German prosecutors have posted a $333,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the last leading Nazi still believed to be on the loose.
Alois Brainier, 83, has been the target for years of fruitless search efforts.
State prosecutors in Cologne and Frankfurt made the reward offer in the hope of finally capturing Brunner.
Brunner, an Austrian citizen, served during World War II as personal secretary to Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s chief aide.
The person whom Eichmann once described as his “best man” orchestrated the deaths of some 128,000 Jews from Austria, Greece, France and Slovakia during the war years.
Brunner was listed earlier this year in the German newsmagazine Focus as one of Interpol’s 12 most-wanted people.
According to the magazine, which quoted information from the Interpol center in Lyon, France, the former SS officer who was previously believed to be living undisturbed in Damascus, Syria, had obtained an Austrian passport under an assumed name and moved to Argentina.
But in August, French police said they failed to locate Brunner in Argentina after receiving tips that he left his hideout in Syria.
Brunner lived in Essen, Germany, until 1954 under the alias of Alois Schmaldinest.
He then fled to Damascus, where he had worked as a businessman and “government adviser” using the name George Fisher.
Authorities in Germany, France and Austria have issued warrants for Brunner’s arrest.
As far back as 1992, diplomats in Syria maintained that Brunner was dead.
But the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel quoted French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld as saying that Brunner still lives in Damascus in a state-owned apartment, under a “sort of a house arrest.”
According to various reports, Brunner has been spotted in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Cambodia.
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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.
