NY Times: ‘Most-Wanted Nazi War Criminal’ Died in 1992

A physician accused of atrocities while working as a concentration camp doctor at a during World War II was believed to be still alive and in hiding in South America.

But it is now clear that Aribert Heim died in Egypt in 1992, reports the New York Times. Known as Tarek Hussein Farid, or "Uncle Tarek" to the children to whom he gave candy, Heim had converted to Islam and had an aversion to being photographed.

Although he worked at other concentration camps, "it was behind the gray stone walls of Mauthausen, in his native Austria, that Dr. Heim committed the atrocities against hundreds of Jews and others that earned him the nickname Dr. Death and his status as the most wanted Nazi war criminal still believed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center to be at large," the newspaper writes.

Believing Heim still to be alive and in hiding, the Simon Wiesenthal Center had been about to raise its reward for information leading to his arrest to $1.3 million from $400,000.

How he eluded capture for so long is still a mystery.

Earlier ABAJournal.com coverage:

Waning Hunt for Nazi-Era War Criminals

New Push Targets Nazi War Criminals in South America