Witness Comes Forward in Most-Wanted Nazi Case
Nazi Nabbed: Hungarian prosecutor announces arrest of suspected Nazi killer Lazslo Csatary. Image by getty images
Slovak police reportedly have found a witness to corroborate charges against Laszlo Csatary, an alleged Hungarian war criminal.
Csatary, 97, served during World War II as a Hungarian police commander in the Jewish ghetto of Kosice, then a part of Hungary and now in Slovakia.
The investigation in Kosice focuses on Csatary’s alleged involvement in the deportation of 15,000 Jews from the city. According to a recent report by Magyar Radio, the witness -– whose identity has not been revealed – survived the deportation and has “accurate” information about Csatary’s actions as police commander of the local ghetto.
The Budapest Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the Slovak authorities to question the witness, a spokeswoman for the Budapest prosecutor’s office, Bettina Bagoly, was quoted as saying.
At the end of the war, Csatary fled Hungary and settled in Canada, where he was granted Canadian citizenship in 1955. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the Czechoslovak authorities in 1948.
In October 1997, Csatary left Canada to avoid procedures of expulsion after it turned out that his application for citizenship had contained false data.
The 97-year-old suspect, who was put under house arrest in Budapest last July following research by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, denies the charge.
In August, Csatary was cleared in Hungary of a separate set of charges pertaining to the deportation of 300 Jews from Kosice to their deaths at the Kamyanets-Podilsky camp in Ukraine in 1941.
Csatary, 97, served during World War II as a Hungarian police commander in the Jewish ghetto of Kosice, then a part of Hungary and now in Slovakia.
The investigation in Kosice focuses on Csatary’s alleged involvement in the deportation of 15,000 Jews from the city. According to a recent report by Magyar Radio, the witness -– whose identity has not been revealed – survived the deportation and has “accurate” information about Csatary’s actions as police commander of the local ghetto.
The Budapest Public Prosecutor’s Office asked the Slovak authorities to question the witness, a spokeswoman for the Budapest prosecutor’s office, Bettina Bagoly, was quoted as saying.
At the end of the war, Csatary fled Hungary and settled in Canada, where he was granted Canadian citizenship in 1955. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the Czechoslovak authorities in 1948.
In October 1997, Csatary left Canada to avoid procedures of expulsion after it turned out that his application for citizenship had contained false data.
The 97-year-old suspect, who was put under house arrest in Budapest last July following research by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, denies the charge.
In August, Csatary was cleared in Hungary of a separate set of charges pertaining to the deportation of 300 Jews from Kosice to their deaths at the Kamyanets-Podilsky camp in Ukraine in 1941.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
