Determined to bring last Nazis to justice
The tip came in an e-mail from the home office in Los Angeles, the headquarters of a human rights organization that promotes tolerance around the world.
It sent Efraim Zuroff and an informal network of associates on a hunt from Jerusalem to Scotland to Hungary. In Budapest, they found the subject of their search: Sandor Kepiro, a frail old man living quietly across the street from a synagogue.
Zuroff wanted him thrown in jail for crimes committed in 1942. It didn't matter that Kepiro was 92 and that some Hungarians appealed for mercy on his behalf.
"Misplaced sympathy is what I'm up against all the time," Zuroff said.
Sympathy defines the broader mission of Zuroff's employer, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, proprietor of the Museum of Tolerance. But the sentiment does not always extend to the nonprofit's more specific, unfinished task: tracking down the last of the suspected Nazi-era war criminals, Kepiro among them.
"We are not tolerant toward Nazis," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean.
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It sent Efraim Zuroff and an informal network of associates on a hunt from Jerusalem to Scotland to Hungary. In Budapest, they found the subject of their search: Sandor Kepiro, a frail old man living quietly across the street from a synagogue.
Zuroff wanted him thrown in jail for crimes committed in 1942. It didn't matter that Kepiro was 92 and that some Hungarians appealed for mercy on his behalf.
"Misplaced sympathy is what I'm up against all the time," Zuroff said.
Sympathy defines the broader mission of Zuroff's employer, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, proprietor of the Museum of Tolerance. But the sentiment does not always extend to the nonprofit's more specific, unfinished task: tracking down the last of the suspected Nazi-era war criminals, Kepiro among them.
"We are not tolerant toward Nazis," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean.