Two Brazilian Jewish organizations sent letters of appreciation and praise today to Brazilian authorities for the arrest last week of Franz Paul Stangl, long-missing former commandant of the Nazi death camps at Treblinka and Sobibor in wartime Poland.
The letters were sent by the Israelite Confederation of Brazil and the Jewish Federation of the State of Sao Paulo. The Confederation message was addressed to Sao Paulo Governor Roberto Abreu Sodre, who announced the capture of the former Nazi commandant who has been accused of complicity in the murder of 700, 000 Jews.
The Confederation message said that Brazilian Jewry greeted with “great satisfaction” the application with “seriousness and firmness” of “justice and law” to the Stangl case. The letter added that the Confederation felt it was “our grateful duty to transmit our high appreciation of the attitude of our Government.” Praising the efficiency of the security and police forces, the message expressed “the firm conviction that, in accordance with the noble tradition of Brazil, we trust that similar cases will always be treated by our authorities with the same rigorous and decisive action.”
Stangl is being held under maximum security detention, awaiting a court hearing on an Austrian request for his extradition as a war criminal long sought by Austria.
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