By Steve Neavling
Eli Rosenbaum, who spent decades hunting Nazis in the U.S. for the Justice Department, plans to retire at the end of the year.
One of the Justice Department’s longest-serving prosecutors, Rosenbaum was described as “the world’s most successful Nazi hunter” by British historian Guy Walters.
Rosenbaum worked for the DOJ for 38 years and last year was appointed as head of the Justice Department’s War Crimes Accountability Team, which was established in June to prosecute war criminals for atrocities in the Ukrainian conflict.
“A year and a half ago, I asked Eli Rosenbaum to lead a team of Justice Department prosecutors working to identify and prosecute individuals involved in war crimes and atrocities committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement this week. “I am deeply grateful to Eli for postponing his retirement to stand up and lead that team, and for his decades of service to our country and to the cause of justice.”
Garland added, “Recently, the Justice Department filed the first-ever charges under the U.S. war crimes statute against four Russia-affiliated military personnel for heinous crimes against an American citizen.”
The team’s lead investigator, Christian Levesque, will serve as director beginning in January.
Rosenbaum was nicknamed “the Nazi hunter” for leading the U.S.’s pursuit of Nazis. While working for the DOJ’s Office of Special Investigations, Rosenbaum helped track down more than 100 former Nazis living in the U.S.
