'Dr Death' hunted in Chile
Published: Wednesday, 9 July 2008, 1:49PM
The most notorious living member of the Third Reich, known as Dr Death, is being sought in Chile by Nazi hunters.
An advertising campaign has also been launched to flush out Aribert Heim, 94, an SS doctor who documented the hundreds of victims he himself murdered and tortured at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria during World War Two.
The Austrian killed inmates by injecting petrol or poison into their hearts and is known to have decorated his office with human body parts. He even used the skull of a man he decapitated as a paperweight.
Heim has been on the run since evading police in Germany in 1962 prior to a planned prosecution.
He is believed to have lived in Spain, Uruguay - where he opened up a psychiatric and gynaecology clinic from 1979 to 1983 - Argentina, Paraguay, Egypt and Brazil.
He is now likely to be hiding out somewhere in Patagonia. His daughter lives in the town of Puerto Montt, a large seaport in the north of the region and located around 657 miles south of the capital Santiago.
Dr Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said: "In the last few days we've received information from two different sources, both relating to Chile, which we think have very good potential."
Most evidence suggests Heim is alive, Mr Zuroff said, as his children have not taken possession of a £955 million bank account in his name in Berlin, which would be theirs if they could present proof of his death. They would also have access to some £636,887 in stocks and bonds.
The visit by the Wiesenthal Centre team - which is offering a £215,000 reward for information leading to his arrest - is part of Operation Last Chance, which will include a newspaper advertising campaign in local newspapers in Chile and Argentina.
Mr Zuroff said: "We're hoping that our presence in the area will attract the necessary attention to receive the information that we're looking for."
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