1941. The Wiesenthal centre says he injected the corrosive poison phenol directly into the hearts of many and used "other torturous killing methods."
Zuroff says Heim's children have made no claim to a bank account with
1.2 (m)million euros (1.6 (m) million
US dollars) and other investments in Heim's name.
To do that, they would have to produce proof that "Doctor Death" is dead.
If alive, Heim would be 94.
After World War II, Heim was held for two-and-a-half years by the
United States military but was released without being tried.
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- published: 21 Jul 2015
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