Son of Nazi Dr. Death tries to kill him off
The son of Aribert Heim, the last big Nazi war criminal still being hunted by authorities, has spoken to the press for the first time, telling Bild am Sonntag he is trying to get his father declared dead so he can get control of his money.
Aribert Heim was the medical doctor at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He was dubbed "Doctor Death" due to the hideous “experiments” he conducted on prisoners, killing many and torturing more.
Despite being arrested and questioned by the Allies immediately after the war, he was released and led a seemingly respectful life as a doctor in Baden Baden, until details of his crimes emerged in the early 1960s.
He fled in 1962 as police moved to arrest him, and has not been seen since.
Now his son Rüdiger, 52, says he and his mother received mysterious notes in their letter box during the following five years.
“Between 1962 and 1967 two notes appeared in our post box. There was a single sentence written on them “I am doing fine.” But whether these letters were really from my father, I don’t know.”
Heim is thought by investigators to be in Chile, where a daughter of his lives, but despite a number of supposed sightings, they have been unable to find him.
Heim junior is adamant he has no idea where his father is. When asked what he would do if he knew, he said, “I would shout out to the whole world that he should give himself up and answer these terrible charges.
“The past of my father is a part of my life. To deny that would be pointless, although I don’t have to explain to anyone that I am no Nazi – anyone who knows me knows that.”
He said he was working with a lawyer to work out how to have his father declared missing and then dead, in order to gain control over the more than one million euros in a Berlin bank under his father’s name.
“We only found out about this bank account in 1997. If I was actually the heir, I would donate the money – for the historical examination of the suffering in the Mauthausen concentration camp.”
Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem is convinced the now 94-year-old is still alive, and living in South America. The Nazi hunter is still trying to find him.
Heim junior said, "I can't even remember when I saw him for the last time in 1962. I grew up fatherless in the house of my grandparents. I don't know where he lives, nor do I finance his flight. If he were dead, I would not know where he is buried."
It was only several years after Heim had fled the wealthy home that his son even learned about his crimes.
"My mother always told me he had left to work as a doctor in Berlin. I believed this story until I was 12 years old. Only then did the suspicion arise, piece by piece, that his absence could have had something to do with the terrible events in the concentration camp. This became certain for me when the allegations against Aribert Heim were made public in the press in 1978."
son of notorious Nazi doctor Aribert Heim was quoted as saying Sunday that he wants his father declared legally dead so he can take control of his money and donate some of it to help document the suffering that occurred at a former concentration camp.
Ruediger Heim told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that his father -- dubbed "Dr. Death" and atop the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted suspected Nazi war criminals -- should officially be declared missing and then dead.
He reiterated he has not had any contact with his father since he fled Germany in 1962, save two short notes in his family's mailbox.
"Between 1962 and 1967, two notes appeared in our mailbox. There was a single sentence written on them, 'I am doing fine.' But if those letters were really from my father, I do not know," the paper quoted him as saying.
Heim also said that he has no idea if his father, who would be 94, is alive or dead.
He told the paper he is working with a lawyer to see how he can have his wanted father declared missing and then dead so as to get control of the man's bank account.
He said he, his brother and sister only discovered in 1997 that a bank account in his father's name existed. If he could get control of the money, he told the newspaper he would donate to help document suffering in the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria, where his father worked as camp doctor in October and November 1941.
So far, Heim's children have made no claim to a bank account with $1.78 million and other investments in his name. To do that, they would have to produce proof that their father is dead.
Aribert Heim was the medical doctor at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. He was dubbed "Doctor Death" due to the hideous “experiments” he conducted on prisoners, killing many and torturing more.
Despite being arrested and questioned by the Allies immediately after the war, he was released and led a seemingly respectful life as a doctor in Baden Baden, until details of his crimes emerged in the early 1960s.
He fled in 1962 as police moved to arrest him, and has not been seen since.
Now his son Rüdiger, 52, says he and his mother received mysterious notes in their letter box during the following five years.
“Between 1962 and 1967 two notes appeared in our post box. There was a single sentence written on them “I am doing fine.” But whether these letters were really from my father, I don’t know.”
Heim is thought by investigators to be in Chile, where a daughter of his lives, but despite a number of supposed sightings, they have been unable to find him.
Heim junior is adamant he has no idea where his father is. When asked what he would do if he knew, he said, “I would shout out to the whole world that he should give himself up and answer these terrible charges.
“The past of my father is a part of my life. To deny that would be pointless, although I don’t have to explain to anyone that I am no Nazi – anyone who knows me knows that.”
He said he was working with a lawyer to work out how to have his father declared missing and then dead, in order to gain control over the more than one million euros in a Berlin bank under his father’s name.
“We only found out about this bank account in 1997. If I was actually the heir, I would donate the money – for the historical examination of the suffering in the Mauthausen concentration camp.”
Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem is convinced the now 94-year-old is still alive, and living in South America. The Nazi hunter is still trying to find him.
Heim junior said, "I can't even remember when I saw him for the last time in 1962. I grew up fatherless in the house of my grandparents. I don't know where he lives, nor do I finance his flight. If he were dead, I would not know where he is buried."
It was only several years after Heim had fled the wealthy home that his son even learned about his crimes.
"My mother always told me he had left to work as a doctor in Berlin. I believed this story until I was 12 years old. Only then did the suspicion arise, piece by piece, that his absence could have had something to do with the terrible events in the concentration camp. This became certain for me when the allegations against Aribert Heim were made public in the press in 1978."
son of notorious Nazi doctor Aribert Heim was quoted as saying Sunday that he wants his father declared legally dead so he can take control of his money and donate some of it to help document the suffering that occurred at a former concentration camp.
Ruediger Heim told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that his father -- dubbed "Dr. Death" and atop the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted suspected Nazi war criminals -- should officially be declared missing and then dead.
He reiterated he has not had any contact with his father since he fled Germany in 1962, save two short notes in his family's mailbox.
"Between 1962 and 1967, two notes appeared in our mailbox. There was a single sentence written on them, 'I am doing fine.' But if those letters were really from my father, I do not know," the paper quoted him as saying.
Heim also said that he has no idea if his father, who would be 94, is alive or dead.
He told the paper he is working with a lawyer to see how he can have his wanted father declared missing and then dead so as to get control of the man's bank account.
He said he, his brother and sister only discovered in 1997 that a bank account in his father's name existed. If he could get control of the money, he told the newspaper he would donate to help document suffering in the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria, where his father worked as camp doctor in October and November 1941.
So far, Heim's children have made no claim to a bank account with $1.78 million and other investments in his name. To do that, they would have to produce proof that their father is dead.