Convicted Nazi War Criminal Sues Nazi Hunter

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Israel Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is on trial in Budapest as a result of a lawsuit filed by Dr. Sandor Kepiro, an Hungarian Nazi war criminal responsible for the murder of hundreds of Jews.

Dr. Zuroff gives the background to Dr. Kepiro's involvement with the mass murder:

The person in question, Dr. Sandor Kepiro, was among a group of Hungarian army and gendarmerie officers who organized a mass murder of at least 1,250 innocent civilians (mostly Jews, the others Serbs and Roma) in the Serbian city of Novi Sad on January 23, 1942.

Thousands of residents of the city were rounded up by the Hungarians on that day and taken to a large theater in the center of the city, where a committee of Hungarian officers decided if any could be released. The others, the overwhelming majority of those rounded up, were marched to the banks of the Danube River, which runs through the center of Novi Sad, where they were mowed down by teams of Hungarian shooters. The murders were only stopped in the afternoon, when Hungarian officers sent from Budapest landed on the frozen river with orders to halt the mass murder, which had been launched by the officers in Novi Sad on their own initiative, but by this time hundreds had already been killed

Kepiro is a convicted war criminal by virtue of having been found guilty of the crime not once, but twice:

In late 1943, the officers involved in the operation were put on trial in Hungary for violating orders, and on January 23, 1944, they were all convicted and sentenced either to death or to lengthy jail sentences, including Sandor Kepiro. Shortly thereafter, however, the Nazis invaded Hungary and all the convictions were cancelled, the officers were given promotions, and they were returned to active service…

After the war, Kepiro escaped to Austria and in 1948 arrived in Argentina, where he remained until 1996, when he returned to Budapest. There are indications that he was tried again in absentia in 1946 and was again convicted.

After finding out in 2006 that Kepiro was still alive, Dr. Zuroff attempted to have the original sentence implemented. However, although there is no statue of limitations in Hungary on war crimes, the original sentence could not be carried out because it had been cancelled by a Hungarian court. Instead, an investigation had to be opened against Kepiro.

Three years after the investigation started, Kepiro remains prosecuted.

However, as Dr. Zuroff writes:

Then I suddenly found myself on trial for exposing a Holocaust perpetrator and pushing for his prosecution. Instead of attending Kepiro's trial, I found myself on trial for the ostensible offense of exposing and telling the truth about one of the persons responsible for a terrible mass murder. This was a strange and unprecedented experience for me, but the silver lining might be that the proceeding that he started against me might ultimately be his undoing as we expose his crimes, thereby increasing the pressure for his prosecution. That is my hope, and so despite the frustration and absurdity of being in the dock, perhaps some positive benefit can be achieved in this case and the truth and justice be served.

We can only hope.

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