Estonian police blocked local newspapers from publishing an ad offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Nazi war criminals. Similar ads ran recently in Latvia and Lithuania as part of “Operation Last Chance,” an effort sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to find and prosecute Nazi war criminals. The ad that was supposed to run Tuesday in Estonia included copy that read, “During the Holocaust, Estonians murdered Jews in Estonia as well as in other countries,” according to the center. Police officials maintain there is not “convincing evidence” that Estonians were ever convicted for the murder of Jews outside Estonia, and say the claims made by the center may violate the Estonian Constitution, the center added. The police decision is “totally outrageous” and provides “a sad reflection on the inability of far too many Estonians to accept the sad reality of the complicity of some of their nationals in the crimes of the Holocaust,” said the center’s chief Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff.

Source: JTA, January 28, 2003

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