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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘World War II War 
Crimes Accountability Act of 2009’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Surviving Nazi war criminals are becoming 
increasingly rare. 
(2) The identities of many of the remaining 
criminals were made known only after the end of the 
Cold War and the collapse of Communist govern-
ments throughout eastern Europe. 
(3) In most of these formerly Communist coun-
tries, the volume of available information is enor-
mous, and the available resources to study it and 
identify war crimes suspects is comparatively small. 
(4) In the United States, the Office of Special 
Investigations (OSI) of the Department of Justice is 
responsible for detecting, investigating, and taking 
legal action to denaturalize or deport persons who 
took part in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution com-
mitted abroad between 1933 and 1945. 
(5) As of April 2008, OSI had successfully 
prosecuted more than 100 people involved in Nazi 
war crimes who were residing in the United States. 
(6) As a Government office with limited re-
sources, OSI is under enormous strain to identify 
and prosecute those criminals identified by newly re-
leased records before it is too late. 
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(7) Some foreign governments hinder the ef-
forts of OSI, Congress, and the United States Gov-
ernment to extradite or deport convicted Nazi war 
criminals from the United States to their country of 
origin or other relevant jurisdiction. 
(8) Certain nongovernmental organizations have 
been instrumental in the search for wanted Nazi war 
crimes suspects for over 60 years. 
(9) In 2002, the Simon Wiesenthal Center 
launched Operation: Last Chance to maximize the 
identification and help facilitate the prosecution of 
the remaining unprosecuted Nazi war criminals, 
helping to achieve justice for the victims of the Hol-
ocaust. 
(10) Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi 
death camps whose work stands as a reminder and 
a warning for future generations, dedicated his life 
to— 
(A) documenting the crimes of the Holo-
caust; and 
(B) hunting down the perpetrators still at 
large. 
(11) As founder and head of the Jewish Docu-
mentation Center in Vienna, Simon Wiesenthal suc-
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cessfully brought to justice wanted Nazi war crimi-
nals, including— 
(A) Franz Stangl, the commandant of the 
Treblinka death camp; 
(B) Franz Murer, ‘‘The Butcher of 
Wilno’’; and 
(C) Erich Rajakowitsch, who was in charge 
of the ‘‘death transports’’ in Holland. 
(12) Mr. Wiesenthal’s work, which contributed 
enormously to the modern understanding of justice, 
war crimes, and crimes against humanity, should be 
continued. 
(13) Of the most guilty Nazis and Nazi collabo-
rators still at large, Operation: Last Chance has 
identified the following suspects: 
(A) Dr. Aribert Heim, who served as a 
medical doctor at the Sachsenhausen, Buchen-
wald, and Mauthausen concentration camps, is 
the most wanted ex-Nazi still at large. His most 
terrible crimes were committed at Mauthausen, 
where he murdered hundreds of inmates by ad-
ministering lethal injections of phenol to their 
hearts or by other torturous killing methods 
during the fall of 1941. His whereabouts are 
unknown. 
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(B) Dr. Sandor Kepiro, who served as an 
officer in the Hungarian gendarmerie, was one 
of several Hungarian officers convicted in 1944 
for the mass murder of several thousand civil-
ians (mostly Jews) in the city of Novi Sad on 
January 23, 1942. In the wake of the occupa-
tion of Hungary in March 1944, he was par-
doned, promoted, and returned to active service. 
He escaped to Austria in 1945, fled to Argen-
tina in 1948, and returned to Hungary in 1996. 
(C) Milivoj Asner, who served as the police 
chief of the city of Slavonska Pozega. During 
1941 and 1942, Mr. Asner orchestrated the 
robbery, persecution, and destruction of the 
local Serb, Jewish, and Gypsy communities, 
which culminated in the deportation of hun-
dreds of civilians to Ustasha concentration 
camps, where most of the deportees were mur-
dered. After his exposure in Operation: Last 
Chance, the former police chief later escaped 
once again to Klagenfurt, Austria, where he 
currently resides. 
(D) Charles Zentai is accused of mur-
dering 18-year-old Peter Balazs, a Jewish boy 
he caught riding a Budapest tram without the 
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requisite yellow star on November 8, 1944. 
After Hungarian requests for his extradition 
went unanswered, Zentai was able to immigrate 
to Australia in February 1950, where he cur-
rently lives. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
It is the sense of the House of Representatives that— 
(1) the United States should actively encourage 
extradition and prosecution of the remaining Nazi 
war 
criminals 
(as 
described 
by 
U.S.C. 
1182(a)(3)(e)); 
(2) the Simon Wiesenthal Center should be 
commended for its historic work in bringing to light 
the atrocities of the Holocaust and in advancing jus-
tice for Nazi war criminals through Operation: Last 
Chance; and 
(3) the Office of Special Investigation of the 
Department of Justice is advancing the declared for-
eign policy of the United States by bringing wanted 
World War II criminals to justice and should be 
commended for its actions. 
SEC. 4. DESIGNATION OF VISA WAIVER PROGRAM COUN-
TRIES. 
(a) COOPERATION.—After a country is initially des-
ignated as a visa waiver program country under section 
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217(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1187(c)), the Attorney General, in evaluating the effect 
that such designation would have on the law enforcement 
and security interests of the United States under para-
graph (2)(C) of such section, shall consider the extent to 
which such country is cooperating in— 
(1) extraditing or prosecuting wanted or in-
dicted Nazi war criminals to the relevant jurisdic-
tion; and 
(2) admitting into their territory aliens de-
scribed in section 212(a)(3)(E)(i) and ordered re-
moved from the United States by a United States 
immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Ap-
peals, or a Federal court. 
(b) PRESIDENTIAL DISCRETION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—If the President determines 
that it would not be in the national interest of the 
United States to terminate a country’s designation 
as a visa waiver program country based on the eval-
uation under subsection (a), the President may de-
cline to terminate such designation after providing 
advance written notification to— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
the Senate; 
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(B) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 
Senate; 
(C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 
the House of Representatives; and 
(D) the Committee on the Judiciary of the 
House of Representatives. 
(2) 
CONTENTS.—In 
providing 
notification 
under paragraph (1), the President shall— 
(A) identify each crime suspect described 
in subsection (a)(2) whose admission has not 
been effected; and 
(B) submit copies of all decisions rendered 
by United States immigration judges, the 
Board of Immigration Appeals, and Federal 
courts that relate to such crime suspects. 
SEC. 5. ANNUAL REPORT. 
In each of the fiscal years 2010 through 2014, the 
President shall submit an annual report to the committees 
listed in section 4(b)(1), which describes, for each country 
that has a pending application for entry into or renewal 
of the visa waiver program, whether such country is— 
(1) cooperating satisfactorily in extraditing or 
deporting wanted Nazi war crimes suspects to the 
jurisdiction in which they have been indicted or con-
victed; 
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(2) prosecuting wanted Nazi war crimes sus-
pects effectively within such country’s jurisdiction; 
and 
(3) cooperating satisfactorily in admitting to 
the territory of such country aliens described in sec-
tion 212(a)(3)(E)(i) and ordered removed from the 
United States territory by a United States immigra-
tion judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a 
Federal court. 
Æ 
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