Eli Rosenbaum

Eli Rosenbaum was born in Westbury, New York on May 8, 1955, to parents Irving and Hanni Rosenbaum.{{cite web|author=Yochonon Donn|url=https://mishpacha.com/every-last-nazi/|title=Every Last Nazi|website=Mishpacha Jewish Family Weekly|date=23 March 2021|access-date=June 18, 2023}} His father, who was Jewish and escaped the Nazi regime in 1938, was a World War II veteran of the North African and European Theaters.{{cite web|author=Matthew Kassell|url=https://jewishinsider.com/2020/03/real-life-nazi-hunter-eli-rosenbaum-reflects-on-40-years-of-service/ |title=Real-life Nazi hunter Eli Rosenbaum reflects on 40 years of service |website=Jewish Insider |date=13 March 2020 }} After the war, while still serving in the U.S. Army, he questioned former Nazis and collaborators (such as the filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl), some of whom were subsequently tried at Nuremberg and elsewhere.{{cite news |title=Hitler's Women: Leni Riefenstahl |publisher=The History Channel |date=October 28, 2001}} Later, Irving Rosenbaum was a Manhattan-based philanthropist and the Chairman of the former S.E. Nichols Corp. Co-founded by Irving's father, Nichols Corp. was a pioneering owner and operator of discount department stores in the United States, competing with Kmart, Walmart, and other companies that later entered that retailing sector.{{cite news |last1=Macgowan |first1=Carl |title=I. Rosenbaum, WWII Veteran, of Great Neck |work=Newsday (Long Island, NY) |date=July 25, 2007 |page=A38}} The company, which opened its first store in 1960 (in Lancaster, Pennsylvania),{{cite web|author=Alexa Freyman |url=https://berksnostalgia.com/nichols-discount-city/ |title=Nichols Discount City |website=Berks Nostalgia |date=22 February 2018 }} two years before the first Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, and Woolco stores opened, went public via an IPO in 1969, and by 1977 it was the 33rd largest discount retailer in the United States as measured by annual sales ($204 million).{{cite journal |title=Nichols Discount City: 'We Believe in Total Merchandising' |journal=The Discount Merchandiser |date=July 1968 |pages=cover story}}{{cite book |last1=Brecker |first1=Manfred |title=The American Dream Comes True |date=2015 |publisher=Dorrance Publishing |location=Pittsburgh, PA |isbn=978-1-4809-1834-4}}

Eli grew up in Westbury, New York, and attended W. Tresper Clarke High School. He graduated summa cum laude in 1976 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he also received his MBA degree. He became employed by the United States Justice Department through the Honors Program after his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1980.

Rosenbaum was a trial attorney with OSI from 1980 to 1984. In 1984, he left the Department of Justice to work as a corporate litigator with the Manhattan law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and then as General Counsel of the World Jewish Congress. He later returned to OSI in 1988 where he was appointed Principal Deputy Director and then Director. In introducing the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009 on July 20, 2009, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) stated on the floor of the Senate: "Due to OSI’s outstanding work, the U.S. is the only country in the world to receive an ‘‘A’’ rating from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. I especially want to commend Eli Rosenbaum, who has worked at OSI for more than two decades and has been OSI’s director since 1995. OSI’s success is due in large measure to Mr. Rosenbaum’s leadership and personal dedication to holding Nazi perpetrators accountable."{{cite news |author= |date= July 20, 2009 |title=Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions by Mr. Durbin (S. 1472)|url=https://www.congress.gov/111/crec/2009/07/20/CREC-2009-07-20-pt1-PgS7702.pdf|work=The Congressional Record, Vol. 144, No. 109| page=S7702}} On June 19, 1997, Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY) praised Rosenbaum's work, and that of others, in connection with the then-ongoing Senate Banking Committee inquiry into looted Holocaust-era assets.{{Cite book|url=https://www.congress.gov/105/crec/1997/06/19/CREC-1997-06-19-pt1-PgS6010-3.pdf|title="Commending All Those Assisting the Senate Banking Committee Inquiry into Holocaust Assets"|work=Congressional Record|volume=143|pages=S6010–S6011|date=June 19, 1997|issue=86 |access-date=2022-07-11}}

Rosenbaum has been described as a "Nazi hunter" by historians for his professional career work both in the government and with private organizations.{{cite news |last= Thrush|first= Glenn |date= June 22, 2022 |title= U.S. Taps a Hunter of Ex-Nazis to Help Ukraine Track Russian War Criminals| work= The New York Times |page = A 9}} {{refn|According to several media sources, including the New York Times, the nickname “Nazi Hunter” is “a sobriquet [Rosenbaum] dislikes.”{{cite web|author= Julia M. Klein|url=https://thepenngazette.com/in-pursuit-of-justice/|title=In Pursuit of Justicei|website=The Pennsylvania Gazette|date=22 February 2017|access-date=June 20, 2023}} Rosenbaum has commented: “[I]t suggests that the work prosecutors and investigators do in this area . . . is a sport of some sort, that it is a game or a movie. In fact, it is very serious, professional, and often heartbreaking law enforcement work.” |group=Note}} British historian Guy Walters has termed Rosenbaum “the world’s most successful Nazi hunter,” adding that because of the extensive self-promotion activities of self-styled “private” Nazi-hunters, “It is telling that most readers will not have heard of [him] despite the fact that he and his organization have more than one hundred Nazi ‘scalps’ – which is considerably more than the combined total of Simon Wiesenthal and every other Nazi hunter.”{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/14/old-nazis-may-be-dying-off-but-nazi-hunting-continues-to-thrive|title=Old Nazis May Be Dying Off But Nazi Hunting Continues to Thrive|last=Walters|first=Guy|work=Daily Beast|date=2013-08-14|access-date=2019-08-13|language=en}} In his book Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals, Richard Rashke wrote: "As new revelations about Nazi war criminals and their collaborators find their way into the media, Americans who do care will have Eli Rosenbaum and [former U.S. congresswoman] Elizabeth Holtzman to thank."{{cite book |last= Rashke|first= Richard|author-link= |date= 2013|title= Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals|url= |location= |publisher= Delphinium Books|page= 537 |isbn=9781883285517 }}

In an early television appearance in Britain, in 1987 Rosenbaum joined the After Dark discussion programme alongside Neal Ascherson, Gena Turgel, Philippe Daudy and Paul Oestreicher to debate Jacques Vergès, Klaus Barbie's defense attorney.

The U.S. Justice Department Nazi-hunter character in Jodi Picoult's 2013 novel The Storyteller (which reached #1 on The New York Times fiction bestseller list),{{cite news |author= |date= March 31, 2013|title= The New York Times Best Sellers |url= https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2013/03/31/|work= The New York Times Book Review |location=(Hardcover Fiction) |access-date=July 15, 2022}} about the pursuit of an alleged Nazi war criminal in New England, was based loosely on Rosenbaum. In a Washington Post interview, Picoult called him “a modern-day superhero.”{{cite news |last= Burns |first= Carole|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/jodi-picoult-wrestles-with-questions-of-guilt-forgiveness-in-the-storyteller/2013/02/26/9f3b4776-7955-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_story.html |title=Jodi Picoult wrestles with questions of guilt, forgiveness in 'The Storyteller' |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=26 February 2013|access-date=July 15, 2022 }} Under his leadership, OSI was called "the most successful government Nazi-hunting organization on earth"{{cite AV media |people= |date=March 25, 1995 |title=ABC World News Tonight |url= |access-date= |time= |publisher= ABC News}} and "the world's most aggressive and effective Nazi-hunting operation."{{cite news |date= August 27, 1995 |title= Nazi Hunters Are Still at War, Fighting a Losing Battle|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/08/27/nazi-hunters-are-still-at-war-fighting-a-losing-battle/ea8e5518-b31d-4ab0-8457-af8718410935/|newspaper= The Washington Post |page = A 22|access-date=July 16, 2022}} The Simon Wiesenthal Center characterized OSI as the world's only "highly successful proactive prosecution program" in Nazi cases{{cite web |url= https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/simon-wiesenthal-centers.html|title=Simon Wiesenthal Center's Tenth Annual Report on the Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals |author=|date=May 3, 2011 |website= Simon Wiesenthal Center |access-date=August 22, 2022 |quote=}} and USA Today reported that OSI possessed "a tremendous success record . . . [having] uncovered and won more cases than any other Nazi-hunting operation in the world."{{cite news |last=Eisler |first=Peter |date=January 29, 1997 |title=Hunting the Last NAZIS; Soviet Documents Revive Trails to WWII Criminals |work=USA Today|page =2A}}

In 1997, Rosenbaum was selected by the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Law School to receive the school's Honorary Fellowship Award which commended him for "making significant contributions to the ends of justice at the cost of great personal risk and sacrifice."{{cite news |last= Epstein |first= Robert |date= January 1999|title= Eli Rosenbaum the Hunter |url= |work= lifestyles magazine, Vol. 27, No. 159|page=28}} He has also received the Anti-Defamation League's "Heroes in Blue" award {{cite news |author= |date=October–November 2000 |title= Justice Official Honored by the Anti-Defamation League|url= https://www.justice.gov/archive/jmd/fs/justicenews_oct_nov_2000.pdf |work=Justice for All (Justice Department newsletter)|access-date=July 9, 2022}} and the Assistant Attorney General's Award for Human Rights Enforcement and the Criminal Division's Award for Special Initiative.{{Cite web|url=https://www-mazalevents-org.ticketbud.com/bringing-human-rights-violators-to-justice|title=Bringing Human Rights Violators To Justice {{!}} Buy Tickets in San Antonio {{!}} Ticketbud|last1=Rd|first1=Bijou Theater4522 Fredericksburg|last2=Mall|first2=Crossroad|website=www-mazalevents-org.ticketbud.com|access-date=2019-08-12|last3=Antonio|first3=San|last4=Tx 78201|last5=USA}} In 2023, he received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, which is the Justice Department's highest award for employee performance.

Cases investigated and prosecuted under Rosenbaum's direction have resulted in deportations to Europe of Nazi perpetrators such as John Demjanjuk, subsequently convicted there of participation in tens of thousands of Holocaust murders.{{cite news |last=Wittenberg |first=Ed |date=May 19, 2014 |title= Rosenbaum discusses area ties to hunt for Nazi war criminals|url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local/rosenbaum-discusses-area-ties-to-hunt-for-nazi-war-criminals/article_de2767cc-dfa1-11e3-b1ba-0019bb2963f4.html |work=Cleveland Jewish News|access-date=August 22, 2022}} On January 11, 2008, he was profiled as the weekly "Making a Difference" feature on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.{{YouTube|rD8k3wGRqOc}}

Rosenbaum directed the World Jewish Congress investigation that resulted in the worldwide 1986 exposure of the Nazi past of former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, arguably the most "sensational" uncovering of a Nazi in postwar history. Rosenbaum was the primary author of Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up,{{Citation|last1=Rosenbaum|first1=Eli|last2=Hoffer|first2=William|title=Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up|publisher=St. Martin's press|year=1993}} a book which was selected for "Notable Books of 1993" by The New York Times{{cite news |author= |date=December 5, 1993|title=Notable Books of the Year 1993 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1993.html|work= The New York Times, sec. 7, p. 42| access-date=July 5, 2022}} and "Best Books and Audiotapes of 1993" by The San Francisco Chronicle{{cite news |author= |date=November 21, 1993 |title=Holiday Book Review |work= The San Francisco Chronicle Review (supplement)|page=7}} and which demonstrates that Waldheim was involved in the commission of Nazi war crimes while serving in the German military as an officer under the Nazi regime and postulates a Soviet-Yugoslav conspiracy to help whitewash his history.{{cite news |last= Heilbrunn |first= Jacob |date= October 10, 1993|title=Waldheim and His Protectors |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/10/books/waldheim-and-his-protectors.html| work=New York Times, sec. 7, p. 9|access-date=July 7, 2022}} After the war, Waldheim became Austria's foreign minister and its United Nations ambassador.{{cite web |url= https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/kurt-waldheim |title= United Nations Secretary General Page on Kurt Waldheim|website=un.org |access-date=July 5, 2022}}

At the time of his exposure at the hands of Rosenbaum, Waldheim had served most prominently as Secretary General of the United Nations and was a candidate for the presidency of Austria (an election that he won in 1987 despite the exposure of his Nazi past). He was never officially considered to be a suspect by the Austrian Government in any war crimes, but he was banned from entering the United States as a result of a U.S. Government investigation in 1986–87 that concluded that he was complicit in the perpetration of Nazi crimes during World War II.{{cite web |url=https://www.justice.gov/criminal/hrsp/archives/1987/04-09-87waldheim-rpt.pdf |title=In the Matter of Kurt Waldheim |website=justice.gov |date=9 April 1987 }} Writing in The New York Times, James R. Oestreich claimed that the "final blow" to Austria's self-portrayal as a victim of the German Nazi regime, rather than its willing partner, "may have been the election of Kurt Waldheim as president of Austria in 1986, after it had become widely known that he had lied about his complicity in Nazi war crimes."{{cite news | last= Oestreich| first= James |date=February 14, 2014|title=Glorious Vienna, Warts and All |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/arts/music/city-of-dreams-festival-to-be-celebration-and-reckoning.htmll| work=New York Times|access-date=July 14, 2022}} (Print edition: February 16, 2014, sec. AR, p. 10.)

The Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations was a 2021 recipient of the Elie Wiesel Award, the highest award of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The award was established in 2011 and recognizes "internationally prominent individuals whose actions embody the Museum’s vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity." The award was accepted on behalf of the office "by former OSI Director Eli Rosenbaum, under whose leadership the majority of the unit’s prosecution successes were achieved."{{cite press release|title=Ambassador Eizenstat, DOJ Special Investigations Office to Receive Museum's 2021 Elie Wiesel Award|publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/ambassador-eizenstat-doj-special-investigations-office-to-receive-museums-2021-elie-wiesel-award|date=24 Mar 2021|accessdate=8 July 2022|archive-url= https://archive.today/20220718221915/https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/ambassador-eizenstat-doj-special-investigations-office-to-receive-museums-2|archive-date=July 18, 2022}}

{{cite press release|title=U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Honors DOJ with Elie Wiesel Award|publisher=United States Department of Justice (P.R. No. 21-362)|url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-holocaust-memorial-museum-honors-doj-elie-wiesel-award |date=24 April 2021|access-date=10 July 2022|archive-url= https://archive.today/20220718223135/https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-holocaust-memorial-museum-honors-doj-elie-wiesel-award|archive-date=July 18, 2022}}

During a surprise visit to Ukraine on June 21, 2022, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an announcement that Rosenbaum had been tapped to lead a team, given the name War Crimes Accountability Team (WarCAT), to investigate war crimes in that nation. Rosenbaum was tasked with coordinating efforts throughout the federal government to hold accountable those responsible for committing war crimes in Ukraine. It was announced that he would be assisted by prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. The team will also support the Justice Department's ongoing investigation of potential war crimes over which the United States has jurisdiction, including the wounding and killing of American journalists covering the Russian invasion.{{cite news |last=Gans|first=Jared|date=June 21, 2022 |title='Nazi hunter' Eli Rosenbaum to Lead DOJ Team Investigating War Crimes in Ukraine |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3531255-nazi-hunter-eli-rosenbaum-to-lead-doj-team-investigating-war-crimes-in-ukraine |work=The Hill |access-date=27 June 2022}}{{cite news |last= Rabinowitz |first= Hannah |date= June 21, 2022|title= Top US 'Nazi hunter' to lead Justice Department effort to uncover war crimes in Ukraine |url= https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/21/politics/ukraine-war-crimes-justice-department-nazi-hunter/index.html |work=CNN.com |access-date=27 June 2022}}

Regarding the congressional bill introduced after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which would allow the United States to prosecute war criminals even if neither the war criminals nor their victims are Americans, Rosembaum said: "The word that guides us is: we will be relentless. So the message to perpetrators or would-be perpetrators is: if you act on criminal orders or issue criminal orders, you may well have to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. Don’t think about being a tourist after the war in most of Europe, because if we know about you, if Ukrainians know about you, if the ICC knows about you, you may just get arrested and extradited. So it’s a different world."{{Cite news |title='We will be relentless': top US Nazi hunter turns to Ukraine war crimes |last=Borger |first=Julian |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/nov/02/nazi-hunter-ukraine-war-crimes-us-bill-interview-eli-rosenbaum |date=2 November 2022 |access-date=17 November 2022 }}

On September 4, 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conferred on Rosenbaum Ukraine's Order of Merit, awarding the title Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Merit, for support that he rendered to Ukraine’s pursuit of justice in the wake of Russian Federation aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during and after its 2022 invasion.{{Cite web |title=Presidential Decree 556/2023 |url=https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/5562023-48201 }}

On December 6, 2023, the Department of Justice announced that, as a result of a WarCAT-led investigative effort in which the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) participated, the Department had indicted four Russia-affiliated military personnel with committing war crimes, including torture, inhuman treatment, and unlawful confinement of a U.S. national in Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.{{Cite web |date=December 6, 2023 |title=Four Russia-Affiliated Military Personnel Charged with War Crimes in Connection with Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-russia-affiliated-military-personnel-charged-war-crimes-connection-russias-invasion |website=United States Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs press releases.}}{{Cite web |last=Thrush |first=Glenn |date=December 6, 2023 |title=U.S. Charges 4 Russian Soldiers With War Crimes Against an American. |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/russia-ukraine-war-crimes-hamas.html }} This action made the United States the first national jurisdiction other than Ukraine to have brought criminal charges against alleged Russian war criminals.

In 2024, Rosenbaum denied and condemned the international allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza, instead accusing Hamas of being genocidal.{{Cite web |last=Deutch |first=Gabby |date=2024-05-20 |title=What the top U.S. Nazi hunter thinks of claims that Israel is committing genocide |url=https://jewishinsider.com/2024/05/eli-rosenbaum-u-s-nazi-hunter-genocide-wwii-israel/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Jewish Insider |language=en-US}}

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