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List of last surviving people suspected of participation in Nazi war crimes

(Redirected from List of last surviving Nazi war criminals)

This is a list of the last surviving people suspected of participation in Nazi war crimes, based on wanted lists published by Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Beginning in 2002, Zuroff produced an Annual Status Report on the Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi war criminals which from 2004 to 2018 included a list of the "most-wanted" criminals who had never been convicted.[1] Of those who have been charged for Nazi war crimes in the 21st century, many died awaiting trial, died during the appeals process, or died while waiting to be deported. Very few served actual prison time due to their advanced age which made their sentences (if any) symbolic. On the other hand, some listed here had all charges against them cleared after the fact.

Over 200,000 Nazis are estimated to have been perpetrators of Nazi-era crimes. Of these, roughly 140,000 cases were brought between 1945 and 2005. According to professor Mary Fulbrook, only 6,656 of them were ever convicted.[2] It remains unknown how many or if any legitimate Nazi fugitives remain today. The National WWII Museum reported in 2023 that those who served are now "in their 90s or older".[3] However, The Washington Post estimated in 2014 that the hunt for fugitives could possibly continue into the 2040s, citing the "age someone would have had to have been at the time" and "average life expectancy".[4]

Located

Those marked in yellow are still living.

NamePositionDate of birthDate of deathLast residenceShort summary
Rosemarie Albrecht [de]Aktion T419 March 19157 January 2008GermanyA former medical professor at the University of Jena, Albrecht was accused of killing a patient in 1941, as part of the Nazi euthanasia program which carried out mass killings of the mentally ill and physically disabled. She was further linked to the deaths of 159 people at a hospital in Stadtroda. In 2005, Albrecht was ruled unfit to stand trial. She died in 2008.[5][6][7]
Aksel Andersen [pl]Camp guardunknownLivingSwedenA Danish foreign volunteer of the Waffen-SS, Andersen served as a guard in the Judenlager in Babruysk, Belarus during 1942 and 1943, when 1,400 Jewish inmates were killed. Danish authorities have refused to prosecute Andersen.[8][9][10]
Milivoj AšnerPolice officer21 April 191314 June 2011AustriaAšner served as the police chief of Slavonska Požega, Croatia, and was accused of taking part in the persecution and deportation of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Romani to concentration camps operated by the Ustaše. Ašner moved to Austria after the war. In 2005, Croatian authorities requested his extradition, which was refused on medical grounds. Ašner died in Klagenfurt in June 2011 at the age of 98.[11][12][13]
Heinrich BoereWaffen-SS27 September 19211 December 2013GermanyBoere was a Dutch volunteer of Waffen-SS who saw action on the Eastern Front. As a member of the Silbertanne death squad, he took part in the killings of three Dutch civilians. He fled to Germany after the war and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court in 1949, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. German authorities refused to extradite him, but reopened the case in 2008 and convicted him in 2010, sentencing him to life in prison. He died on 1 December 2013 at the age of 92 while serving his life sentence in Fröndenberg.[14][15][16]
László Csizsik-CsatáryHauptsturmführer4 March 191510 August 2013HungaryCsatáry was a Royal Hungarian Police officer based in Košice who organized the deportation of approximately 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz in 1944. He was convicted in absentia in Czechoslovakia and was sentenced to death. Csatáry fled to Canada after the war, but he had his citizenship revoked in 1997, after which he left the country. In 2011, Csatáry was discovered to be living in Budapest, and the following year he was charged with war crimes by Hungarian authorities. In 2013, a Slovak court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment and sought his extradition. In the same year, courts in Hungary suspended his case on the grounds of double jeopardy. Csatáry died in August 2013 while awaiting trial, aged 98.[17][18][19]
Algimantas DailidėLithuanian Security Police12 March 19212015GermanyDailidė served in the Lithuanian Security Police (Saugumas) in Vilnius and took part in the persecution of Polish Jews in the Vilna Ghetto. He emigrated to the United States after the war and lived in Cleveland, Ohio, and Florida. Dailidė was stripped of his citizenship in the 1990s and deported to Germany in 2004, after which he settled in Kirchberg, Saxony. He was subsequently convicted of war crimes by a Vilnius court, but in 2008 was deemed unfit to serve time in prison due to his poor health. He died in 2015.[5][1][9][20][21]
Ivan DemjanjukCamp guard3 April 192012 March 2012United StatesBorn in Soviet Ukraine, Demjanjuk was conscripted into the Soviet Army in 1941 and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1942. He served at the Trawniki SS training camp before becoming a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp, where he was accused of being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews. He also served at additional camps including Majdanek. Demjanjuk moved to the United States after the war and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He was denaturalized in 1981 and extradited to Israel, and in 1988 he was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. The verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court of Israel in 1993 after new evidence cast doubt on his identity. Demjanjuk returned to the US and regained his citizenship, but was denaturalized a second time in 2002 when new allegations arose. He was extradited to Germany in 2009, convicted in 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison pending appeal. Demjanjuk died in March 2012 before his appeals could be completed, which in effect voided his prior conviction.[5][15][22]
Peter EgnerSicherheitsdienst1 February 192226 January 2011United StatesAn ethnic German born in Yugoslavia, Egner served in the Sicherheitsdienst in Belgrade from 1941 to 1943, during which time the unit participated in the mass murder of more than 17,000 civilians. He also served in the Belgrade Einsatzgruppe and transported prisoners to Auschwitz, Semlin and Avala. Egner moved to the United States after the war and worked as a food and beverage manager. The United States Justice Department requested the revocation of his citizenship in 2008, and in 2010 Serbia requested his extradition. Egner died in January 2011 in Bellevue, Washington at the age of 88 while awaiting trial.[23][24]
Klaas Carel FaberSicherheitsdienst20 January 192224 May 2012GermanyFaber was a Dutch volunteer of the Waffen-SS and served in the Sonderkommando Feldmeijer, which targeted members of the Dutch resistance, opponents of Nazism and those who hid Jews. He was also alleged to have served in the firing squad at the Westerbork transit camp. Faber was sentenced to death in 1947 by a Dutch court for murder. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, but in 1952 he escaped from prison and fled to Germany. Several attempts to extradite him were unsuccessful. In 2010, the Dutch government issued a European Arrest Warrant for Faber. German authorities supported his imprisonment, but Faber died in May 2012 in Ingolstadt before the motion could be enforced.[15][17][25]
Kurt GosdekEinsatzgruppe CUn­known12 December 2021GermanyGosdek served in Einsatzgruppe C and was accused of being involved in the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in Ukraine, including at Babi Yar.[1][26] Gosdek was later found to be living in Northwestern Germany and denied any involvement. In an interview done in 2017 he stated that he "worked behind the lines repairing vehicles".[26] Kurt Gosdek was never charged with a crime as Efraim Zuroff reported his death on 12 December 2021.[27]
Oskar GröningBookkeeper10 June 19219 March 2018GermanyGröning served as a bookkeeper at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1942 to 1944. In July 2015, he was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people and sentenced to four years in prison. Gröning died in March 2018 at the age of 96, before he was set to begin his sentence.[28][29][30]
Reinhold HanningWaffen-SS28 December 192130 May 2017GermanyHanning served as an SS guard at Auschwitz from January 1943 to June 1944 and was charged with accessory to murder in 170,000 cases.[8] He was convicted and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment on 17 June 2016.[31] Hanning never served his sentence as he died on 30 May 2017, aged 95, while awaiting appeal.[32]
Wilhelm Karl Friedrich HoffmeisterEinsatzgruppe CUn­known12 December 2021GermanyHoffmeister served in Einsatzgruppe C and was accused of being involved in the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in Ukraine, including at Babi Yar.[1][33] On 12 December 2021, Efraim Zuroff reported that Hoffmeister had died.[34]
Yaroslav Hunka14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician)March 19, 1925LivingCanadaHunka is a Waffen SS veteran whose unit is implicated in the Huta Pieniacka massacre. Representatives of both Poland and Russia have expressed their desire for Hunka to be extradited and stand trial for war crimes.[35][36][37][38][39][40]
Ivan (John) KalymonUkrainian Auxiliary Police192129 March 2007United StatesKalymon served in the Nazi-led Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in Lviv from 1941 to 1944, during which time he took part in the murder and deportation of Jews in the Lwów Ghetto. Kalymon moved to the United States after the war, but had his citizenship revoked in 2007. He died near Detroit, Michigan, in 2014 at the age of 93 while awaiting extradition to Germany.[12][41][17][42]
Søren KamObersturmführer2 November 192123 March 2015GermanyA Danish volunteer officer of the SS Wiking Division, Kam took part in the murder of Danish anti-Nazi newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen. Denmark requested his extradition in 1999, which Germany refused. A subsequent request in 2007 was again refused, due to a German court finding that the killing of Clemmensen was manslaughter, the statute of limitations of which had expired. Kam died in Kempten in 2015 at the age of 93.[43][41][44]
Michael KarkocWaffen-SS6 March 191914 December 2019United StatesKarkoc was an officer in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, which is accused of murdering Polish civilians in Chłaniów in July 1944. His unit was also involved in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. Karkoc went on to serve in the Waffen-SS Galician Division. He moved to the United States after the war, settling in Minneapolis. Karkoc's background was uncovered in a 2013 report by the Associated Press, prompting investigations in Germany and Poland. German authorities closed his case in 2015 after they deemed Karkoc unfit to stand trial. He died in Minneapolis on 14 December 2019 at the age of 100.[1][45][46]
Vladimir KatriukSchutzmannschaft1 October 192122 May 2015CanadaA former commander of the Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, Katriuk was accused to taking part in the 1943 Khatyn massacre, as well as murdering Jews and non-Jews in various locations across Belarus. He later defected and joined the French Foreign Legion, before deserting and fleeing to Canada after the war. The Government of Canada began proceedings to revoke his citizenship in the 1990s, but decided against revocation in 2007, due to a lack of evidence. Katriuk died in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield in May 2015 at the age of 93.[17][28][47][48]
Sándor KépíróGendarmerie18 February 19143 September 2011HungaryKépíró was an officer of the Hungarian gendarmerie who was accused of organizing the mass murder of over a thousand Jewish, Serb and Roma civilians in Novi Sad, Serbia in January 1942. He was convicted of war crimes in Hungary in 1944 but was not punished. In 1946 he was again convicted in Hungary in absentia. Képíró moved to Argentina after the war, returning to Hungary in 1996. A new trial was opened against him in 2011. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence in July, and died in September in Budapest at the age of 97.[43][12][49]
Helma KissnerWaffen-SS23 December 1923LivingGermanyKissner served as a radio operator at the Auschwitz concentration camp from April to July 1944 and was charged with accessory to murder in 260,000 cases.[8][50][51] She was ruled unfit to stand trial on 9 September 2016 by a court in Kiel.[52]
Samuel KunzCamp guard192118 November 2010GermanyBorn in Russia to a Volga German family, Kunz served in the Red Army and was captured by the Germans. He then served at the Trawniki SS training camp before serving as an SS guard at the Belzec extermination camp, where he was accused of participating in the mass murder of Jews. Kunz worked as a civil servant after the war. He was indicted in July 2010, but died in November in Bonn at the age of 89 before he could be brought to trial.[23][53]
Hans (Antanus) LipschisCamp guard7 November 191916 June 2016GermanyLipschis served as a guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1941 to 1945. He emigrated to the United States after the war and lived Chicago until his deportation to Germany in 1983.[18][41] Lipschis was arrested in 2013,[54] but was later found unfit to stand trial due to dementia.[55] He died in Aalen in 2016 at the age of 96.[56]
Harry MännilPolice officer17 May 192011 January 2010VenezuelaMännil served in the Estonian political police during the first year of the German occupation and was accused of arresting Jews and communists who were subsequently executed by the Nazis. He moved to Venezuela after the war and became a highly successful businessman and philanthropist. Estonian authorities opened an investigation against Männil in 2001, but later cleared him of all charges. He relocated to Costa Rica and died in San José in January 2010 at the age of 89.[5][14][15][57]
Adam NagornyCamp guardUn­known2011GermanyNagorny served as an SS guard at the Trawniki SS training camp and the Treblinka extermination camp. He was accused of taking part in executions at Treblinka. Investigations against Nagorny opened in early 2011, but he died later in the year.[12][17]
Ladislav Nižňanský [de]Edelweiss24 October 191723 December 2011GermanyNižňanský served as the commander of an "Edelweiss" unit that hunted Jews and partisans in Slovakia. He was accused of being involved in the massacre of 146 people in two villages and the later killing of 18 Jewish civilians. Nižňanský moved to Germany after the war and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Czechoslovak court in 1962. He was tried in 2005 and acquitted by a German court due to a lack of reliable evidence. Nižňanský died in December 2011.[5][11][58][59]
Helmut OberlanderEinsatzgruppe D15 February 192420 September 2021CanadaOberlander served in Einsatzkommando 10A (part of Einsatzgruppe D), which murdered an estimated 23,000 mostly Jewish civilians in Ukraine. He moved to Canada after the war, settling in Waterloo, Ontario where he worked as a real-estate developer. Beginning in 1995, the Government of Canada made several attempts to revoke Oberlander's citizenship and have him deported. Oberlander died in Waterloo, Ontario on 10 September 2021 at the age of 97 before a successful attempt could be made.[60]
Jakiw "Jakob" PalijDraftsman16 August 192310 January 2019United StatesBorn in a Ukrainian village in the Second Polish Republic, Palij volunteered for the SS and served as a guard at the Trawniki SS training camp. He moved to the United States after the war, settling in Queens, New York City. Palij was identified as a camp guard in 1993 and had his US citizenship revoked in 2003, rendering him stateless. He was deported to Germany in August 2018 after a 14-year deportation battle. Palij died in January 2019 in Ahlen at the age of 95.[8][1][61][62]
Lajos PolgárArrow Cross Party191612 July 2006AustraliaPolgár was a high-ranking member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party and briefly served as chief of its Budapest headquarters, where Jews were jailed and tortured. He moved to Australia after the war. Australian and Hungarian authorities opened investigations in the 2000s but did not obtain sufficient evidence against him. Polgár died in Ferntree Gully in July 2006 at the age of 89.[63][64]
Jack ReimerCamp guard6 November 19183 August 2005United StatesBorn to German Mennonite parents in Ukraine, Reimer was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army and was captured by the Germans in 1941. He served as a guard at the Trawniki SS training camp and was accused of taking part in the murder of Polish Jews. He moved to the United States after the war and became a businessman. Reimer was denaturalized in 2002, but died in Pennsylvania in 2005 before he could be deported.[5][11][65]
Johann Robert Riss [pl]Wehrmacht192110 October 2019GermanyRiss took part in the August 1944 Padule di Fucecchio massacre, where 184 civilians were murdered. In 2011, the military court in Rome found him guilty in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison; Germany has declined to extradite Riss.[28][8][9] He died on 10 October 2019 in Kaufbeuren, at the age of 98.[66]
Nada ŠakićCamp guardUn­known2011CroatiaThe wife of Croatian Ustaše officer and Jasenovac commander Dinko Šakić, Nada Šakić served as a guard at the nearby Stara Gradiška concentration camp and was accused of taking part in the torture and murder of inmates. The Šakićs fled to Argentina at the end of the war but were extradited back to Croatia in 1998. Charges against Nada Šakić were later dropped due to insufficient evidence. She died in February 2011 at the age of 85.[5][67][68][69]
Josef SchützRottenführer16 November 192013 April 2023GermanyJosef Schütz, known in the German press as Josef S.,[70] was a Lithuanian-born German Nazi concentration camp guard who was stationed at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In June 2022, at the age of 101, Schütz was handed a five year sentence after a criminal trial for complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust during World War II, becoming the oldest person tried and convicted for Nazi war crimes in Germany.
Gerhard SommerUntersturmführer24 June 19212019GermanySommer served in the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division and was accused of taking part in the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre in 1944. He was found guilty in absentia by a military court in La Spezia in 2005, but Germany refused to extradite him. German authorities reopened his case in 2014. In May 2015, he was declared unfit for trial due to severe dementia.[12][28][9][71][17] He died in 2019.[72]
Alfred Stork [it]Gebirgsjäger192328 October 2018GermanyStork was a former corporal of the Gebirgsjäger who took part in the September 1943 mass murder of 120 Italian officers in Cephalonia, Greece, as part of the Massacre of the Acqui Division.[28][8] He was convicted in absentia in 2013 by the military court of Rome and sentenced to life in prison, but Germany refused to extradite him.[73][9] In 2021, it became known that he died on 28 October 2018.[74]
Adolf StormsWehrmacht192028 June 2010GermanyStorms was an SS sergeant accused of taking part in the massacre of 60 Jewish forced laborers in Deutsch Schützen, Austria in March 1945. He worked as a train station manager after the war. In 2009, Storms was charged by a German court for his alleged participation in the massacre. He died in June 2010 in Duisburg at the age of 90 while awaiting trial.[23][75]
Theodor SzehinskyjCamp guard14 February 19242014United StatesSzehinskyj served as a guard of the SS-Totenkopfverbände at the Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen and Warsaw concentration camps. He moved to the United States after the war and settled in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Szehinskyj had his U.S. citizenship revoked in 2000. He was ordered deported in 2003, but remained in the country until his death in 2014.[18][41][76][77]
Herbert WahlerEinsatzgruppe C10 December 1921LivingGermanyWahler served in Einsatzgruppe C and was accused of being involved in the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in Ukraine, including at Babi Yar.[1][78] In March 2020, the public prosecutor's office in Kassel announced that Wahler would not face charges due to a lack of evidence.[79]
Erna WallischCamp guard10 February 192216 February 2008AustriaWallisch was a guard at the Majdanek concentration camp and was accused of being involved in the murder of inmates. She had previously been a warden at Ravensbrück, and settled in Austria after the war. Investigations in the 1970s were dropped due to a lack of evidence, and Austrian authorities had declined to prosecute her, citing statute of limitations. The case was reopened in 2008 following new testimony from Poland. Wallisch died in Vienna in February 2008, aged 86.[63][43][80][81]
Helmut Rasbol [pl] / X (unnamed)Foreign volunteer192515 January 2022DenmarkBorn Helmuth Leif Rasmussen, Rasbol joined the Waffen-SS as a foreign volunteer following the German invasion of Denmark in 1940 and later served as a guard in the Judenlager ("Jewish camp") in Babruysk, Belarus, during 1942 and 1943, when 1,400 Jewish inmates were killed.[28][8][9] In November 2016, the Danish chief prosecutor announced that Rasbol would not face charges due to a lack of evidence.[82] He died in 2022.
Hubert ZafkeNazi medic26 September 19205 July 2018GermanyZafke served as a medic at Auschwitz during 1943 and 1944 and was charged with accessory to murder in 3,681 cases.[8] Zafke's trial began in February 2016 but was repeatedly postponed due to his failing health, and in September 2017 he was eventually deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia.[83] Zafke died in 2018 at the age of 97.
Karoly (Charles) ZentaiWarrant officer8 October 192113 December 2017AustraliaZentai, a former soldier in the Royal Hungarian Army, was accused of taking part in manhunts, persecution, and murder of Jews in Budapest in 1944. In particular, he was accused of having beaten Péter Balázs, an 18-year-old Jewish teenager, to death for not wearing his yellow star. Zentai emigrated to Australia after the war. In 2005, Hungary issued an international arrest warrant against Zentai and requested his extradition. After a prolonged legal fight, the High Court of Australia ruled in 2012 that he could not be extradited, as the offense of "war crime" did not exist in Hungary in 1944. Zentai died in January 2018 in Perth at the age of 96.[11][17][84]

Never located alive

NamePositionDate of birthDate of deathLast known residenceShort summary
Petras Bernotavičius (Peter Bernes)Un­knownUn­knownUn­known
Lithuania
Bernatavicius was deputy to the Nazi-appointed mayor of Kupiškis, Lithuania, and was accused of organizing the killing of more than 1,000 Jews in Kupiškis in 1941. He moved to the United States after the war but fled to Lithuania in 2002, shortly before his US citizenship was revoked.[5] Petras was not mentioned on the most wanted Nazi fugitive list when it was last updated in 2018.[1]
Alois BrunnerHauptsturmführer8 April 19122001
Syria
The former assistant of Adolf Eichmann, Brunner was responsible for the deportation of over 100,000 Jews to Nazi death camps in Eastern Europe. He fled Germany at the end of the war for Egypt, then moved to Syria, where he lived for decades under Syrian protection and escaped multiple manhunts and investigations. Brunner was last seen in 2001 but his fate remained unconfirmed until 2014, when it was reported that he had died in Syria.[5][12][18][85]
Mikhail GorshkowGestapo19232013
Estonia
Born in Estonia, Gorshkow served as an interpreter and interrogator for the Gestapo in Belarus and was accused of taking part in the massacre of 3,000 Jews in Slutsk. In 2002, it was reported that a man with the surname "Gorshkow" fled to the United States after the war but was denaturalized, and moved to Estonia. Estonian authorities closed the case against Gorshkow in 2011, claiming that his identity could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Of issue was the possibility that more than one person with the surname Gorshkow collaborated with the Nazis. Gorshkow later died sometime in 2013.[5][18][41][86]
Aribert HeimHauptsturmführer28 June 191410 August 1992
Egypt
Heim was a doctor at the Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps. Known as "Dr. Death", Heim killed and tortured inmates at Mauthausen through various cruel methods. He fled Germany in 1962 when he was outed as a war criminal. Heim's whereabouts remained unclear, although in 2009 it was reported that he had been living in Egypt and had died in Cairo in 1992, which was confirmed by a court in Baden-Baden. The Simon Wiesenthal Center disputed the finding and Heim remained on Nazi fugitive list until 2013.[63][18][87]
Y (unnamed)unknownunknownunknown
Germany
The unnamed person was accused of being accessory to the murder of Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz.[28] They were not mentioned on the most wanted Nazi fugitive list when it was last updated in 2018.[1]
Z (unnamed)unknownunknownunknown
Norway
The unnamed person was accused of murdering Jews in various locations in Poland and Ukraine.[28] They were not mentioned on the most wanted Nazi fugitive list when it was last updated in 2018.[1]

See also

References

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