Post by Glenda Gustin on Oct 27, 2021 18:02:20 GMT
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wiesenthal
"Simon Wiesenthal KBE (31 December 1908 – 20 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (late 1941 to September 1944), the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (September to October 1944), the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, a death march to Chemnitz, Buchenwald, and the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp (February to 5 May 1945).
With an interest in art and drawing, Wiesenthal chose to study architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
Wiesenthals' family members were victims of Russian, German and Ukranian government anti-Jewish programs. He testified to American investigators in May 1945,and made an affidavit August 1954 about his wartime persecutions.
He worked simultaneously in Nazi criminal hunting and helping Jews overcome the ravages of the war. Within three weeks of the liberation of Mauthausen, Wiesenthal had prepared a list of around a hundred names of suspected Nazi war criminals—mostly guards, camp commandants, and members of the Gestapo—and presented it to a War Crimes office of the American Counterintelligence Corps at Mauthausen. He worked as an interpreter, accompanying officers who were carrying out arrests, though he was still very frail.
Governmental authorities began to lose interest in prosecuting war crimes, and what prosecutions did take place resulted in few reparations and few death sentences and very little imprisonment compared to the deaths, injuries and damage caused by the perpetrators. Wiesenthal persisted, believing the survivors were obliged to take on the task. In 1985 Wiesenthal served as one of the judges at a mock trial of Josef Mengele, held in Jerusalem. Wiesenthal's Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime was once characterized as a private spy ring, invading the privacy of innocent parties and using methods of a quasi-political Mafia. Wiesenthal later sued for libel and damages and won, but never collected.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles was founded in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier, who paid Wiesenthal an honorarium for the right to use his name. The centre helped with the campaign to remove the statute of limitations on Nazi crimes and continued the hunt for suspected Nazi war criminals,although they now would be into their nineties.
Wiesenthal received many death threats over the years. After a bomb placed by neo-Nazis exploded outside his house in Vienna on 11 June 1982, police guards were stationed outside his home 24 hours a day. Cyla his wife found the stressful nature of her husband's career and the dragged-out legal matters regarding his libel to be overwhelming, and she sometimes suffered from depression.
He finally retired in October 2001, when he was 92. The last Nazi he had a hand in bringing to trial was Untersturmführer Julius Viel, who was convicted in 2001 of shooting seven Jewish prisoners.
"I have survived them all. If there were any left, they'd be too old and weak to stand trial today. My work is done," said Wiesenthal. Cyla died on 10 November 2003, at age 95, and Wiesenthal died on 20 September 2005, age 96. He was buried in Herzliya, Israel.
In a statement on Wiesenthal's death, Council of Europe chairman Terry Davis said, "Without Simon Wiesenthal's relentless effort to find Nazi criminals and bring them to justice, and to fight anti-Semitism and prejudice, Europe would never have succeeded in healing its wounds and reconciling itself. He was a soldier of justice, which is indispensable to our freedom, stability and peace."
Simon and his wife had one daughter, Paulinka born in 1946 who married Gerard Kreisberg. They had three children. Here is an interview (audio only) with her and her husband about her father.
collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn562479
"Simon Wiesenthal KBE (31 December 1908 – 20 September 2005) was a Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer. He studied architecture and was living in Lwów at the outbreak of World War II. He survived the Janowska concentration camp (late 1941 to September 1944), the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp (September to October 1944), the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, a death march to Chemnitz, Buchenwald, and the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp (February to 5 May 1945).
With an interest in art and drawing, Wiesenthal chose to study architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
Wiesenthals' family members were victims of Russian, German and Ukranian government anti-Jewish programs. He testified to American investigators in May 1945,and made an affidavit August 1954 about his wartime persecutions.
He worked simultaneously in Nazi criminal hunting and helping Jews overcome the ravages of the war. Within three weeks of the liberation of Mauthausen, Wiesenthal had prepared a list of around a hundred names of suspected Nazi war criminals—mostly guards, camp commandants, and members of the Gestapo—and presented it to a War Crimes office of the American Counterintelligence Corps at Mauthausen. He worked as an interpreter, accompanying officers who were carrying out arrests, though he was still very frail.
Governmental authorities began to lose interest in prosecuting war crimes, and what prosecutions did take place resulted in few reparations and few death sentences and very little imprisonment compared to the deaths, injuries and damage caused by the perpetrators. Wiesenthal persisted, believing the survivors were obliged to take on the task. In 1985 Wiesenthal served as one of the judges at a mock trial of Josef Mengele, held in Jerusalem. Wiesenthal's Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime was once characterized as a private spy ring, invading the privacy of innocent parties and using methods of a quasi-political Mafia. Wiesenthal later sued for libel and damages and won, but never collected.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles was founded in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier, who paid Wiesenthal an honorarium for the right to use his name. The centre helped with the campaign to remove the statute of limitations on Nazi crimes and continued the hunt for suspected Nazi war criminals,although they now would be into their nineties.
Wiesenthal received many death threats over the years. After a bomb placed by neo-Nazis exploded outside his house in Vienna on 11 June 1982, police guards were stationed outside his home 24 hours a day. Cyla his wife found the stressful nature of her husband's career and the dragged-out legal matters regarding his libel to be overwhelming, and she sometimes suffered from depression.
He finally retired in October 2001, when he was 92. The last Nazi he had a hand in bringing to trial was Untersturmführer Julius Viel, who was convicted in 2001 of shooting seven Jewish prisoners.
"I have survived them all. If there were any left, they'd be too old and weak to stand trial today. My work is done," said Wiesenthal. Cyla died on 10 November 2003, at age 95, and Wiesenthal died on 20 September 2005, age 96. He was buried in Herzliya, Israel.
In a statement on Wiesenthal's death, Council of Europe chairman Terry Davis said, "Without Simon Wiesenthal's relentless effort to find Nazi criminals and bring them to justice, and to fight anti-Semitism and prejudice, Europe would never have succeeded in healing its wounds and reconciling itself. He was a soldier of justice, which is indispensable to our freedom, stability and peace."
Simon and his wife had one daughter, Paulinka born in 1946 who married Gerard Kreisberg. They had three children. Here is an interview (audio only) with her and her husband about her father.
collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn562479