Aribert Heim tops the list of 10 suspects, to be published by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, and obtained in advance by The Associated Press news agency.

Heim managed to avoid prosecution, his American-held file in Germany mysteriously omitting his time at Mauthausen, and now he is the most-wanted suspected Nazi war criminal among hundreds who the Simon Wiesenthal Centre estimates are still free.

Austrian-born Heim would be 93 on Wednesday and “we have good reason to believe he is still alive”, said Efraim Zuroff, the centre’s top Nazi hunter.

The centre plans to release the most-wanted list and to open a media campaign in South America this summer, highlighting the £243,000 reward for Heim’s arrest posted by the centre along with Germany and Austria.

According to the advance copy of the list, the most wanted, after Heim, are:

John Demjanjuk, fighting deportation from the US, which says he was a guard at several death and forced labour camps;

Sandor Kepiro, a Hungarian accused of involvement in the wartime killings of more than 1,000 civilians in Serbia;

Milivoj Asner, a wartime Croatian police chief now living in Austria and suspected of an active role in deporting hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and gypsies to their deaths;

Soeren Kam, a former member of the SS wanted by Denmark for the assassination of a journalist in 1943. His extradition from Germany was blocked in 2007 by a Bavarian court that found insufficient evidence for murder charges.

“Simon, if you had gone back to building houses, you’d be a millionaire. Why didn’t you?”

“You’re a religious man,” replied Wiesenthal. “You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, ‘What have you done?’, there will be many answers. You will say, ‘I became a jeweler’, Another will say, I have smuggled coffee and American cigarettes’, Another will say, ‘I built houses’, But I will say, ‘I didn’t forget you.’”

We are kind of celebrating a small step here. We have placed our first WANTED page. Lots of details are missing. And he is hiding within a system that wants to protect him. I’m sure Didier Bourguet, and the hundred of others like him are not overly concerned with our web site. But they should be…

There are thousand of victims, many still mere children, and their families who have suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of these perpetrators. They have been scarred for life.

But many of these victims have had their stories documented. Sometimes by the perpetrators themselves. But also by the countless aid workers, and peacekeepers, who because of their love for humanity, have sacrificed to make this world a better place.

We are building a data base that will bring these stories together. Relying on that same conscientiousness, that caused people to leave normal lives, and give of themselves. That victims will become survivors, and begin to share their stories. Maybe even some of the perpetrators may wish to appease their conscience.

From whatever source, like pieces of a puzzle. The fragments will join together and provide the evidence needed to be able to pursue the individuals who have preyed on the weak and helpless.

To Didier Bourguet, and others like him. Welcome to UN Terroritory