I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1439 

To hold the surviving Nazi war criminals accountable for the war crimes, 

genocide, and crimes against humanity they committed during World 

War II, by encouraging foreign governments to more efficiently prosecute 

and extradite wanted criminals. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 11, 2009 

Mr. ISRAEL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 

for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 

for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 

committee concerned 

A BILL 

To hold the surviving Nazi war criminals accountable for 

the war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity 

they committed during World War II, by encouraging 

foreign governments to more efficiently prosecute and 

extradite wanted criminals. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World War II War 

5 Crimes Accountability Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Surviving Nazi war criminals are becoming 

4 increasingly rare. 

5 (2) The identities of many of the remaining 

6 criminals were made known only after the end of the 

7 Cold War and the collapse of Communist govern8 ments throughout eastern Europe. 

9 (3) In most of these formerly Communist coun10 tries, the volume of available information is enor11 mous, and the available resources to study it and 

12 identify war crimes suspects is comparatively small. 

13 (4) In the United States, the Office of Special 

14 Investigations (OSI) of the Department of Justice is 

15 responsible for detecting, investigating, and taking 

16 legal action to denaturalize or deport persons who 

17 took part in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution com18 mitted abroad between 1933 and 1945. 

19 (5) As of April 2008, OSI had successfully 

20 prosecuted more than 100 people involved in Nazi 

21 war crimes who were residing in the United States. 

22 (6) As a Government office with limited re23 sources, OSI is under enormous strain to identify 

24 and prosecute those criminals identified by newly re25 leased records before it is too late. 


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1 (7) Some foreign governments hinder the ef2 forts of OSI, Congress, and the United States Gov3 ernment to extradite or deport convicted Nazi war 

4 criminals from the United States to their country of 

5 origin or other relevant jurisdiction. 

6 (8) Certain nongovernmental organizations have 

7 been instrumental in the search for wanted Nazi war 

8 crimes suspects for over 60 years. 

9 (9) In 2002, the Simon Wiesenthal Center 

10 launched Operation: Last Chance to maximize the 

11 identification and help facilitate the prosecution of 

12 the remaining unprosecuted Nazi war criminals, 

13 helping to achieve justice for the victims of the Hol14 ocaust. 

15 (10) Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi 

16 death camps whose work stands as a reminder and 

17 a warning for future generations, dedicated his life 

18 to— 

19 (A) documenting the crimes of the Holo20 caust; and 

21 (B) hunting down the perpetrators still at 

22 large. 

23 (11) As founder and head of the Jewish Docu24 mentation Center in Vienna, Simon Wiesenthal sucVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:16 Mar 12, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1439.IH H1439

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1 cessfully brought to justice wanted Nazi war crimi2 nals, including— 

3 (A) Franz Stangl, the commandant of the 

4 Treblinka death camp; 

5 (B) Franz Murer, ‘‘The Butcher of 

6 Wilno’’; and 

7 (C) Erich Rajakowitsch, who was in charge 

8 of the ‘‘death transports’’ in Holland. 

9 (12) Mr. Wiesenthal’s work, which contributed 

10 enormously to the modern understanding of justice, 

11 war crimes, and crimes against humanity, should be 

12 continued. 

13 (13) Of the most guilty Nazis and Nazi collabo14 rators still at large, Operation: Last Chance has 

15 identified the following suspects: 

16 (A) Dr. Aribert Heim, who served as a 

17 medical doctor at the Sachsenhausen, Buchen18 wald, and Mauthausen concentration camps, is 

19 the most wanted ex-Nazi still at large. His most 

20 terrible crimes were committed at Mauthausen, 

21 where he murdered hundreds of inmates by ad22 ministering lethal injections of phenol to their 

23 hearts or by other torturous killing methods 

24 during the fall of 1941. His whereabouts are 

25 unknown. 


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1 (B) Dr. Sandor Kepiro, who served as an 

2 officer in the Hungarian gendarmerie, was one 

3 of several Hungarian officers convicted in 1944 

4 for the mass murder of several thousand civil5 ians (mostly Jews) in the city of Novi Sad on 

6 January 23, 1942. In the wake of the occupa7 tion of Hungary in March 1944, he was par8 doned, promoted, and returned to active service. 

9 He escaped to Austria in 1945, fled to Argen10 tina in 1948, and returned to Hungary in 1996. 

11 (C) Milivoj Asner, who served as the police 

12 chief of the city of Slavonska Pozega. During 

13 1941 and 1942, Mr. Asner orchestrated the 

14 robbery, persecution, and destruction of the 

15 local Serb, Jewish, and Gypsy communities, 

16 which culminated in the deportation of hun17 dreds of civilians to Ustasha concentration 

18 camps, where most of the deportees were mur19 dered. After his exposure in Operation: Last 

20 Chance, the former police chief later escaped 

21 once again to Klagenfurt, Austria, where he 

22 currently resides. 

23 (D) Charles Zentai is accused of mur24 dering 18-year-old Peter Balazs, a Jewish boy 

25 he caught riding a Budapest tram without the 


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1 requisite yellow star on November 8, 1944. 

2 After Hungarian requests for his extradition 

3 went unanswered, Zentai was able to immigrate 

4 to Australia in February 1950, where he cur5 rently lives. 

6 SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

7 It is the sense of the House of Representatives that— 

8 (1) the United States should actively encourage 

9 extradition and prosecution of the remaining Nazi 

10 war criminals (as described by 8 U.S.C. 

11 1182(a)(3)(e)); 

12 (2) the Simon Wiesenthal Center should be 

13 commended for its historic work in bringing to light 

14 the atrocities of the Holocaust and in advancing jus15 tice for Nazi war criminals through Operation: Last 

16 Chance; and 

17 (3) the Office of Special Investigation of the 

18 Department of Justice is advancing the declared for19 eign policy of the United States by bringing wanted 

20 World War II criminals to justice and should be 

21 commended for its actions. 

22 SEC. 4. DESIGNATION OF VISA WAIVER PROGRAM COUN23 TRIES. 

24 (a) COOPERATION.—After a country is initially des25 ignated as a visa waiver program country under section 


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1 217(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 

2 1187(c)), the Attorney General, in evaluating the effect 

3 that such designation would have on the law enforcement 

4 and security interests of the United States under para5 graph (2)(C) of such section, shall consider the extent to 

6 which such country is cooperating in— 

7 (1) extraditing or prosecuting wanted or in8 dicted Nazi war criminals to the relevant jurisdic9 tion; and 

10 (2) admitting into their territory aliens de11 scribed in section 212(a)(3)(E)(i) and ordered re12 moved from the United States by a United States 

13 immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Ap14 peals, or a Federal court. 

15 (b) PRESIDENTIAL DISCRETION.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—If the President determines 

17 that it would not be in the national interest of the 

18 United States to terminate a country’s designation 

19 as a visa waiver program country based on the eval20 uation under subsection (a), the President may de21 cline to terminate such designation after providing 

22 advance written notification to— 

23 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

24 the Senate; 


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1 (B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 

2 Senate; 

3 (C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

4 the House of Representatives; and 

5 (D) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 

6 House of Representatives. 

7 (2) CONTENTS.—In providing notification 

8 under paragraph (1), the President shall— 

9 (A) identify each crime suspect described 

10 in subsection (a)(2) whose admission has not 

11 been effected; and 

12 (B) submit copies of all decisions rendered 

13 by United States immigration judges, the 

14 Board of Immigration Appeals, and Federal 

15 courts that relate to such crime suspects. 

16 SEC. 5. ANNUAL REPORT. 

17 In each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2014, the 

18 President shall submit an annual report to the committees 

19 listed in section 4(b)(1), which describes, for each country 

20 that has a pending application for entry into or renewal 

21 of the visa waiver program, whether such country is— 

22 (1) cooperating satisfactorily in extraditing or 

23 deporting wanted Nazi war crimes suspects to the 

24 jurisdiction in which they have been indicted or con25 victed; 


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1 (2) prosecuting wanted Nazi war crimes sus2 pects effectively within such country’s jurisdiction; 

3 and 

4 (3) cooperating satisfactorily in admitting to 

5 the territory of such country aliens described in sec6 tion 212(a)(3)(E)(i) and ordered removed from the 

7 United States territory by a United States immigra8 tion judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a 

9 Federal court. 

Æ 


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