From this base, the loud but jovial Nazi hunter fields phone calls with tips on suspects through his Operation Last Chance initiative (financial rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Nazi war criminals), follows up on promising leads and works with partners who can scour archival material in the languages he can’t handle. He went to Copenhagen last summer to submit an official police complaint about a Danish SS volunteer who remains alive and unpunished. Since the number of living perpetrators has dwindled in recent years, Zuroff increasingly spends time writing op-eds about Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, speaking with the press when these topics are in the news and giving lectures at universities and conferences.
“You have to start from the premise that it’s almost impossible to prosecute a Nazi these days,” he says, his large frame folded behind his desk and graying hair usually topped with a kippa.
Many of Zuroff’s critics think it’s time we stop prosecuting Nazi collaborators—most of them are dead or too old to stand trial, they say, and some argue it’s vindictive to dwell on events so far in the past. Zuroff scoffs at such talk. “First, the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers,” he says, launching into his oft-recited “Nazi Hunting 101” spiel.
“Old age should not protect people from punishment, people who committed such heinous crimes. We owe it to the victims—that’s three. Four is it sends a powerful message about the serious nature of these crimes, their importance. Five is it’s important in the fight against Holocaust denial and Holocaust distortion. Six, ‘superior orders’ has almost invariably been rejected as a defense, so in other words, individual criminal responsibility.” He insists that if the world doesn’t make it “abundantly clear” that all individuals who participate in genocide will face consequences, people will assume they can get away with mass murder.