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Former Commander of Szegged Ghetto in Hungary Now in Canada

October 16, 1974
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Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal urged the Canadian government today to take measures against Imre Finta, a former Hungarian police officer who commanded the Jewish ghetto in Szegged in 1944 and cooperated closely with Adolf Eichmann in the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.

Wiesenthal, head of the Jewish documentation center here, said Finta who fled Hungary after the war and emigrated to Canada, now resides at 532 Glangarry Ave. in Toronto where he operates a restaurant. He also supplied the Canadian authorities with Fima’s telephone number.

Wiesenthal said that a number of Jews who survived the Szegged ghetto and who now live in Israel, Canada and Hungary have indicated they would be willing to testify against Finta. He said in a letter to the Canadian authorities that Finta was responsible for several thousand deaths. “He is described by witnesses as a pitiless and cruel ruler of the ghetto. He did not even help Jews from his own circle of former friends and fellow students. He did not show any gentleness or charity,” Wiesenthal wrote.

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