[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12] [Senate] [Pages 16633-16634] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]NAZI WAR CRIMINALS Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to commend Dr. Ephraim Zuroff and the Simon Wiesenthal Center for their efforts to track down the last Nazi war criminals from World War II. [[Page 16634]] Their work is enormously important, both in bringing the guilty to justice and preventing future acts of genocide. The statute of limitations does not--must not--expire on crimes against humanity. Earlier this year, I introduced the World War II War Crimes Accountability Act with Sen. Nelson, which I hope will help Dr. Zuroff and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in their noble effort. The barbarity of those crimes still echoes today, more than 63 years after the end of the war. June 28 of this year, for example, marked the 94th birthday of Dr. Aribert Heim, the second-most wanted Nazi war criminal still believed to be at large. Dr. Heim, a former SS concentration camp doctor, was nicknamed ``Dr. Death'' for his brutal and sadistic experiments on camp inmates. At Mauthausen, the camp where he committed his worst crimes, Dr. Heim was known for murdering inmates by injecting toxins directly into their hearts. Unfortunately, despite the particularly heinous nature of Dr. Heim's crimes, investigators into Heim's whereabouts can still face official obstructionism. Germany, for example, is one of the few countries that still have an active Nazi-hunting unit. However, this team's efforts have been impeded by the repeated refusals of the presiding German judge to allow the police task force sufficient investigative latitude. Such procedures, like wiretaps on suspected Heim associates, are granted in murder cases in Germany--just not, apparently, in mass- murder cases like Dr. Heim. This is this not the only instance of German bureaucratic obstructionism, which have been carefully monitored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Correspondingly, in the center's 2007 Annual Report on Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, Germany received a failing grade--its only failing grade since the report was first published in 2001. The German government should do its utmost to reverse this pattern before it becomes a trend. The Simon Wiesenthal Center launched Operation: Last Chance in 2002, to identify and assist in the prosecution of the remaining Nazi war criminals still at large. Dr. Zuroff, who has been leading this effort, should be highly commended for his outstanding efforts in bringing the most guilty Nazis to justice. Even today, the crimes of Heim and the Nazi regime strain our understanding of hate. Hitler's Germany today is remembered only for its brutality, its mantra of genocide, and its culture of racism. And those last Nazis, who are waiting out their last days under the coming twilight, must not be allowed to go quietly into the night, as did too many of their victims. For the souls that were lost, and even more for those that remain, there must be justice. I commend Dr. Zuroff and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in the highest possible terms, and urge the United States Government to do all it can to help them in their cause. ____________________