JERUSALEM—On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed today internationally, Dorot Hahemshech, Israel’s largest association of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, issued a call to both the Israeli government and other democracies to renew and intensify the efforts to bring to justice Nazi war criminals and collaborators while it is still possible. The leaders of the NGO also commented on the growing phenomenon of distorting the history of the Holocaust in a number of countries, particularly in the context of the Double Genocide movement rampant in Eastern Europe.
The following is a translation from the original Hebrew text.
DOROT HAHEMSHECH ASSOCIATION OF CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS CALLS UPON ISRAELI GOVERNMENT AND OTHER DEMOCRACIES TO CONTINUE EFFORTS TO BRING NAZI WAR CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE
In conjunction with International Holocaust Remembrance Day, being observed today all over the world, Dorot Hahemshech, Israel’s largest association of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, issued a call to both the Israeli government and other democracies to renew and intensify the efforts to apprehend unprosecuted Nazi war criminals and collaborators in order to bring them to justice while it is still possible.
The leaders of the NGO emphasized that those Nazis who committed such horrific crimes against humanity in general, and the Jewish people in particular, must not be allowed to escape punishment regardless of their age, since they had no sympathy whatsoever for their innocent victims, some of whom were even older than they are today. Besides being dictated by the basic tenets of justice and morality, the prosecution of Nazi war criminals is also one of the most effective tools in the fight against Holocaust denial, especially in the countries in which local collaborators actively participated in the murders.
Dorot Hahemshech denounces the glorification as national heroes in many countries in post-Communist Eastern Europe of individuals who fought against the Soviet occupation of their countries after World War II, but also collaborated with the Nazis in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.
These steps along with the systematic attempts to minimize or even hide the participation of their nationals in Holocaust crimes, and the efforts to undermine the status of the Shoah as a unique case of genocide, by promoting the canard of equivalency between Communist crimes and those of the Nazis, pose a serious danger to the accuracy of the accepted Holocaust narrative and must be exposed and combated.
According to the information in the possession of Dorot Hahemshech, there are hundreds of Nazi war criminals still alive all over the world who are responsible for the murder of Jews and/or their deportation to death camps, and therefore the efforts to bring them to justice must continue.
The leadership of Dorot Hahemshech wishes to commend the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, who is following in the footsteps of the noted Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal of blessed memory, for his determination to continue the efforts to expose and facilitate the prosecution of these criminals, despite the difficulties involved in this task at this point and the apathy of the Israeli government and of other European governments, that he encounters on daily basis. The NGO therefore calls upon any and all private individuals in Israel and all over the world who have information regarding the current whereabouts of unprosecuted Nazi war criminals to immediately send that information to the appropriate authorities to enable them to bring these criminals to justice.
Shmuel Sorek, Chairman