Nazi-hunter meets his target's children

From The Australian by Paige Taylor February 14, 2006 . . . .

. . .Yesterday, Jerusalem-based historian Efraim Zuroff met three children of accused war criminal Charles Zentai over tea in a riverside cafe in South Perth.

It was the first time the steely, 57-year-old campaigner had faced off with the loved ones of a target -- and he has pursued countless targets during his 25-year career, inspired by the revered Simon Wiesenthal. The atmosphere was tense but civil as Mr Zentai's children Ernie, Gabe and Eva sat across the table from the man who wants to see their 84-year-old father jailed for the murder of Jewish teenager Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944. After shaking hands with the famed investigator, the children quietly and calmly explained why they were so certain that their father was an innocent man. The widower and great-grandfather is fighting extradition to Hungary, but Dr Zuroff, who triggered proceedings by delivering damning testimonies against the former Hungarian soldier to the Hungarian Government, is adamant he has the right man.

"I can understand why you don't want to believe it," Dr Zuroff told them.
"(Your father's guilt) seems improbable based on his life here (in Australia), it seems improbable based on your life with him, but you don't know what he did during the war and there is plenty of evidence that says it happened. "I have a lot of sympathy for you."

.. . .Ernie claims his father and his two co-accused in the murder of Balazs could have been the victims of a politically-motivated persecution -- which resulted in an arrest warrant being issued for Mr Zentai in 1948 -- because of the testimony they gave against their commanding officer, Major Tarnay, who was jailed for desertion but later joined the ruling Communist Party in Hungary.

. . . .Gabe, a mental health nurse like his father before him, told Dr Zuroff that his father had never once shown any signs that he was anti-Semitic. "The way the Jews have been treated for the past 2000 years is horrible -- if I had seen any evidence or support that he had been killing Jews I wouldn't support him," he said.

Ernie, an entomologist who has devoted much of the past 18 months searching for documents to clear Mr Zentai's name, was candid when he sat down with Dr Zuroff: "We do not have rock hard evidence, but we have found what we think are some significant problems with the prosecution's case against my father."

Dr Zuroff described the meeting as "very sad" but said his opinion had not changed. "The children certainly aren't guilty of anything," he said.