West Germany is offering a $125,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Herbert Heim, a doctor accused of selecting Jews for the gas chambers of the Mauthausen concentration camp.
The reward was announced after prosecution spokesman Alfred Streim disclosed in Berlin on Monday that the government paid $250,000 to unnamed individuals for the information that resulted in the apprehension of Josef Schwammberger.
Information about that award was previously reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, according to information provided by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
The reward for Schwammberger was by far the highest sum ever paid to bring a Nazi war criminal to justice.
The 78-year-old Schwammberger, who found haven in Argentina more than 40 years ago, was arrested there in 1987. He was extradited to West Germany on May 2, and has been confined to the maximum security prison at Stammheim near Stuttgart to await trial.
Schwammberger, the former commandant of the Przemsyl and Mielec concentration camps in Poland, is held responsible for the murders of at least 5,000 Jews between 1943 and 1944.
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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.
