10 War Criminals Who Escaped Justice

Sándor Képíró

The business of hunting down Nazis and their former collaborators is a complicated one, with lots of moving parts that don’t always land in simple patterns. Sándor Képíró was ultimately found not guilty in his native Hungary, in the face of allegations that he took an active part in the killing of civilians during World War II. Képíró’s admission that he was part of the round-up efforts ultimately wasn’t enough for the accusations of war crimes to stick, despite efforts to the contrary by Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The latter remained unrepentant in the wake of Képíró’s death in 2011, celebrating in a Facebook post about how the trial “negatively affected Képíró's health.”

Léon Degrelle

The Rexist Party was founded by the Belgian politician and Nazi collaborator, Léon Degrelle, in 1935, a far-right organization that ran parallel to Germany’s Nazi ideologies. Degrelle was sentenced to death by his own country for fighting alongside German forces in the Walloon Legion, but fled to fascist Spain in order to escape his fate. Léon Degrelle was unapologetic in exile, and continued to actively work within the sectors of Holocaust denial and Neo-Nazi support. Meanwhile, Degrelle’s personal life was one of financial success and comfort, thanks to a lucrative construction business that funded his endeavors until his death in 1994.

Ante Pavelić

The Ustaše was yet another example of rising fascist sentiment in the years leading up to the Second World War. Ante Pavelić was the leader of the Ustaše, founded in fascist Italy after Pavelić departed his native Croatia back in 1929. Pavelić and the Ustaše were accused not only of plotting multiple political assassinations, but also of the systematic executions of Serbs and Jews within Croatia’s puppet-state concentration camps. Ante Pavelić spent his post-Ustaše years on the run, receiving assistance from the Vatican for an escape to Argentina. He remained firmly unrepentant through it all, and was never brought to trial for his crimes. Although, an assassination attempt did eventually lead to Ante Pavelić’s death in Francoist Spain in 1959.

László Csatáry

It’s common for those accused war criminals who are elderly to pass away while awaiting the results of their trials. László Csatáry was actually sentenced to death by a Czech court for allegedly taking an active part in brutal camp deportation efforts during World War II. He fled to Canada and successfully avoided capture, until efforts from The Simon Wiesenthal Center saw Csatáry being held under house arrest while new charges were being filed. Csatáry’s Canadian citizenship was revoked, but his trial eventually came to an end after this former Hungarian officer died while awaiting trial.

Gustav Wagner

He was known as both “The Beast” and “The Wolf” during his tenure with the SS. It was during this service where Wagner was accused of overseeing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews in the Sobibor death camps. Wagner’s life after World War II was spent in exile, living in Brazil until he was discovered by noted Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. It’s been surmised that one of the survivors from Sobibor, Stanisław Szmajzner, was responsible for the knife that was found lodged in Wagner’s chest at the time of his death in 1980. The official cause of his death, however, is listed as self-destruction.

Ludolf von Alvensleben

This SS officer was never even properly put on trial, despite indictments being levied at his feet. Soldiers under the command of von Alvensleben were accused of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of Polish nationals. He escaped from the custody of British officials in 1945, and fled to a fascist haven in Argentina. Von Alvensleben was sentenced to death by a Polish court in absentia, but this mattered little when he was already living a new life abroad. Ludolf von Alvensleben died without ever paying the price for the atrocities that occurred under his watch.

Aribert Heim

Historical horror stories have long been told about the inconceivable medical experiments conducted during World War II. Aribert Heim was an Austrian medical professional (we hesitate to use the word “doctor”) who was accused of torturing captives who were being held in Austria’s Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. This real life “Dr. Death” was taken into custody by U.S. soldiers in 1945, but clerical alterations to his files resulted in Heim escaping prosecution. Heim continued to live life on the run as authorities attempted to bring him to justice, living in Egypt until finally being declared legally dead in 1992.

Walter Rauff

If one needed any further proof how evil never truly dies, then all it might take is a viewing of Walter Rauff’s public funeral from 1984. That’s because this reprehensible Nazi commander was responsible for carrying out Germany’s systematic orders against the Jewish people, particularly between the years 1942 and 1943. Rauff died in Chile after a post-war life that included protection by a Nazi sympathetic Catholic bishop in Italy, as well as working as an advisor for Syrian intelligence. Walter Rauff’s Chilean funeral featured a number of unrepentant Nazi visitors, some of whom saluted and uttered vile, anti-semitic maxims before Rauff’s coffin.

Alois Brunner

This SS captain holds the ignoble distinction of being one of the architects of the Holocaust, a historical villain that, tragically, escaped paying the ultimate price for his sins. Alois Brunner’s name was similar to another Axis prisoner, and he took advantage of the mistaken identity to escape custody. He even worked for the United States military under a false name before fleeing abroad. Brunner lived for a long time in Syria, and it was during this time when multiple attempts on his life via letter bomb cost Brunner some appendages. Two separate death sentences in absentia couldn’t bring Alois Brunner to justice. He allegedly died in Syria around 2010.

Josef Mengele

He’s on a short and vile list of history’s most infamous war criminals. An “Angel of Death” whose experiments on the captives of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau were truly the stuff of nightmares. Yet, Josef Mengele apparently died while swimming, away from courts, trials and, more importantly, the face of justice. Mengele lived in Brazil after falsifying his identity while in custody of the American Allies. Josef Mengele eventually made his escape using what were known as “ratlines.” These were social and travel networks that connected fascist war criminals with foreign sympathizers in order to scurry away from the scales of justice.

Which one of these failures of justice infuriates you the most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

“The Boys from Brazil” (1978)20th Century-Fox

Peck at dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVfJW3ncTAA&pp=ygUadGhlIGJveXMgZnJvbSBicmF6aWwgY2xpcHM%3D