Legal News

Son Wants His Nazi Father Declared Dead, But It Won?t Be Easy

By Markus Balser

A photo released by the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Stuttgart, southern Germany, shows suspect Dr. Aribert Heim, pictured in 1959. (AP/LKA Baden-Wuerttemberg)

Is Aribert Heim, the notorious Nazi doctor who is atop the list of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, actually dead? His son Ruediger Heim would like to think so. The son has not been in contact with his dad for more than four decades and wants to declare him dead to get control of his money, according to an interview Ruediger gave to the German weekly Bild am Sonntag.

In 1997, Ruediger Heim’s brother and his sister discovered the existence of a Berlin bank account, containing about $1.78 million, in their father’s name. Ruediger told the German newspaper that if he inherited the money he’d donate for the historical analysis of the suffering at Mauthausen concentration camp. But German authorities froze the account, which is held by a trustee, until the mystery of his father’s disappearance is unraveled. (For those with German language ability, here’s the original interview with Ruediger Heim, and here’s an English-language report from the AP.)

Aribert Heim was a medical doctor at Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria. He was dubbed “Doctor Death” due to the hideous “experiments” he conducted on prisoners, killing many and torturing more. After the war, he led a seemingly respectful life as a doctor in his Baden-Baden villa in the south of Germany, until details of his crimes emerged in the early 1960s. When German prosecutors filed an arrest warrant in 1962, Aribert Heim was able to flee and disappear.

Ruediger Heim told the newspaper that his father, who would be 94 now, should officially be declared dead as there was no sign that he’s still living. Ruediger is working with a lawyer to see how he can have his father declared dead.

But Frankfurt-based trusts and estates lawyer Rainer Schmidt told the Law Blog that “there would be no chance for Mr. Heim to take control of his father’s money. As long as there is no hint or proof for Mr. Heim’s demise, there is no legal basis for German authorities to declare him dead.” And authorities do not have a cutoff age at which they give up hope of finding one of these criminals. “I do not see any way the kids can inherit the bank account of their father,” Schmidt said.

Stuttgart-based prosecutors have set a team of profilers on Heim’s father, who is assumed to live in Chile. “As long as we don’t know he is dead, we have to assume he’s still alive,” Ulrich Hoeffner spokesperson of the Stuttgart prosecutors told the LB. “We are staying tuned to his case as we are talking about very cruel crimes.” (Here’s a July BBC article on the man-hunt.)

So far, Heim’s children have made no official claim to the bank account and other investments in his name.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 25, 2008 (boomark / email).