Controversy Swirls Around Hungarian Nazi War Crimes Suspect

Investigators at the Simon Wiesenthal Center say they’ve found a Nazi war criminal living in Hungary.

Efraim Zuroff, of the Center’s Jerusalem office helped track down the alleged war criminal named Laszio Csatary.

He tells host Marco Werman that he’s worried authorities in Budapest don’t have the political will to arrest the man. But Hungarian investigators have called the evidence against Csatary flimsy.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. At least a handful of Nazi war criminals are still at large, more than six decades after the end of World War II. That’s according to the Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Investigators there now say that they’ve located one of those remaining war criminals in Hungary. This week they tipped off the British tabloid The Sun, whose reporters knocked on the door of Laszlo Csatary, a 97-year-old Budapest resident. Csatary, a former Hungarian police officer, reportedly told the journalists,” Go away, I didn’t do it,” before slamming the door. Efraim Zuroff is an investigator at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Efraim Zuroff: I provided the tip to The Sun and all of the information regarding his whereabouts, and this is information that I had already received about ten months ago from an informant who contacted us in the framework of our Operation Last Chance project, which offers financial rewards for information which will lead to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi war criminals.

Werman: How do you know this man that The Sun discovered in Budapest, Hungary, is indeed Laszlo Csatary?

Zuroff: There are certain checks that were done by government officials and certain checks that we did, and there’s no question. He is living under that name, and it’s him. There’s no doubt.

Werman: What is he accused of doing in World War II?

Zuroff: There were two major crimes that he was involved in. The largest one was the mass deportation of 15,700 Jews from the city of Kassa, that’s in Hungarian, or KoÅ¡ice, as it’s known now in Slovak, to the Auschwitz death camp in the spring of 1944. And the second crime that we just, not long ago, learned about his possible involvement, was that in the summer of 1941 the Hungarian authorities rounded up 18,000 Jews all over Hungary who either lacked Hungarian citizenship or could not prove Hungarian citizenship, and these men and women, and I think and children also, were deported or were expelled to Kamianets-Podilskyi in the Ukraine where they were, almost all of them, were murdered. And among the 18,000 were 300 people from the city of Kassa, or Kosice, who were rounded up by Csatary.

Werman: And how certain are you that these allegations can be pinned on Mr. Csatary?

Zuroff: I am fully confident that the information we have is correct, is accurate, and can be proven in a court of law.

Werman: Now, the investigators at The Sun apparently shadowed Mr. Csatary as he went out shopping. What do authorities in Budapest know about him, and is he totally free to live the rest of his days in Budapest?

Zuroff: I think that question has to be posed to the authorities. I gave them the information on his whereabouts. It’s not exactly clear what, if anything, they have done aside from verifying his identity.

Werman: The French apparently want to arrest him. There are now Jewish students in Budapest protesting outside Mr. Csatary’s apartment. What happens now?

Zuroff: It’s all in the hands of the Hungarian prosecutors. They’re the ones who have to make the decision, they’re the ones who ultimately will or will not take legal action against him.

Werman: Have you dealt with the Hungarian officials on Nazi war criminals in the past, and how do they react generally?

Zuroff: Frankly, I have a long history of dealing with them. From 2005, when we found Charles Zentai living in Australia, he was a Hungarian Nazi war criminal. In the Kapiro case, in the case of Lajos Polgar and Charles Zentai, I have quite a bit of experience, and it’s mixed. In the Zentai case, the Hungarians asked for his extradition from Australia very promptly. On the other hand, in the Kapiro case it took them more than four and a half years from the time I gave them the evidence until he was actually put on trial. And he was 92 years old when I found him, so you can imagine that that delay did not help our case.

Werman: And with Csatary at 97, I imagine delays could just, he might just die before you even get what you want.

Zuroff: That’s the fear and that’s the danger. There are so many different ways to make sure that this case will not be brought to justice, and this is my cause for concern. I have no concern about the evidence, the accusations, the identity, or any of that.

Werman: It’s just a matter of time for you, that’s your biggest challenge you’re saying?

Zuroff: No, the question of political will. Is there political will in Budapest to put this person on trial?

Werman: And you’re concerned there’s not enough political will in Budapest?

Zuroff: That is definitely one of my concerns.

Werman: Dr. Efraim Zuroff heads the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He’s also the author of Operation Last Chance: One Man’s Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice. Dr. Zuroff, thank you.

Zuroff: Thank you.

Werman: We should note that Hungary’s own investigation of Laszlo Csatary is just starting. So far, Hungarian investigators have called the evidence against him flimsy, and a prominent Hungarian Holocaust historian, Laszlo Karsai, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor, has described Csatary as a “small fish.” Karsai told the BBC, “I could name 2,000 people responsible for worse crimes than he was.”

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