Estate Planning

Son Wants Nazi Father Declared Dead

By Hull & Hull LLP

The son of the notorious Nazi criminal Aribert Heim wants his father declared dead so that he and his siblings can manage his father’s assets. Aribert Heim fled Germany in 1962 when a warrant was issued for his arrest. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has been tracking him since that time but has never captured him.

In 1997, the son and his sister discovered a German bank account in their father’s name containing 1.78 million dollars. The German government froze the bank account. The son says that if his father is declared dead and he inherits money from his father, he will donate it to the study of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

His son insists that he has not see his father since 1962 and has had no contact with him since that time with the exception of receiving two unsigned notes in 1962 and 1967. His father would turn 94 this year and he assumes that he is likely dead. However, throughout the last four decades Aribert Heim has been spotted numerous times and as late as last month; the Simon Wiesenthal Centre believed that they have found evidence of him living in Chile.  The son says that he is working with a lawyer to provide evidence of his father’s death.

In Canada, the court is authorized by the Declarations of Death Act to determine whether a person is dead on the basis of circumstantial evidence or the rule of common law which presumes a person dead after an unexplained absence of seven years or more. Click here to listen to a podcast on the Declaration of Death Act and the Absentee Act. Additionally, under the Rules of Civil Procedure, an interested party can also apply for the opinion, advice, and direction of the court.

Thanks for reading,
 

Diane Vieira

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on August 28, 2008 (boomark / email).