Nazi-hunters say they have strong evidence that the most wanted
member of Hitler’s regime – known as Dr Death – is hiding in southern
Chile.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre believes Aribert Heim is in Patagonia, where his daughter is known to live.
The centre has sent representatives to the region to pursue the search.
Heim is said to have documented the victims he tortured and killed at
Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during World War II.
He is accused of killing Jews using exceptionally cruel methods.
According to Holocaust survivors, he performed operations and
amputations without anaesthetic to see how much pain his victims could
endure.
Injecting victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or
poison were said to have been his favoured method at Mauthausen.
"In the last few days we’ve received information from two different
sources, both relating to Chile, which we think have very good
potential," said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the
Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
The group has put up a 315,000 euros ($495,000; £250,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of Heim.
"His crimes are fully documented by himself, because he kept a log of the operations that he carried out," Mr Zuroff said.
"He tortured many inmates before he killed them at Mauthausen, and he used body parts of the people he killed as decorations."
After the war, Heim was detained by US forces but was not charged.
He practised medicine in the German town of Baden-Baden until
1962, when he fled the country after being tipped off that the
authorities were about to prosecute him.
If he is still alive, Heim will be 94 years old.
Source:BBC
