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Nazi suspect arrested in Hungary

July 18, 2012

Laszlo Csizsik-Csatary suspected of Nazi war crimes has been arrested in Hungary. The Simon Wiesenthal Center found Csizsik-Csatary as part of its Last Chance project, said Efraim Zuroff, director of the center’s Israel office. He is accused of sending more than 15,000 Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said. They consider him their most-wanted Nazi war criminal.

“We found eyewitnesses on three different continents,” Zuroff said. Those witnesses told the center about Csizsik-Csatary’s brutality to Jewish detainees and his role in deportations.

A 1941 Ukraine deportations witness had nine family members that were deported. Csizsik-Csatary had four of them brought back from labor with the Hungarian army so they would be deported and killed, according to Zuroff.

Csizsik-Csatary served as a senior Hungarian police officer in the city of Kosice, the center said. Csizsik-Csatary was involved in the deportation of 15,700 Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, witnesses have told the center. He also played a role in “deportations to the Ukraine to be killed,” Zuroff said.

In 1949 Csizsik-Csatary arrived in Canada and told immigration officials he was Yugoslavian, according to The Toronto Star newspaper. Sometime after his arrival the Canadian authorities investigated allegations that he had lied to immigration authorities about his past when he first arrived. Canada revoked his citizenship in 1997 and began an investigation. As deportation proceedings were under way, Csizsik-Csatary voluntarily left Canada. Csizsik-Csatary then returned to Hungary.

“Hungarian authorities knew that he was back,” said Zuroff.

Authorities in Hungary started an investigation in September 2011 after receiving information from Zuroff regarding Csizsik-Csatary’s residence in Budapest and his role in the Auschwitz deportations, the center said. This later led to the arrest of Csizsik- Csatary.

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