Police officials last night found the body of a dead man believed to be Herbert Cukurs, a suspected Nazi war criminals involved in the killing of 30,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto during World War II.
The police started their investigation here after receiving from the Associated Press Bureau in Bunn, Germany, copy of a letter sent to that office. The letter, carrying a signature “Those Who Can Never Forget,” reported that Cukurs had been killed in Montevideo, giving the address of a house in a fashionable suburb here, where the body was found. The man had been shot and his body stuffed into a trunk.
A statement by Commissioner Santana W. Cabria, security chief of the Uruguayan police, said the man was apparently the victim of “Jewish revenge,” and was believed to have been killed here on February 24, the day he arrived in this country from Sao Paulo, Brazil. A note, in English, pinned to the body, gave the details of his crimes against the Jews, Mr. Cabria said. His record was said to have included charges of mass murder of Jews before the Nurenberg War Crimes trials.
The home where the body was found had been rented on February 1, according to Commissioner Cabria, by a man saying he was Waldo Heinz Taussing, of Austria. The latter’s whereabouts are not known here.
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.
