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Malia Politzer is the executive editor of piqd.com, and an award-winning long-form journalist based out of Spain. She specializes in reporting on migration, international development, human rights issues and investigative reporting.
Originally from California, she's lived in China, Spain, Mexico and India, and reported from various countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Her primary beats relate to immigration, economics and international development. She has published articles in Huffington Post Highline, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue India, Mint, Far Eastern Economic Review, Foreign Policy, Reason Magazine, and the Phoenix New Times. She is also a regular contributor to Devex.
Her Huffington Post Highline series, "The 21st Century Gold Rush" won awards from the National Association of Magazine Editors, Overseas Press Club, and American Society of Newspaper Editors. She's also won multiple awards for feature writing in India and the United States.
Her reporting has been supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Institute For Current World Affairs, and the Global Migration Grant.
Degrees include a BA from Hampshire College and MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where was a Stabile Fellow at the Center for Investigative Journalism.
The Last Nazi Hunters: A German department charged with bringing Nazis to justice may soon close
In this Guardian long-read, journalist Linda Kunstler dives into one of the biggest cold-cases in recent history -- the hunt to track down and prosecute the last remaining Nazis.
The small German government department charged with this task was created in 1958 with the sole directive of bringing Nazis to justice; now, however, it may soon be closed down and it's team dismissed.
Their job is not an easy one: Most of their day is spent nose-deep in hundreds of documents -- everything from marriage certificates, to old SS uniform requests, to Allied inventories of prisoners of war. With an annual budget of 1.2 million, they've also conducted more than 20 trips to archives in South America.
Though slow, the departments' work has been effective: The department, on average, unearths 30 living perpetrators per year, and passes their information on to regional prosecutors, who make the decision of whether or not to bring the individuals to court. These days, the average age of the youngest suspect is around 90 years old -- people who held lower-level jobs in the third Reich such as guards, chefs, medics -- raising questions on whether the department's work should finally be considered done.
But whether or not the office will remain open is not just a practical question, but also a moral one: The department is not only about bringing war criminal to justice, but also a concrete symbol of Germany's commitment to atone for its past crimes. In an interview with the author, historian of the prosecution of Nazis Devin Pendas encapsulates this question beautifully, "How much does Germany need to render justice on its own prior crimes?" he asks. "And how long does it need to make those kinds of efforts?"
They are questions which Kunstler's article -- which looks not just at the history of the department, but also delves into Germany's own commitment to prosecuting war crimes -- looks at deeply and unflinchingly. A piece that is well worth the read.
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