Germany's ZDF television has reported that wanted Nazi murderer Aribert Heim, also known as “Dr. Death,” died in 1992. Heim had converted to Islam and was living in Cairo under the alias Tarek Hussein Farid at the time of his death.
The report was based on testimony from several witnesses, including Heim's son Rudiger. In addition, ZDF reporters say they found several of Heim's personal documents in a Cairo hotel.
Heim died of rectal cancer, reporters said. The report was later confirmed by Baden-Wuerttemberg district police in Germany, who said they had received information supporting the ZDF story from an anonymous source.
Rudiger Heim told ZDF that he had known where his father was living and had been with him at the time of his death The younger Heim said he did not divulge his father's location to the authorities because he did not want to create problems for the elder Heim's Egyptian friends and neighbors.
German police said Thursday that Rudiger Heim was within his rights to avoid giving his father away, despite the fact that Aribert Heim was a criminal suspect. Under German law, citizens are not required to inform on their family members.
German police are working to confirm the report, and hope to find Heim's grave in order to identify his body by use of dental records or DNA matching.
Aribert Heim served as a doctor in concentration camps during the Holocaust. He was accused of murdering hundreds of prisoners in horrific medical experiments.
In 1945 Heim was captured by Allied forces and sent to a prisoner of war camp. He was later released, and continued working as a doctor until 1962, when he disappeared, allegedly after hearing that he was to be put on trial for war crimes.
Heim was one of the last remaining Nazi war criminals believed to be at large.
Zuroff: More Questions than Answers
Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the latest report on Heim created “more questions than it answers.”
There is no doubt that Heim lived in Egypt, Zuroff said, but the Wiesenthal Center staff has “serious doubts” about whether or not he died there.
"There's no body, no corpse, no DNA, no grave,” Zuroff explained. Nazi criminals have good reason to hope to be declared dead, he added.
The Wiesenthal Center will not close its files on Heim until there is concrete evidence proving his death, Zuroff concluded. German police are keeping the case against Heim open as well, he said.