For almost seven decades, since the end of World War II, Laszlo Csatary outran justice. He grew old, and at age 97 he has little time left — far too little to balance against his crimes.

Until Wednesday, Csatary was the world’s most wanted Nazi, both because of the enormity of his evil and because soon enough there would be no holding him to any account. That day, Hungarian authorities arrested Csatary on a charge of the “unlawful torture of human beings.”

In 1944, according to prosecutors, Csatary became the chief of an internment camp that dispatched 12,000 Jews to Auschwitz and other death camps. He used a dog whip indiscriminately on the prisoners. Once, with 80 Jews packed into a rail car and begging for air, he refused to cut ventilation holes in the walls.

Through the years, investigators from the Simon Wiesenthal Center hunted for Csatary, finally locating him in Budapest as he closed in on his own death. Csatary is said to have admitted his actions while expressing no love for Jews and asserting, of course, that he was only following orders.

He faces a life sentence and will trudge to death in, perhaps, a year or two or three, the term of a misdemeanant. That’s the best mankind can do. But then, even eternity will not suffice. (© Copyright 2011 NYDailyNews.com. 07/19/12)