Nazi hunters one step closer to finding 'Dr Death'

PUERTO MONTT, Chile (AFP) - Nazi hunters said Thursday they were closer to tracking down Aribert Heim, the infamous sadistic "Doctor Death," after finding one of his daughters and what they called "credible" information.


"We have hard facts, which are credible, but have to be checked," Sergio Widder, Latin America director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told AFP. "Those who spoke to us did so in good faith, without trying to twist the information."

An Austrian doctor, Heim is wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with his horrific medical experiments, including performing operations without anesthesia and injecting gasoline directly into their hearts.

Widder said dozens of people had come forward with information on Heim, which led the Center's investigators to this town, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of the Chilean capital of Santiago.

All those who offered details on Heim, who would now be 94, were interviewed by Efraim Zuroff, a historian considered the best "Nazi hunter" in the world. Zuroff also is the director of the Israel office of the Wiesenthal Center.

"All the information we have points to Heim living in this area. Somewhere between Puerto Montt and Bariloche" in Argentina, Zuroff told reporters Thursday.

"We think there must be someone here who may have the key to finding Heim. There is a 500,000 (315,000 euro) dollar reward for that person, provided by Heim's victims," he said.

Zuroff said no matter how old Heim was, he had to be held accountable for his crimes.

"He castrated people, he used parts of their body to decorate his office. I'm not giving out these details to emotionalize the issue, but for people to understand how important it is to catch this criminal," Zuroff said.

The Wiesenthal delegation said they had found Heim's daughter Waltraut Boser in Puerto Montt, but had not contacted her. Now aged 60, Boser is believed to be married to a local businessman and to have lived in Chile some 30 years.

During that time, she has traveled to Europe roughly 50 times, and in the last two years visited the Bariloche area in neighboring Argentina about a dozen times. Several Nazi criminals have found refuge in Argentina.

Heim disappeared from public view some 43 years ago.