The 10 courageous Nazi hunters listed below devoted their lives to hunting down those who orchestrated one of history’s darkest chapters, ensuring that justice was not lost to the passage of time.
Why the 10 Courageous Nazi Hunters Matter
From the ruins of World War II to the quiet corridors of modern courts, these men and women chased shadows, exposed secrets, and forced perpetrators to answer for the six million Jews murdered. Their relentless pursuit reminds us that evil does not fade simply because decades have passed; it demands vigilance, bravery, and sometimes a touch of madness.
10 Hanns Alexander
Born amid the turmoil of the First World War, Hanns Alexander grew up in a German household where his father, a well‑known physician, regularly entertained the intellectual elite—Albert Einstein among the guests. When Adolf Hitler rose to power, the Alexander family, being Jewish, escaped to Britain. There, Hanns enlisted in the Pioneer Corps of the British Army. After the war ended, he became one of the first volunteers tasked with investigating war crimes, a mission he pursued with a ferocious personal vendetta. His temper could be explosive; legend has it he once roamed Europe with the corpse of a dead Nazi strapped to the roof of his car.
The most infamous target he ever pursued was Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz. Alexander tricked Hoss’s wife into revealing her husband’s whereabouts by threatening that her son would be sent to Siberia. Armed with that intelligence, Alexander and a squad of soldiers moved in on Hoss. Accounts of the capture differ: some say the Jewish soldiers beat Hoss mercilessly; others claim they forced him to trek naked across a snow‑covered road. Regardless of the exact method, Hoss was apprehended, taken into custody, and subsequently hanged a short time later.
9 Wayne Stringer
In 1992, the Simon Wiesenthal Center turned to former New Zealand police officer Wayne Stringer, tasking him with tracking down 47 alleged war criminals who might have found refuge in his country. Over the next year, Stringer criss‑crossed the globe—journeying from New Zealand to Australia, Canada, and the Baltic states—leveraging previously classified KGB files to compile a list of suspects who could still be alive. He even conducted personal interviews with many of the individuals on his roster.
The most notorious figure he pursued was Jonas Pukas, a Lithuanian who had settled in Australia during the 1950s. Pukas was suspected of serving in the 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion, a unit implicated in the mass murder of Jews throughout Eastern Europe. When Stringer confronted Pukas, the latter chillingly recalled that the Jews who were rounded up “screamed like geese” as they were shot, and he seemed to relish the memory. He denied direct participation, insisting he merely heard the executions.
Despite Stringer’s exhaustive investigation, no charges were ever filed against Pukas or any of the other suspects. Pukas passed away a few years after their interview, leaving the case unresolved.
8 Efraim Zuroff
Often dubbed “the last Nazi hunter,” Efraim Zuroff has spent more than three decades chasing former Nazis as the Israeli director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He also curates the Center’s annual “Most Wanted Nazi War Criminals” list, which serves as a global alert system for investigators.
Unlike the rugged bounty hunters of the 1940s who trekked through jungles and deserts, Zuroff’s work resembles that of a meticulous desk sergeant. He spends his days sifting through archives, interviewing witnesses, and coordinating with foreign prosecutors. Yet his role brings a unique set of challenges: many of the Nazis he pursues are now frail octogenarians or nonagenarians, men whose physical frailty often elicits public pity rather than condemnation.
Critics have dismissed his efforts as a “circus act,” especially when a 97‑year‑old former SS officer was finally arrested under Zuroff’s pressure. Zuroff rebuts such criticism, asserting that the passage of time should never shield perpetrators from accountability. He continues his mission, fully aware that the end of his career looms ever closer.
7 Elliot Welles
Born in Vienna in late 1927, Elliot Welles and his mother were torn from their home when the Nazis launched their campaign of terror. The pair were separated; his mother was forced onto a bus that the Nazis later drove into a forest and opened fire upon. Two days later, the Nazis returned the stripped garments of the victims; Welles recognized his mother’s dress among the piles.
Welles himself was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland, where he endured the brutal conditions until the war’s final months. As the Allies advanced, he was compelled to join a forced march toward Magdeburg, Germany, and it was there that he managed a daring escape.
When the U.S. Office of Special Investigations (OSI) was established in 1979, Welles seized the opportunity to use its expansive archives to locate the SS officer responsible for ordering his mother’s execution. He succeeded, securing a conviction, though the court handed the perpetrator a mere two‑ to three‑year prison sentence.
Fuelled by this experience, Welles dedicated over two decades to heading the B’nai B’rith Anti‑Defamation League’s task force on Nazi war criminals. Under his leadership, the team captured numerous long‑missing offenders, including Boleslavs Maikovskis and Josef Schwammberger.
6 Rafi Eitan
Born in 1926, Rafi Eitan eagerly joined Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, and soon found himself at the helm of several high‑profile missions aimed at snatching suspected Nazis. The crowning achievement of his career occurred on May 11, 1960, when Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and smuggled him back to Israel for trial—a bold operation that sparked an international diplomatic uproar, as Argentina demanded Eichmann’s return.
Less widely known is the fact that the same team came tantalizingly close to capturing Josef Mengele, the infamous “Angel of Death.” When Argentine intelligence supplied a tip about Mengele’s whereabouts, Eitan personally vetoed the pursuit, arguing that Eichmann represented a higher‑value target and that diverting resources could jeopardize both missions. Consequently, Mengele evaded capture and lived out his remaining years as a free man.
5 Tuviah Friedman
Tuviah Friedman endured the horrors of a Nazi labor camp, where nearly his entire family perished except for his sister Bella. He managed a daring escape in 1944, emerging into a world still reeling from the war’s devastation.
In the immediate post‑war period, Friedman was enlisted to aid Soviet and Polish authorities in gathering evidence of the Holocaust. Known among his peers as “the Merciless One,” he pursued, captured, and even executed several Nazis, at times whipping them before delivering them to death.
Employing a daring disguise, Friedman would pose as a captured SS officer, infiltrating prisoner‑of‑war camps to identify suspected members of the SS. Eventually, he joined forces with Simon Wiesenthal, entrusting the judicial system with the final punishment of captured war criminals, content to see them locked away for life.
Friedman’s ultimate obsession was Adolf Eichmann, the chief architect of the Final Solution. Although Mossad and Rafi Eitan ultimately seized Eichmann, Friedman’s relentless lobbying of the Israeli government helped galvanize the political will that made the capture possible.
4 Serge And Beate Klarsfeld
Serge Klarsfeld, a French Jew whose father perished in Auschwitz, and his German‑Protestant wife Beate formed an indomitable duo in the 1960s, dedicating their lives to tracking down former Nazis. Their inaugural target was Kurt‑Georg Kiesinger, a former Nazi propagandist who later served as German Chancellor during the 1960s. In a bold act of protest, Beate slapped Kiesinger in the face, an offense that landed her in prison for four months.
Unwilling to settle for public humiliation, the Klarsfelds turned their attention to Kurt Lischka, a former Gestapo chief. During Lischka’s capture, Serge placed a gun to his head, but ultimately relented, securing his arrest and a ten‑year prison sentence. Their most celebrated triumph came with the capture of Klaus Barbie, another ex‑Gestapo chief. Although an earlier kidnapping attempt failed, Barbie was later extradited to France, tried, and died after serving eight years behind bars.
Today, the Klarsfelds have retired from active Nazi hunting, focusing instead on commemorating Holocaust victims and campaigning against contemporary genocides and persecution.
3 Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal, born in 1908 in Austria, survived five different concentration camps during the Holocaust. After the war, he assisted American intelligence by providing crucial information on Nazi war criminals and helped facilitate the emigration of Jews to Palestine. With the establishment of Israel, Wiesenthal joined the precursor to Mossad, where he helped capture notorious Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann. He later worked directly for Israel’s intelligence agencies, tracking down not only war criminals but also former missile scientists.
Over the course of his career, Wiesenthal identified thousands of ex‑Nazis, bringing hundreds to trial—including Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka and Sobibor death camps. He was a steadfast opponent of vigilante justice, insisting that every suspect receive a fair trial as a moral imperative.
Wiesenthal rejected the notion of collective German guilt, emphasizing that responsibility rested with individuals. When a mortally wounded SS officer begged for forgiveness so he could die in peace, Wiesenthal refused, underscoring his unwavering commitment to accountability.
2 Eli Rosenbaum
Eli Rosenbaum entered the world in 1955 to Jewish parents who rarely discussed the Holocaust. His first indirect exposure to Nazi atrocities came as a child when he switched on a television reenactment of the Auschwitz trial, hearing a survivor recount horrific medical experiments. That moment ignited a lifelong dedication to justice.
In 1979, Rosenbaum began as an intern at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI). By 1995, he rose to become its chief. Initially, OSI focused solely on Axis war criminals, but under Rosenbaum’s leadership, the office expanded in 2004 to investigate modern crimes against humanity as well.
Rosenbaum’s tenure was not without controversy. He uncovered that Kurt Waldheim, the fourth Secretary‑General of the United Nations, had served as an intelligence officer in the Wehrmacht. Waldheim later ascended to the presidency of Austria, highlighting how some nations still elected individuals with Nazi pasts.
1 Israel Carmi
Israel Carmi founded the Jewish vengeance group known as Nokmim—Hebrew for “The Avengers”—after losing much of his family in the Holocaust. In the immediate post‑war years, governments showed little interest in prosecuting Nazis, leaving the task to private citizens like Carmi.
Working alongside the British military, Nokmim roamed Europe, hunting down verified Nazis. When they located a suspect, they would masquerade as police officers seeking an interview. In the subsequent phase, dubbed “Operation Judgment,” they would reveal their true identities and intentions to the captured Nazis.
According to Carmi, some Nazis confessed outright, while others remained silent. The group typically executed their targets in secluded locations, favoring strangulation as the method of death. Beyond their lethal pursuits, Nokmim also facilitated the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews to Israel, playing a dual role in post‑war Jewish resurgence.