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WIESENTHAL REPORT ON YOM HASHOAH: US HEADS LIST OF COUNTRIES TO PROSECUTE NAZIS A report on the investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals released last week by the Simon Wiesenthal Center revealed that from January 1, 2001 to March 31, 2002, 14 convictions were obtained against former Nazis residing in various countries. The report, which was published on Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel) noted that, with one exception, every court victory was won in countries that established special units or agencies for this purpose. The following convictions were obtained: In the US: The deportation of Bronislaw Hajda, who was an armed guard at SS training camp at Trawniki and Treblinka and Juozas Naujalis, who was a squad leader in the (12th) Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalion; the denaturalization of Mykola Wasylyk, who was an armed guard at Trawniki and Budzyn SS slave labor camps, Wasyl Krysa, an armed guard at Mauthausen concentration camp, Theodor Szehinskyj, who was an armed guard at Sachsenhausen, Gross-Rosen, and Warsaw concentration camps; John (Ivan) Demjanjuk, who was a guard at Sobibor and Majdanek death camps, Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg concentration camps, and SS training camp at Trawniki. In Canada: The denaturalization of Wasyl Odynsky,formerly a guard at Trawninki and Poniatowa SS forced labor camps; Helmut Oberlander, who served in mobile killing unit Einsatzgruppe D; and Michael Baumgartner, who was a guard at Stutthof and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. In Germany: Julius Viel, who was an SS officer at Theresienstadt ghetto/concentration camp, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and Anton Malloth, an SS guard at Theresienstadt ghetto/concentration camp was sentenced to life imprisonment In Poland: Henryk Mania, who served in Chelmno death camp, was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment. In France: Alois Brunner, who ordered the deportation of 350 children from France to Auschwitz, was sentenced (in absentia) to life imprisonment. In Lithuania, Kazys Gimzauskas, the deputy commander of the Lithuanian Security Police in the Vilnius district, received no punishment due to his medical condition During this period, 221 new investigations of Nazi war criminals were initiated - 100 in Lithuania, 48 in Poland, 46 in the US, 10 in Austria, 9 in Germany, 6 in Great Britain, and 2 in Estonia. Furthermore, as of March 31, a total of 454 continuing investigations was underway - 175 in the US; 110 in Lithuania, 78 in Canada, 48 in Poland, 27 in Germany, and several in Great Britain, Croatia, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, and Costa Rica. On a Prosecution Report Card given by the Wiesenthal Center, the US was the only country to score an "A" for highly successful investigation and prosecution. Germany, Canada, and Poland received a "B," followed by Lithuania, France, and Italy with a "C," and Great Britain, Croatia, Estonia, Costa Rica, Austria, Australia, Denmark, Latvia, Norway, Finland, and the Czech Republic with a "D." Syria, Sweden, Venezuela, and Columbia received an "F" for refusing in principle to even investigate suspected Nazi war criminals living in their countries.
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