War Crimes and the Law

Greetings from the Australian National University where Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre is speaking on "Bringing Nazi criminals to justice: the domestic and international law parameters". He will then be speaking 16 June in Melbourne and Perth.

Dr. Zuroff argued that the passage of time does not diminish a crime, nor should old age excuse it. He argued that the current generation owes it to the victims of past crimes. Also he argued that this acts as a strong deterrent against future such crimes.

Dr. Zuroff lastly argued that holocaust denial was a form of anti-Semitism. He argued that the Prague Declaration, equates Communism and Nazis, in an attempt to excuse acts carried out in former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, by conflating it with acts under communism.

Currently I am reading Kerry Greenwood's book Trick or Treat. This is one of Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series, featuring a female baker and a her detective boyfriend. In this book they investigate treasure looted from the Jews of Thessaloniki in World War Two.

The question these issues raise for me is what role the International Criminal Court (ICC) will play in preventing possible future such crimes. However, the USA is concerned their military will be prosecuted and Israel objects to offenses of deporting population in an occupied territory. So these countries are not supporting the court.

Public Lecture
Bringing Nazi criminals to justice: the domestic and international law parameters

Efraim Zuroff is recognised as the world’s leading expert on tracking and bringing to justice the last remaining Nazi war criminals.
Following in the footsteps of the late legendary Simon Wiesenthal, Zuroff has earned the title of "The Last Nazi Hunter".

His research in the 1980s led to the discovery of hundreds of Nazi war criminals who fled Europe to the United States, South America, Australia, Canada, Great Britain and elsewhere.

In his latest book - Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi Criminals to Justice –Zuroff details the many cases he has worked on and the methodology he uses to bring alleged Nazi warm criminals and their associates to justice, particularly focusing on the challenges faced with many key witnesses long since having died. ...