Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)The search for “Dr Death” puts Marbella Nazi in the spotlight as a Norwegian former SS member is investigated for aiding wanted concentration camp doctor
FREDERIK Jensen’s address book reads like a mini directory of infamous European fascists. But when police caught up with the Norwegian Nazi in Marbella in early June, he insisted “Dr Death” Aribert Heim was not among his contacts.
Journalists managed to phone Frederik Jensen at his home in the luxury Royal Nordic Club estate June 5 to ask him what he knew of the elusive Heim.
The reply was simple and brief: “I do not know anyone by that name.”
Jensen, who has resided in Spain for the past 34 years, is alleged to have had contact with Heim – the second most wanted living Nazi – who evaded an international manhunt during 20 years of Spanish residency.
“I have many friends from the war” admits Jensen in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, “but none I know are sought for war crimes.” Then, the 86-year old, who was shot twice in the lungs towards the end of the war, added: “I mostly play tennis and golf here in Spain.”
Dr Death connections?
Jensen served in Waffen-SS regiments for the Nazis during World War II after Norway was occupied.
Hitler awarded him the German Gold Cross for fighting on the front line, making him the only Norwegian to receive such an accolade from the Nazi regime.
At the end of the war he was arrested in hospital in Vienna and held in various American prisoner of war camps for 18 months before ending up in Dachau: “It didn’t suit me,” explains Jensen. “We starved and got beriberi, so I escaped and reported to the Norwegian consulate in Hamburg”.
After a further three months in prison and being stripped of his Norwegian citizenship for ten years, Mr Jensen went on to enjoy a fruitful career in Sweden as an industrialist.
He has recently been discovered living in Marbella and is now under investigation for allegedly helping Nazi Aribert Heim, one of the world’s most wanted men for war crimes.
Aribert Heim was an Austrian doctor who earned the name “Dr Death” in the Mauthausen concentration camp for allegedly carrying out gruesome surgical experiments on prisoners without anaesthetic.
Spain has a specific interest in Heim as he reportedly subjected Spanish citizens- Republicans sent by Franco- to such medical torture.
Heim was imprisoned by the US after the war but managed to secure his release. Dr Death is then said to have set up a gynaecology clinic before disappearing in 1962 when Nazi hunters caught up with him.
Since then a global operation has sought to track Heim, who was thought to be in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile as well as the Balkans at various stages.
Former Nazis have slipped around the world evading capture thanks mostly to ODESSA (Organisation of Former SS Members), an elusive organisation thought to be involved in establishing ‘ratlines’ for Nazis through Europe to the Middle East and Latin America.
Israeli forces caused him to flee Uruguay; and Germany continues to offer a 150,000-euro reward for information leading to his arrest.
He is also pursued by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre – a US based Jewish human rights organisation which includes the search for ex-Nazis in its work.
The centre has tracked secret bank accounts of Heim’s containing one million euros.
In 2005, his financial movements revealed him to be in Palafrugell on the Costa Brava, and it transpired he had lived in Spain unhindered for 20 years.
Once discovered, it is thought he left Spain for Denmark but is currently believed to be in hiding in Chile.
Spain was considered a Nazi haven after the war as Franco offered protection to former SS members. Otto Skorzeny, the Nazi who rescued Mussolini, lived here and aided the ODESSA ratlines as well as allegedly helping Heim to hide in Spain.
Skorzeny died within months of Franco in 1975.
