Auke Pattist; Nazi Collaborator Escaped From Life in Prison

Auke Bert Pattist, a Nazi collaborator who escaped from prison while serving a life sentence for persecuting and torturing Jews in the Netherlands during World War II, has died. He was 80.

Pattist died March 21 in Oviedo, Spain, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation confirmed Monday. He died while recovering from hip surgery, according to a Spanish news report.

In 1948, a special Dutch court convicted Pattist of treason for assisting the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands, for helping track down Jews in hiding and for torture.

Pattist escaped from a Dutch prison, having served six months of his sentence, and went underground in France. He eventually settled in Spain, where he married a Spanish woman and set up a language school. He became a Spanish citizen in 1968.

His Nazi past was uncovered in 1978, and the Dutch government filed a formal extradition request with Spain in 1979, four years after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, who was known to have granted refuge in Spain to former Nazis.

In 1983, a Spanish court ruled in favor of the Dutch extradition request, but that ruling was overturned a few days later by a higher court and Pattist remained in Spain.