Operation Last Chance was first launched by the Simon
Wiesenthal Center on July 8, 2002 in Lithuania. Within the
next three days it was launched in Estonia and Latvia as
well. A year later in September it was launched in Poland,
Romania and Austria. Over the past year it has also been
launched in Croatia, Hungary, and a few months ago in
Germany.
The project begins with a lot of publicity, offering a reward
for any information that leads to conviction of war criminals
from World War II. So far it has produced a considerable
amount of publicity, but very few war criminals. None have
been punished as a result of the campaign.
The closest thing to success of the program was in the Baltic
countries. After about a year, the Wiesenthal Center had some
300 suspects and was able to hand over more than 70 names to
legal authorities. But that is about as far as it went.
Action is up to the local authorities, and they were and are
not interested.
Lithuania has never convicted anyone for murdering Jews, not
when it was under Communist domination and not since it has
become independent. Under the public pressure stirred up by
the Simon Wiesenthal Center and others, Lithuania tried two
very old and broken men. With the Lithuanian government
dragging its feet, one died before the trial was through, and
the other was convicted but ruled mentally unfit to be
sentenced. Both of these took place before Operation Last
Chance was launched. There has been no legal action since.
The entire operation appears to have paid out only $5,000
(half of the $10,000 advertised) to one recipient in
Croatia.
The reaction of the people now living in Eastern Europe has
not been positive. The Hungarian publication Heti
Valas asked, "What is behind this intention? Noble ideas,
or revenge, maybe business?"
The Lithuanian magazine Veidas did not like the offer
of money for information and warned, "Obviously, this
attitude hurts the pride of the Lithuanian people and it
could start polluting the atmosphere in Lithuanian-Jewish
relations and arousing mutual mistrust."
The publicity also stirs up all manner of other reaction.
After the initial offer in Lithuania, websites were swamped
with record numbers of antisemitic comments and angry
attacks. A new wave of publicity about a year later prompted
another rash of Internet comments, with references to Jews as
cockroaches and elaborate theories of international Jewish
conspiracy. Several comments likened anyone accepting the
offer of money to Judas, the famous Christian symbol of a
traitor.
Even the local Jewish communities are far from enthusiastic.
The most recent launch of Operation Last Chance was in
Germany, and there the official Jewish community refused to
have anything to do with it.
The officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Targum
Shlishi Foundation (which is a joint sponsor of the campaign)
said that justice was the main goal, that is, to punish the
remaining criminals. They also hoped to educate the
populations to the crimes through public trials.
There is no question that all of the criminals richly deserve
to be punished. It does not matter if it is sixty minutes
after they committed their crimes or sixty years.
On the other hand, there is no obligation on us to take any
initiative to see that justice is done. The onus rests
squarely on the current governments of the states in which
the criminals reside or in which they committed their crimes.
It is not our business to tell other people to fulfill their
own moral obligations. As believers in the truth of Heavenly
supervision of all human affairs, we can leave it to the
Highest Court to see that full justice is done.
This argument is all the weightier when there is virtually no
prospect of actually bringing any of the living criminals to
trial, on the one hand, with the certain arousal of
antisemitic sentiments among the populations and governments,
on the other. With reluctant governments and hostile people,
there is no practical possibility of justice, and little
opportunity for education.
Operation Last Chance has had its chance.
