For nearly half a century, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has searched for Aribert Heim, a former SS member known as "Dr. Death." Heim is accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of Jewish prisoners at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. The organization now claims to have strong evidence suggesting that Heim is alive and residing in either southern Chile or Argentina. Heim would be 94 years of age today.
"In the last few days, we've received information from two different sources, both relating to Chile, which we think have very good potential," Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told News.bbc.co.uk. "The reason we are going [to Patagonia]... is of course the fact that Heim's daughter lives in Puerto Montt, and we think there is a strong likelihood that he might be in that area or in the area between Puerto Montt and Bariloche [Argentina]."
According to Dr. Zuroff, Heim allegedly committed some of the worst crimes of the Holocaust. For this reason, he is at the top of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Most Wanted Nazi Criminals list.
Aribert Heim was born on June 28, 1914, in Bad Radkersburg, Austria-Hungary. According to public records, his father was a policeman, whereas his mother was a housewife. Little is known about his early years; however, Heim later became a professional hockey player. It remains unclear when or for how long he played hockey.
At the age of 21, Heim joined the local Nazi party in 1935. During that time, Heim also began to study medicine in Vienna. He continued his studies until 1940, when he joined the Waffen-SS, a group of select soldiers who committed themselves to Nazi ideology and the decimation of the Jewish people.
Heim's ruthlessness reportedly peaked in October 1940, when he was sent to Mauthausen concentration camp to perform medical experiments on Nazi captives. It was there that Heim received the nickname "Dr. Death" because of the manner in which he tortured and murdered hundreds of Jewish prisoners.
According to an account later related by Karl Lotter, a political prisoner who survived the concentration camp, Heim murdered an 18-year-old Jewish man who was being treated at the clinic for foot inflammation. Lotter reported that Heim was more interested in the teenager's fit physical condition. After questioning the man about his life, Heim anesthetized him and cut him open. He then removed the man's kidneys and castrated him before removing his head, which Heim then de-fleshed and used as a paper weight.
"He needed the head because of its perfect teeth," Lotter stated during a 1950 court proceeding. "Of all the camp doctors in Mauthausen, Dr. Heim was the most horrible."
Another witness allegedly reported that Heim once removed the tattooed skin of one of his victims and fashioned it into a seat cover.
In 1941, Heim transferred to Ebensee, a camp near Linz, in Austria. There, he continued to conduct experiments, some of which included the injection of water, gasoline, and poisons directly into his victim's heart. Heim allegedly carried a stopwatch with him and used it to time how long his human subjects would live during the experiments.
Heim left Ebensee in February 1942 and went to work at a hospital in the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord in Northern Finland. He remained there for several months, but his activities during this time period remain unclear. However, on March 15, 1945, Heim was captured by the United States Army and held as a prisoner of war. Although Heim almost certainly would have gone to trial and been sentenced to death, his file in the Berlin Document Center was altered, with all mentions of Mauthausen removed. It remains unclear who tampered with the files, but Heim was consequently released from custody.
In 1950, the Austrian government, unaware of Heim's release, asked American authorities in Germany to turn him over for prosecution. The American government responded by stating that they were unsure of Heim's whereabouts.
Unbeknownst to anyone, Heim had traveled to Berlin, where he purchased a 42-unit apartment building. According to purchase documents that were subsequently obtained by the Associated Press, Heim made the purchase in his own name and listed a home address in Mannheim. Heim later moved to Baden-Baden and opened a gynecology clinic, which he also operated under his own name.
Heim continued to live his life and to evade authorities until 1961, when the German government became aware of his location. For unknown reasons, German authorities waited until September 1962 to move in on him. Unfortunately, by that time, Heim had been alerted about his impending arrest and moved on. Amazingly, Heim continued to collect the rent from the tenants of his Berlin apartments for another 18 years until the property was seized in 1979 by German authorities.
In 1979, Heim opened a psychiatry clinic in Spain. He continued to run the practice until 1983, when he disappeared, possibly tipped off about another pending arrest. Some investigators believe that Heim then spent several years traveling through Argentina, Paraguay, Egypt, and Brazil.
According to tax records, an attorney representing Heim contacted German authorities in 2001. He stated that because Heim was living abroad, the German government should refund all of the capital gains taxes that it had leveled against his bank accounts.
Dr. Zuroff received a tip in 2005 that Heim had returned to Spain to live in Palafrugell. Odessa, the "Organization of Former Members of the SS," allegedly helped Heim to escape capture and relocated him to either another part of Spain or Denmark.
Suspicions that Heim was living in Chile were made public in 2006. Heim's daughter, Waltraud, who lives there, was questioned by Chilean authorities. She reported that her father had died of cancer in 1993. She then attempted to collect one million dollars from a bank account in her father's name. However, she was denied the request after she was unable to produce a death certificate.
In 2007, former Israeli Air Force Colonel Danny Baz announced that he, along with a Nazi-hunting team codenamed "The Owl," had captured Heim in Canada. In addition, he reported that the team had taken Heim to Santa Catalina Island, California, and killed him. However, Baz was unable to provide any proof of the alleged incident. As a result, most people believe that the story was fabricated by Baz.
According to Dr. Zuroff, in the last five years, approximately $300,000 has been transferred from Heim's bank accounts to Spain and Denmark. Valued at $1,350,000, officials in Germany say there is proof that the accounts belong to Heim. Dr. Zuroff believes that the bank accounts prove that Heim is still alive.
"In the past, money has exposed Nazi war criminals, such as Schwammberger in Argentina," Dr. Zuroff told News.bbc.co.uk. He added, "This was a great success, and we hope to add another one very soon."
Dr. Zuroff refused to comment about the information he received regarding Heim's living in Chile. However, he did say that he expected Heim to be in custody within a "couple of weeks."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Austrian and German governments are currently offering a total reward of $495,000 for information leading to the capture of Aribert Heim. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Federal Ministry of Justice at +43/1/52152/2710 or post@bmj.gv.at.