Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, claimed today that a major Nazi war criminal is living freely and openly in Chile but cannot be extradited because of that country’s 15 year statute of limitations on extraditable offenses. Wiensethal, who heads the Nazi war crimes center in Vienna, identified the wanted Nazi as Walter Rauff, 66, who. he said, lives in Punta Arenas, Chile, and operates a prosperous export-import business.
He said that Rauff was the man in charge of the mobile gas chambers-trucks with Red Cross markings in which deportees were locked and gassed to death as they got off trains. According to Wiesenthal, Rauff was responsible for killing at least a quarter of a million people during World War II. He said that the West German Government has requested his extradition several times but the Chilean courts ruled that under the law he could not be extradited.
Wiesenthal said that he had written to President Salvador Allende of Chile on the matter and had received a warm and friendly” reply from the Chilean chief executive who said he could not change the law. According to Wiesenthal, Rauff managed to escape from Europe after World War II with the assistance of the “Odessa” organization, an underground group that aided Nazis fleeing justice. He stayed briefly in Argentina and Ecuador and came to Chile in 1947. He is not a Chilean citizen and he openly uses his real name, Wiesenthal said.
The Nazi hunter will be awarded an honorary degree by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion at its graduation exercises at Temple Emanu-El here Sunday. Wiesenthal said that his Vienna office is working on 330 cases of wanted Nazi war criminals but is sure of the whereabouts of only 220 of them. He said his organization is daily in receipt of information from all parts of the world but cannot follow up all leads because of lack of funds.
He said the No. 1 criminal on his wanted list is Dr. Joseph Mengele, the notorious death camp doctor. Mengele, an Austrian, was responsible for selecting inmates for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Wiesenthal said he lives in South America but his exact whereabouts are not known. According to Wiesenthal, Brazil is the most cooperative of all South American countries in helping track down wanted Nazis and bringing them to justice.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
