97-Year-Old Alleged Nazi War Criminal Arrested in Hungary

97 Year Old Alleged Nazi War Criminal Laszlo Csatary Arrested in Hungary

Laszlo Csatary, aka Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, leaves the courthouse in Budapest on July 18, 2012. (ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/GettyImages)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A 97-year-old Hungarian man suspected of abusing Jews and helping deport thousands of them during the Holocaust was taken into custody Wednesday, questioned and charged with war crimes, prosecutors said.

The case of Laszlo Csatary was brought to the attention of Hungarian authorities last year by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization active in hunting down Nazis who have yet to be brought to justice.

In April, Csatary topped the organization’s list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals.

Prosecutors decided to charge Csatary with the “unlawful torture of human beings,” a war crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Csatary’s lawyer, Gabor Horvath B., said that a judge, acting on a request from prosecutors, ordered his client to be confined to house arrest for a maximum of 30 days. Horvath B. said he had appealed the ruling, which also opened the way for authorities to confiscate Csatary’s passport.

As he left a Budapest courthouse Wednesday afternoon following the house arrest hearing, Csatary walked slowly down a flight of steps, leaning on a companion for support. He wore a thin jacket and tried to cover his face from photographers and TV crews. He did not speak with reporters but appeared bewildered by the attention.

Tibor Ibolya, Budapest’s acting chief prosecutor, said Csatary recounted his Holocaust-era activities to authorities during questioning, saying he was following orders and carrying out his duty.

“The suspect denied having committed the crimes,” Ibolya said, adding that during his testimony Csatary’s “attitude toward some of his fellow men of a certain religion … is not what we would consider normal.”

97 Year Old Alleged Nazi War Criminal Laszlo Csatary Arrested in Hungary

Laszlo Csatary, aka Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary (ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/GettyImages)

Prosecutors detained Csatary in an early morning sweep because they were worried he may try to flee. He has lived at least in two separate Budapest apartments during the last few months.

“We took Csatary into custody at dawn from an address to which he had no connection until now,” Ibolya said. “He cooperated with investigators.”

Csatary’s lawyer said his client had moved to a new location because he was tired of being badgered. On Monday, 40 people held a protest outside one of Csatary’s purported homes but he was nowhere to be seen.

According to a summary of the case released by prosecutors, Csatary was a police officer in the Slovakian city of Kosice, at a time part of Hungary.

In May 1944, Csatary was named chief of an internment camp at a Kosice brick factory from where 12,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps. Authorities said Csatary was present when the trains were loaded and sent on their way.

97 Year Old Alleged Nazi War Criminal Laszlo Csatary Arrested in Hungary

Alleged Hungarian war criminal Laszlo Csatary covers his face sitting in a car as he leaves the Budapest Prosecutor's Office after he was questioned by detectives on charges of war crimes during WWII and prosecutors ordered his house arrest. (AP Photo/MTI, Bea Kallos)

Csatary “regularly” used a dog whip against the Jewish detainees “without any special reasons and irrespective of the assaulted people’s sex, age or health condition,” the prosecutors’ statement said.

As one train departed with some 80 Jews crammed into one railcar, Csatary refused a request by one of the Jews to cut holes in the walls of the wagon to let more air in, the statement said.

“We took into consideration the severity of his acts, but we should not forget that the suspect is due the presumption of innocence,” Ibolya said. “In our estimation, he will not be able to escape.”

Ibolya said considering Csatary’s age, he was in good physical and mental condition, although experts had yet to examine him.

Csatary was been convicted in absentia for war crimes in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and sentenced to death. He arrived in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia the following year, became a Canadian citizen in 1955 and worked as an art dealer in Montreal.

In October 1997, Canadian authorities said the 82-year-old had left the country, apparently bound for Europe, before they had the chance to decide his fate in a deportation hearing. His citizenship had been revoked in August and the deportation order was based on his obtaining citizenship by giving false information.

Canadian authorities alleged that Csatary had failed to provide information concerning his collaboration with Nazi occupation forces while serving with the Royal Hungarian Police and his participation in the internment and deportation to concentration camps of thousands of Hungarian Jews.

Ibolya said the investigation into the Csatary case was continuing and that prosecutors were waiting for information from Israel, including the possible testimony of survivors, and Canada.

“I expect this case to continue for months, even taking into account that we are treating it as one that we would like to conclude as soon as possible,” Ibolya said.

In Israel, Efraim Zuroff, director of the Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, applauded the arrest.

“When you look at a person like this, you shouldn’t see an old frail person, but think of a man who at the height of his physical powers devoted all his energy to murdering or persecuting and murdering innocent men, women and children,” Zuroff told the AP.

Zuroff, often described as the world’s top Nazi hunter, was able to locate Csatary with the help an unidentified, paid informant.

In 2002, he launched “Operation Last Chance,” which offers rewards for information on suspected Holocaust-era war criminals and lobbies for governments to put them on trial.

Hungarian prosecutors say Zuroff first told officials about Csatary in September 2011, meeting with them as recently as July 9 to provide more data about him.

While prosecutors acknowledge Zuroff’s role in the case, they have also criticized him for alerting the press in April about his findings.

Ibolya, Budapest’s acting chief prosecutor, said that by making the case public, Zuroff may also have put Csatary on alert, increasing the chance that he would try to escape and “greatly endangering the success of the investigation.”

A year ago, another elderly suspect uncovered by Zuroff’s reward program, Sandor Kepiro, was acquitted of war crime charges by a Budapest court because of insufficient evidence. Kepiro died in September at age 97, while the ruling was being appealed.

Comments (61)

1 2
  • neoconenemy
    Posted on July 19, 2012 at 12:55am

    And by the way, why did Israel admit war criminals like Salomon Morel even as they were kidnapping Eichmann? Poland twice demanded Salomon Morel be extradited for war crimes but Israel refused, saying the statues of limitation had passed. So if the statues of limitation had passed on Morel then why not on this guy and the dozens of other 90 year olds being harrassed by Wiesenthal? Its because the Jews are chosen ones. The laws aren’t for them, but for the goy. The fact of the matter is the greatest war criminals in history have been Jews just look at their reign in Russia and the eastern block.

    Report Post »  
    • DayoftheRope
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 1:32am

      i am so happy to see someone there are still intelligent people left in the world.
      lenin and trotsky murder way more poeple than the alledged 6 million and they are both jews

      Report Post » DayoftheRope  
    • PPMStudios
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 9:32am

      So I guess because Jerry Sandusky hasn‘t molested any boys in several years the statute of limitations should also be used and he should be released from jail because he’s getting frail and old?

      Don’t be so ignorant….

      Report Post » PPMStudios  
    • Vegascelt
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 11:29am

      Is it hard to use your laptop while goose-stepping?

      Report Post »  
    • Muddywood
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 11:49am

      It’s the Jooooooos

      Report Post » Muddywood  
    • dmac48858
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 3:22pm

      And Hitler was supposed to be a christian, are all christians responsable for the holocost??? Dumb AZZZZ..

      Report Post »  
  • neoconenemy
    Posted on July 19, 2012 at 12:34am

    A Jewish state and hundreds of billion of dollars in reparations and aid isn’t enough to put this thing to bed. One would think that Jews are the only group of people in the history of mankind that have been genocided (allegedly). Maybe they are just the most smart, strategic and stubborn..they are the ‘chosen’ ones. Thats why they are the only ones who have received reparation.Thats why they have to go around chasing frail old men to put in sham trials on the holohoax. Nuremberg was a joke we know this now. Torture and false evidence (soaps, shrunken heads, lampshades etc) was admitted in court and used to condemn people to death. Now after 60 years of holohoax propaganda we have the same worshipful attituted towards the holohoax and chosen ones.

    Report Post »  
  • WatchingAmericaDie
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:59pm

    In many ways Obama and the Democrats are doing to us what the Nazis did to the Jews. How much longer will voters tolerate this?

    Report Post »  
  • WatchingAmericaDie
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:55pm

    90% of Jews are Democrat. Democrats are destroying America. Think before you cast your next vote.

    Report Post »  
  • Julz
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:41pm

    And Soros isn’t being locked up because???? After all the man sat in an interview and explained happily about how he helped the Nazi’s.

    Report Post »  
    • jrcess
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 11:01am

      Soros is makes a mockery out of the jews. He is by far more damaging than these mid 90 old Nazi’s . The jews are just to ignorant to see it.

      Report Post »  
  • kj95376
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 10:15pm

    Hang him by his balls and let him die a slow painful death.

    KJ

    Report Post »  
  • lylejk
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 10:12pm

    Hard to believe these guys lived as long as they have, heartless as they are. If he did these things, then the death penalty should still stand. Monsters are monsters no matter how old they are. :)

    Report Post » lylejk  
  • aplingtjayonia
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 10:08pm

    JZS, they would never persicute you, until you outlived your usefullness to theml. Anyway, Glenn had a really awesome show tonight, I can‘t believe O’bama really sent gifts, given to our nation generations ago, back. What an unbelievable you know what hole. The news from the right says this man is just the product of a deceived kid? NO WAY! He had plenty of years to learn some wisdom, instead, he preferred to travel the road to glory and riches through deceit. All of you in the republican party top power structure, you should be ashamed of yourselves for refusing to see the truth when it is standing right in front of your eyes! The people on the left say we rich folk have to give even more to fix the mess they put us in. By the way I only make 50k/year. I just don’t know, I’m so frustated with the way of thinking in our nation anymore. I‘m ranting and I don’t care. We are being taken over by godless communists, who do not have the slightest idea what goodness and godliness is. Axelrod, do you believe in hell?, if you don’t come clean, thats where I think you might find yourself ultimately. Where did goodness and love go? I’m really angry and I apologize to all who read this but posting this makes me feel like I did just a little bit today. Sorry all.

    Report Post » aplingtjayonia  
  • bjornskis
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:41pm

    what’s the point at this time he will soon enough meet his maker and be called on about his actions

    the nazi hunters should be spending this money on feeding the poor or something useful

    bill ayers is still walking around and soros

    heck their releasing murders from gitmo

    Report Post »  
    • spirited
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 10:10pm

      After more than 60 years and this man still says that he was following orders? That’s it?
      No words of remorse? No, I am sorry… I did not realize or, I was afraid for myself and my family? Nothing?????

      That is almost more pathetic than his alleged crimes.

      >Where Have All The Flowers Gone…..

      Report Post » spirited  
    • christhefanatic
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 12:21am

      Maybe after they’ve gotten rid of all the old Nazis they can start on all the old Communists from Russia and China…Do ya think? Still looking for Nazis 70 years after the Nazis were destroyed, before most of us were born.

      When does Hollywood start cranking out movies about hunting down old Communists?…Duh. Do ya think?

      Report Post »  
  • spirited
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:28pm

    Ih he wrer 197 years old, it would not be too old to pay for his participation of murderS.

    George Soros is how old?

    Report Post » spirited  
  • Archtard
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:29pm

    Terrible things were commited yes, but I think it is time to move on. Use those resources to build and help others, not on vengeance.

    Report Post »  
    • newmexicopatriots
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:46pm

      I thought so also, “at first”, but then I thought… what if someone had come in my home, kidnapped my wife and children, and then sent them to a camp to be executed, all because of their religion? It doesn’t matter if what he did was 70 or 7 years ago. In my book, there is no statute of limitations on “Barbarism, Crimes Against Humanity, Torture, & Murder”. If indeed guilty, they should take this man to one of the old Death Camps, and use gas on him, in the old gas chambers.

      Report Post » newmexicopatriots  
    • DayoftheRope
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 1:37am

      newmexicopatriot, keep in mind that so called religion is nothing more than a doctrine of RACIAL supremacy. jews are a race not a religion. around 50% of jews in the u.s. and israel consider themselves atheist

      Report Post » DayoftheRope  
  • frankie v
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:14pm

    The Jews should be worried about this new Nazi regime instead of hunting down 97 year old dinosaurs…

    Report Post »  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:03pm

    Since there’s not too many of them alive anymore…..

    Perhaps the Simon Wiesenthal Center could use some of their resources to investigate the Commies in office here.

    Report Post » The-Monk  
    • jzs
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:51pm

      The Nazis didn’t just persecute Jews, they persecuted blacks, homosexual and transsexual people, and anyone any who was too brown. They persecuted social democrats and socialists. They persecuted the handicapped (there weren’t any wheelchair ramps or handicapped accessible facilities in Nazi Germany!). To one degree or another they persecuted anyone who wasn’t white.

      I‘m just sayin’.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims

      Report Post » jzs  
    • spirited
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 9:54pm

      @Jazzed

      Ever have any Christian school mates or friends who’s German or Ukranian Christian parents either survived having lived and worked in a concentration camp
      or
      managed to escape –on the way there; by hiding in a bin of cow manure all night?
      All the while, hearing a 14 year old friend and a 15 year old cousin scream while each Nazi soldier took his turn rapeing them…laughing and yelling like children at play?
      …And then hear, the gun shots –just before their last (final) screams?

      Wickipedia?????

      Report Post » spirited  
    • Fubared
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 10:29pm

      JZS
      Do you buy bulk white guilt in the #10 can or 55 gallon drums? What a complete wanker you are, I am just saying. Any story, further the/your left anti-white agenda. Seriously, idiots drunk on the koolaide recruit for the hard right with every syllable out of your piehole. Moveone.org may have a bounty on you.

      Report Post »  
    • pennswoods
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:14pm

      @MONK… From 1917 to Stalin‘s death in 1952 at least 60 million people in the USSR were killed by Lenin and Stalin’s Marxist Athiest Communist commissars and police thugs. During this era tens of millions were transported by box cars to labor camps in Siberia and other locations in the USSR where they were either worked or starved to death. Stalin’s forced famine in the Ukraine from 1931 to 1934 killed at least 7 million Ukrainians simply because they refused to give up their private farms and join Soviet collective farms. Millions of Soviet citizens were exiled and lived in terrible conditions in areas of the USSR that were remote and had extremes in climate. A large percentage of these deaths happened in the 1920‘s and 1930’s ten and twenty years before the Nazi holocaust of the Jews in Europe. Most of these tens of millions were Orthodox Christians. Never were the people who organized and brought about this mass murder ever arrested or convicted. Even after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 when there were aged commissars and judges and prison guards who were still alive and could have been arrested and made to pay for their crimes they had commited 60 years before the USSR collapsed in 1991 nothing was done to find these people and put them on trial for crimes against humanity. A few are still alive like this aged Hungarian Nazi killer and they are living comfortably on their pensions in the “new” Russia. When Communists kill millions there is a “who cares” at

      Report Post »  
    • pennswoods
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 11:32pm

      attitude.

      Report Post »  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 1:47pm

      @jzs
      “They persecuted social democrats and socialists”

      Ah, jzs back with another Wiki link. Who would of thunk it?

      So the Nazi’s killed Social Democrats?

      Definition of national socialism (n)

      bing.com · Bing Dictionary
      na·tion·al so·cial·ism

      ideology and practices of Nazi Party: the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party, in Germany’s Third Reich, which included national expansion, state control of the economy, the totalitarian principle of government, and anti-Semitism

      …and here’s a link to your favorite news source;
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party

      “To one degree or another they persecuted anyone who wasn’t white.”

      You do know that Jews are White, for the most part? Or do you need a Wiki link for that too?

      Report Post » The-Monk  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 1:51pm

      @pennswoods

      Yes, I am aware of that History. It also means that they are 10 to 20 years older (or dead) than the man in this article.

      I was being sarcastic about wondering that if this group had some time and resources that they might want to look into our current administration.

      Report Post » The-Monk  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on July 19, 2012 at 2:00pm

      One more thing jzs,

      You always sound like a college educated kind of guy. But, your diatribe makes it clear you went to college in Venezuela or some third world commie country. Say hello to Chavez….

      And sorry for making two posts instead of one. I got up to meet the mailman and hit the reply button when I sat back down. I know you like everything in one post.

      Report Post » The-Monk  
  • casventures
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:59pm

    If he is guitly he should see the gallows.

    But the seekers are forgetting the one just under their noses. Soros, he along with his father sent thousands of jews to death camps. And he is a Jew.

    Report Post »  
    • mils
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:12pm

      THEY ARE RICHRICHRICH….no one is going to go after them…$$$TALKS!….

      Report Post »  
  • bambam1800
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:57pm

    Is time for George Soros to take the perp-walk. He admits to being a Natzi colaborator in his book…….And how many times has he visited the white house? And how much has he given to Odumma?
    WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!

    Report Post »  
  • Individualism
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:38pm

    i wonder if our troops would be willing to do what they did, i honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they would, it seems almost any unjust war is a sir yes sir response. but i really hope that is not the case, those fema camps are for something that is for sure. well when they come for guns we all know whats up and what we got to do. who knows maybe another country could easily stop it if they nuke Washington who knows.

    Report Post » Individualism  
    • MOLLYPITCHER
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:54pm

      I hope you’re wrong, individualism. I think in order to keep what freedoms are left (perhaps gain some of them back) we have to think the unthinkable and be prepared.

      Report Post »  
  • marcus_arealius
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:36pm

    I suppose brats and beer gets longevity ?

    McCain would say ‘He’s a nice fellow, he just had a thing for the Jews’.

    Report Post »  
    • chips1
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:07pm

      Wow!!!! Will it take that long to bring Obama to trial?

      Report Post »  
    • mils
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:15pm

      from president…obama will go on to head the un and various world organizations…just wait and see….

      Report Post »  
  • GenOptimus
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:34pm

    Be sure your sins will find you out!

    I’m going to try to save Mcrappy some time and type “What a waste of space” for him.
    I’m just trying to be nice.

    Report Post »  
    • watashbuddyfriend
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:04pm

      Yes, your/my sins will find you/me out! Damn, looks like his sins were no bother to him, since he look like a man with peace-of-mind, at 97?

      Report Post »  
  • TSUNAMI-22
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:32pm

    If they convict him, they should hang him just like the rest were hanged. I don’t give a sh*t about his age.

    Report Post »  
    • jeffile
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:56pm

      He was already convicted and sentenced to death in 1948.

      Report Post »  
  • Magyar
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:30pm

    nagyon jo !!!!!!

    Report Post »  
  • historyguy48
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:27pm

    Comrades at 97 years old life in prison is pretty meaningless isn’t it? Like it or not he will very shortly have to answer for his crimes to his God and that’s about as far as this can go!

    Report Post » historyguy48  
  • piper60
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:27pm

    I’m glad he got caught at long last.

    Report Post » piper60  
  • Daveed
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:19pm

    “think of a man who at the height of his physical powers devoted all his energy to murdering or persecuting and murdering innocent men, women and children.”

    I don’t have to think, we have been living with Progressive domestic unremorsefull unpunished terrorist Bill Ayers since the 1960′s.

    This man, had to do what he was told or he and his family would be murdered also. Does not make it right, does not make him a murdering either. He is old and frail. Show mercy that was not given to you. God deals with us all in the final judgement, and the only judgement that really counts.

    Report Post »  
    • Magyar
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:37pm

      Soha nem!

      Yea right– show him as much mercy as he did the men, women and children who died from his evil….

      Report Post »  
    • jeffile
      Posted on July 18, 2012 at 8:06pm

      You have no idea if his family was threatened and if he enjoyed his work. Being a camp guard to protect your family and physically abusing old/ young/sick is no excuse. This dirt ball was sentenced to death in 1948 and justice should be administered regardless of his age or medical condition.

      Report Post »  
  • Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:09pm

    What they left out in the article, even at his age, and a Nazi on the run, Laszio never missed an episode of Baywatch or Night Rider……..this just goes to prove, even Nazi Germany loves David Hasaelhoff.

    Report Post » Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra  
  • progressiveslayer
    Posted on July 18, 2012 at 7:05pm

    I haven’t seen techengineer in a while,damn he’s old.

    Report Post » progressiveslayer  
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