Hunt on for world's most wanted Nazis

DR DEATH, if still alive, is 93. Although his exact whereabouts are unknown, there is strong evidence to suggest that his address, which was once Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, is around San Carlos de Bariloche, an Argentine ski resort whose plaza has an "Alpine design" and whose restaurants serve Tyrolean treats such as fondue and venison.

As a Nazi camp doctor, Aribert Heim injected petrol into the hearts of prisoners then timed their death, performed amputations without anaesthetic and removed the tattooed flesh of a prisoner to make seat coverings to decorate the commandant's flat. If Hell exists, it will await Dr Heim, but there are those who first wish justice to be served.

Yesterday the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem announced the top ten most wanted war criminals, a list that Dr Heim now heads.

Despite the passing of more than sixty years since the end of the Second World War and the discovery of the Nazi concentration camps, the organisation is still intent on bringing to trial those who participated in such crimes. For the past seven years, to draw attention to their persistent work, the organisation has released an annual report detailing successes and highlighting particular cases.

This summer, in what is called 'Operation Last Chance', the organisation will launch a publicity campaign across South America, the continent to which so many former Nazis fled after the war, that promises a reward of 243,000 for information leading to the arrest of Dr Heim and other leading Nazis.

The investigation is being led by Efraim Zuroff, the 59-year-old, New York born academic who succeeded the late Simon Wiesenthal as the organisation's top Nazi hunter. He said of Dr Heim: "We have good reason to believe he is still alive."

After the war Dr Heim moved to Frankfurt where he worked as a gynaecologist, married and took up ice hockey, but once the Austrian authorities began to close in, he fled abroad. Attention is now focused on Bariloche as his daughter, Waltraud, 64, lives just across the border in the Chilean town of Puerto Montt and his former lover, Gertrud Boser, visited Chile 18 times between 1979 and 1992. Hans-Jurgen Schrade, a captain in the State Office of Criminal Police in Stuttgart, who is handling the case, believes him to be located in the area, as does Mr Zuroff. Despite the family's claims that Dr Heim died of cancer in Argentina in 1993, the doctor's lawyer sought a tax refund from the German government on the grounds that his client was living abroad.

The atrocities that Dr Heim carried out are obscured by the mists of time, according to those who see little point in pursuing the old and infirm. It is a sentiment rejected by Mr Zuroff, who yesterday described it as "misplaced sympathy syndrome". He has earlier said: "The natural tendency is to be sympathetic towards people after they reach a certain age, but these are the last people on earth who deserve sympathy. Their victims deserve that an honest effort be made to find them."

The Wiesenthal Centre's previous annual survey counted 1,019 investigations under way worldwide. The number is lower this year and inexact because not all countries responded, but the number of new investigations has risen, up from 63 to 202. Each nation is graded on its efforts to pursue cases; Britain has the lowest ranking. Although a War Crimes Act was passed in 1991, the special war crimes investigative unit was disbanded eight years later, having achieved one conviction out of 300 cases.

In Scotland the most high-profile case was that of Anton Gecas, who owned an Edinburgh guest-house, but was wanted for his part in the execution of 34,000 Jews, Soviet citizens and PoWs while serving with the 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion. Although the then justice minister, Jim Wallace, authorised the start of extradition proceedings, Gecas was deemed too ill to face trial and died in Edinburgh in 2001, aged 85.

The number of suspected war criminals in Scotland is unknown. In 2006 there were reports that two men, believed to live in the Central Belt, were the subject of an investigation by the Crimes Against Humanity Unit, the department of the Metropolitan Police who took over the case load. Yet as they fall under the anti-terrorism brand of the police, the information they provide is scant. A Met police spokesman said yesterday: "They are not prepared to discuss investigations."

For the past 20 years, Stephen Ankier, a historian, has pushed for greater effort to track down those war criminals believed to be living in Britain. Yesterday Mr Ankier, who estimated that between 50-100 suspects are living in Britain, said: "People are saying, 'We haven't got the dedicated manpower, we've got the problem with terrorists.' It's totally unsatisfactory. I think we have to pursue every last one of them until not one of them is left alive."

THE SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE LIST OF THE WORLD'S ten MOST WANTED NAZIS

1. DR ARIBERT HEIM, whereabouts unknown: Indicted in Germany on charges that he murdered hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was camp doctor. Disappeared in 1962, before planned prosecution.

2. JOHN DEMJANJUK, in United States: Ukrainian immigrant alleged by US authorities to have been guard at Nazi camps. He denies that. Extradited to Israel in 1986, where he was sentenced to death for allegedly being Treblinka camp guard "Ivan the Terrible". Verdict overturned in 1993 and Demjanjuk returned to America. US citizenship restored in 1998, then removed in 2002. Seeking to appeal against court's January rejection of challenge to immigration judge's order that would send him to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.

3. SANDOR KEPIRO, in Hungary: Former Hungarian gendarmerie officer accused of involvement in wartime killings of more than 1,000 civilians in Serbia. Convicted twice in Hungarian courts, in 1944 and 1946, but never punished. Kepiro, who moved back to Hungary in 1996 after decades in Argentina, denies accusations. Hungary reinvestigating.

4. MILIVOJ ASNER, in Austria: Police chief in Croatia's wartime Nazi puppet regime, he is suspected of active role in persecution and deportation to death of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and gypsies. In 2005, Croatia requested his extradition from Austria, which refused, saying he is unfit to stand trial or be questioned.

5. SOEREN KAM, in Germany: Former member of SS wanted by Denmark for assassination of journalist in 1943. Extradition was blocked in 2007 by Bavarian court that found insufficient evidence for murder charges.

6. HEINRICH BOERE, in Germany: Admitted hit man for Waffen-SS accused of killing three Dutch civilians. Sentenced to death in absentia in 1949 in Netherlands, later commuted to life in prison. German courts refused to extradite him, and then declared conviction invalid. Prosecutors in Dortmund, Germany, brought new murder charges against him this month.

7. CHARLES ZENTAI, in Australia: Former Hungarian soldier has been under investigation by Hungary's foreign ministry since December 2004 on suspicion of killing Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944 for failing to wear a yellow star identifying him as Jew. Zentai denies charge and is fighting extradition.

8. MIKHAIL GORSHKOW, in Estonia: US officials and Jewish groups accuse Gorshkow of helping to kill Jews while serving as interpreter and interrogator for Gestapo in Belarus. He returned to native Estonia in 2002 just before federal court stripped him of US citizenship for lying about his war record. Prosecutors in Estonia investigating case.

9. ALGIMANTAS DAILIDE, in Germany: Convicted in 2006 in Lithuania of helping to round up Jews for Nazis as officer in Vilnius security police. Sentenced to five years in jail, but judge ruled he was too frail to serve sentence. He had been deported from US to Germany in 2003 for lying on immigration application. Lives in Germany, but went voluntarily to Lithuania for trial.

10. HARRY MANNIL, in Venezuela: Former officer in Estonia's political police and German security forces during Nazi occupation of Estonia. US authorities investigating Mannil's 1990s' visa application concluded he took part in murder of hundreds of Jews, barring him entry. Was cleared in 2005 by Estonian investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity.