Justice Minister Shmuel Tamir said today that Israel would continue to make every possible effort to bring Nazi war criminal Gustav Wagner to trial despite the Brazilian Supreme Court’s rejection of extradition requests from four countries, including Israel yesterday. Wagner, held responsible for the deaths of more than 250,000 Jews in the Sobibor and Treblinka concentration camps in Poland, found a haven in Brazil after World War II.
He is wanted in West Germany, Austria, Poland and Israel. Brazil’s highest court rejected Israel’s request on grounds that it did not exist at the time the crimes were committed. This prompted Tamir to observe, “How painful to be told that the fact that we did not have a sovereign state of our won during the Holocaust, the major reason there was a Holocaust, is used to keep such a murderer from facing trial.”
Commenting on press reports that Austria did not really want to try Wagner and did not press its extradition request, Tamir said “If this is the case it is more than regrettable. The net result is that one of the worst Nazis is about to go free.” Wognet has been under arrest in Brazil since he was detected there last year but confined to a hospital for the mentally ill. Tamir said Israel is consulting with its legal counsellor in Brazil to see what further measures can be taken to extradite him.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
