With World War II more than 65 years in the past, it is rare to see trials like the one involving Sándor Képíró of Hungary.

 

Képíró, 97, faces charges in a Budapest court of committing war crimes while a member of the police force that had sided with Nazi Germany. The former gendarmerie captain is accused of leading a patrol that murdered 36 people during the Novi Sad massacre of January 21-23, 1942, in which several thousand Serbian and Jewish civilians died at the hands of Hungarian troops.

 

Hungary previously tried Képíró in 1944 and 1946 for his role in the massacre, but he avoided prison by escaping to Argentina, where he lived for half a century. In 1996, he returned to Hungary and lived quietly for 10 years, before Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center tracked him down in 2006.

 

Képíró sued Zuroff for libel, but on Tuesday the court dismissed the suit.

 

Képíró says he has no regrets for what he did in WWII, claiming “all I did was my duty.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Sandor Kepiro: One of the Last Nazis to Face Justice (Agence France-Presse)

Hungarian WWII War Crimes Suspect Faces Trial (Deutsche Presse-Agentur)

Sandor Kepiro (His Identified Victims of Novi Sad Razzia) (Bajka.org)