Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, confirmed to BBC that the former Nazi war criminal, Alois Brunner, died in Syria several years ago, although information about Adolf Eichmann’s former assistant is lacking lately.
The team that conducted the research regarding Alois Brunner, one of the most wanted war criminals in the world, told BBC that they are 99% sure that the former supporter of Adolf Hitler’s regime died five years ago in Syria. “We do not have forensic evidence to prove it, but we are sure of this”, said Efraim Zuroff, the one responsible with the research over Brunner’s life.
The former SS captain, Alois Brunner, who at this time would have been 103 years old, is accused of deporting over 125.000 Jews to extermination camps, during the Second World War. For many years there has been a state of uncertainty regarding the disappearance of the former Nazi.
Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, told BBC that new information regarding Brunner’s death and burial has come to light. Apparently, he has been buried in Damascus. This information came from a trusted former German secret agent who activated in the Middle East. Also, since April, Brunner was removed from the list of the most wanted criminals made by Simon Wiesenthal Center.
According to Zuroff, Brunner sent 47.000 Jews in the extermination camps in Austria, 44.000 in Greece, 23.500 in France and 14.000 in Slovakia, where the population belonging to this minority was killed. After the war, Alois Brunner managed to escape a possible trial. In 1954, he fled to Syria, after being sentenced to death in France for crimes against humanity.