The last Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, stepped down from the position of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Israel Office director after 38 years, Zuroff announced on Facebook on Tuesday morning.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948, Zuroff has dedicated his life to identifying and bringing to justice Nazi war criminals who evaded capture for decades. His interest in Holocaust studies began early, and after completing a degree in history from Yeshiva University, he moved to Israel in 1970 to work at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
Zuroff staunchly combatted antisemitism. “Holocaust education was the best cure for antisemitism,” he stated in an interview with Australian actor Nathaniel Buzolic, who has been vocal in his support of Israel since October 7. He immediately followed that statement and said, “It turns out it’s not true.”
He then explained that Holocaust denial is a problem “in the Muslim world and the Arab world, where they don’t teach anything about the Holocaust… where they have a deep tradition of antisemitism,” implying that Holocaust denial is another form of antisemitism.
Zuroff's career in Nazi-hunting began when he joined the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles in 1978. He later returned to Israel, where he played a crucial role in launching “Operation: Last Chance,” a campaign which offers financial rewards for information leading to the conviction of Nazi war criminals. This operation has been implemented in over a dozen countries and has led to numerous prosecutions, including that of Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk in Germany.
Zuroff has been instrumental in exposing Nazi collaborators in post-Communist Eastern Europe, particularly in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. His work has led to the indictment and extradition of several war criminals and the cancellation of pensions for those found guilty of Holocaust crimes.
Continued fight against Holocaust denial
When asked during his interview with Buzolic about a story concerning hunting Nazis that stood out, Zuroff was quick to respond, stating, “The most important Nazi war criminal whom I helped bring to justice was a man named Dinko Sakic,” who was “one of the commanders of a camp called the Jasenovac,” in Croatia. It is estimated that in this particular camp, 90-130 thousand people were murdered.
“They were murdered in the most horrific way imaginable,” Zuroff added. He then drew a parallel between Nazi soldiers and Hamas terrorists when he described the way the former handled prisoners and emphasized, “exactly what Hamas did.”
When asked what Israel means to him, Zuroff put his hand over his heart and asked, “You want me to start crying here?” adding that Israel means “everything” to him, as “it’s the negation of the Holocaust.”
Despite ending his nearly 40-year tenure at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where for 13 years he was responsible for Eastern European Affairs as well, Zuroff stated in his announcement on Facebook that he will continue looking for further opportunities to combat Holocaust denial and antisemitism.