Estonia, Lithuania given "failing" marks in Nazi hunt

  • 2011-01-14
  • TBT Staff

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in it's annual report said Estonia and Lithuania have "failed to achieve significant positive results".

VILNIUS - The Simon Wiesenthal Center in it's annual report has given the Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania a "failing mark" for their sluggishness in prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

The SWC listed Estonia and Lithuania - along with Australia, Canada, Hungary and Ukraine - as countries "which are able, at least in theory, to take legal action against Holocaust perpetrators, but have failed to achieve significant positive results."

The annual report is published by the US-based SWC, one of the largest and most outspoken Jewish rights groups in the world. It assigns countries letter grades - A, B, C, D, or F - based on their success in bringing Nazi war criminals to justice.

A total of nine countries received failing grades from the centre and five received "D" marks.

This was the first year that any country beside the US was given the top ranking on the list, with Germany taking the top spot following a slew of Nazi investigations.

"During the past year, Germany achieved remarkable success in the wake of significant changes in its prosecution policy, which we believe are of unique significance for the efforts to hold Nazi war criminals accountable for their crimes," the report said.