Simon Wiesenthal KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V and comprises five classes acr…
History of the Jews in Austria
The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewish community prospered and enjoyed political equa…
The Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the World War II genocide of the European Jews. Between 1941 and 1945, across German-occupied Europe, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population…
Full Answer
What did Simon Wiesenthal do in WW2?
During World War II Wiesenthal was a prisoner in five Nazi concentration camps, and after the war he dedicated his life to the search for and the legal prosecution of Nazi criminals and to the promotion of Holocaust memory and education. Wiesenthal, SimonSimon Wiesenthal, 1982.Nationaal Archief
Where was Simon Wiesenthal born?
See Article History. Simon Wiesenthal, (born December 31, 1908, Buczacz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Buchach, Ukraine]—died September 20, 2005, Vienna, Austria), founder (1961) and head (until 2003) of the Jewish Documentation Centre in Vienna.
Who founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center?
The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles was founded in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier using large donations from philanthropists Samuel Belzberg and Joseph Tennenbaum. Hier's organisation paid Wiesenthal an honorarium for the right to use his name.
What did Martin Wiesenthal do for architecture?
One version has Wiesenthal opening an architectural office and finally being admitted to the Lwów Polytechnic for an advanced degree. He designed a tuberculosis sanatorium and some residential buildings during the course of his studies and was active in a student Zionist organisation.
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Who was 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), ...
What did Wiesenthal study?
With an interest in art and drawing, Wiesenthal chose to study architecture. His first choice was to attend the Lwów Polytechnic, but he was turned away because the school's Jewish quota had already been filled. He instead enrolled at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he studied from 1928 until 1932.
Why did Wiesenthal stay in Linz?
Though most of the Jews still alive in Linz after the war had emigrated, Wiesenthal decided to stay on, partly because the family of Adolf Eichmann lived a few blocks away from him. Eichmann had been in charge of the transportation and deportation of Jews in the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish Question: a plan, finalised at the Wannsee Conference —at which Eichmann took the minutes—to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. After the war, Eichmann hid in Austria using forged identity papers until 1950, when he left via Italy and moved to Argentina under an assumed name. Hoping to obtain information on Eichmann's whereabouts, Wiesenthal continuously monitored the remaining members of the immediate family in Linz until they vanished in 1952.
How much did Wiesenthal weigh when liberated?
He weighed 41 kilograms (90 lb) when he was liberated.
What was the name of the case that Wiesenthal sued?
Wiesenthal successfully sued for libel, the suit ending in 1989. In 1986, Wiesenthal was involved in the case of Kurt Waldheim, whose service in the Wehrmacht and probable knowledge of the Holocaust were revealed in the lead-up to the 1986 Austrian presidential elections.
Why did Wiesenthal bribe an official?
Wiesenthal bribed an official to prevent his own deportation under Clause 11, a rule that prevented all Jewish professionals and intellectuals from living within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the city , which was under Soviet occupation until the Germans invaded in June 1941. Lwów Ghetto, 1942.
Where is Wiesenthal from?
Wiesenthal was born on 31 December 1908, in Buczacz ( Buchach ), Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then part of Austria-Hungary, now Ternopil Oblast, in Ukraine. His father, Asher Wiesenthal, was a wholesaler who had emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1905 to escape the frequent pogroms against Jews.
Who was Simon Wiesenthal?
Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi death camps , dedicated his life to documenting the crimes of the Holocaust and to hunting down the perpetrators still at large. "When history looks back," Wiesenthal explained, "I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it.".
Why did Wiesenthal go to the press?
When, as often happens, they failed to take action, whether from indifference, pro-Nazi sentiment, or some other consideration, Wiesenthal went to the press and other media, for experience taught him that publicity and an outraged public opinion are powerful weapons. The work yet to be done was enormous.
How much did Wiesenthal weigh?
Weighing less than 100 pounds and lying helplessly in a barracks where the stench was so strong that even hardboiled SS guards would not enter, Wiesenthal was barely alive when Mauthausen was liberated by the 11th Armored Division of the Third U.S. Army on May 5, 1945.
How long was Wiesenthal in prison?
One German and several Austrian neo-Nazis were arrested for the bombing. The German, who was found to be the main perpetrator, was sentenced to five years in prison. Wiesenthal was often asked to explain his motives for becoming a Nazi hunter.
What happened to Eichmann?
He was captured there by Israeli agents and brought to Israel for trial. Eichmann was found guilty of mass murder and executed on May 31, 1961. Encouraged by the capture of Eichmann, Wiesenthal reopened the Jewish Documentation Center, this time in Vienna, and concentrated exclusively on the hunting of war criminals.
Where was Simon Wiesenthal buried?
On September 20, 2005, Simon Wiesenthal died peacefully in his sleep at his home. After a service at Vienna’s Central Cemetery attended by Austrian Prime Minister Wolfgang Schuessel, government officials, diplomats and leaders of religious communities, he was taken to Israel and laid to rest in Herzliya.
What happened to Wiesenthal's mother?
In August 1942, Wiesenthal's mother was sent to the Belzec death camp. By September, most of his and his wife's relatives were dead; a total of eighty-nine members of both families perished. Because his wife's blonde hair gave her a chance of passing as an "Aryan," Wiesenthal made a deal with the Polish underground.
What did Wiesenthal do after liberation?
After liberation, Wiesenthal worked for the War Crimes Section of the United States Army, and in 1947 he opened the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Austria. For decades, Wiesenthal pressured Western governments to locate and prosecute escaped Nazi offenders and also offered leads that sometimes led to their extradition.
Who said "When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of
Nazi Hunting: Simon Wiesenthal. “When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it.”. — Simon Wiesenthal. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor, dedicated his life to raising public awareness of the need to hunt and prosecute Nazis who have evaded justice.
Who was Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan?
Wiesenthal also provided information prompting the discovery that Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, a former concentration camp guard, was living in New York as an unassuming housewife. Braunsteiner Ryan was the first Nazi criminal to be extradited from the US.
Where was Simon Wiesenthal born?
Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908, in Buczacz, in what is now the Lvov Oblast section of the Ukraine. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family and fled to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Gymnasium in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in architectural engineering in 1932.
How long was Wiesenthal in prison?
One German and several Austrian neo-Nazis were arrested for the bombing. The German, who was found to be the main perpetrator, was sentenced to five years in prison. Wiesenthal is often asked to explain his motives for becoming a Nazi hunter.
How much did Wiesenthal weigh?
Weighing less than 100 pounds and lying helplessly in a barracks where the stench was so strong that even hardboiled SS guards would not enter, Wiesenthal was barely alive when Mauthausen was liberated by an American armored unit on May 5, 1945.
How many people did Wiesenthal ferret out?
Wiesenthal died on September 20, 2005, at his home in Vienna. He was 96. Wiesenthal's biographers credited him with ferreting out 1,100 of Adolf Hitler's major and minor killers and other Nazi war criminals since World War II.
What happened to Eichmann?
He was captured there by Israeli agents and brought to Israel for trial. Eichmann was found guilty of mass murder and executed on May 31, 1961. Encouraged by the capture of Eichmann, Wiesenthal reopened the Jewish Documentation Center, this time in Vienna, and concentrated exclusively on the hunting of war criminals.
What happened to Wiesenthal's mother?
In August 1942, Wiesenthal's mother was sent to the Belzec death camp. By September, most of his and his wife's relatives were dead; a total of eighty-nine members of both families perished. Because his wife's blonde hair gave her a chance of passing as an "Aryan," Wiesenthal made a deal with the Polish underground.
Why did Simon turn away from the University of Prague?
Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in architectural engineering in 1932. In 1936, Simon married Cyla Mueller and worked in an architectural office in Lvov.
What did Simon Wiesenthal and Cyla do?
In late 1941, Simon Wiesenthal and Cyla were moved to the Janowska concentration camp and forced to work on railway repair crews. The two were forced to paint swastikas and other Nazi propaganda on stolen railway cars, and polish brass and nickel for reuse.
What did Wiesenthal do in 1947?
Beginning in 1947, he founded the Jewish Documentation Center, which worked to gather intel on Nazi criminals for future war-crime trials. During the first year, he collected over 3,000 depositions from prisoners regarding their time in the camps. Over time, however, Wiesenthal began to fear his efforts were futile.
How many labor camps did Wiesenthal survive?
For one, Wiesenthal had to survive not a single but five different labor camps. He suffered through a death march. Within weeks of his final camp’s liberation, Wiesenthal created a list of Nazis who, in his opinion, had somehow fled or gotten away and volunteered to search for them himself. Not only would he survive the Nazis, ...
How many people did Wiesenthal find guilty of?
Three weeks after the liberation, Wiesenthal had compiled a list of 91 to 150 people that he believed to be guilty of war crimes and presented it to the War Crimes office of the American Counterintelligence Corps. The Corps took his list into account and hired him as an interpreter.
How much did Simon Wiesenthal weigh?
By the time the death camp was liberated by the United States Army on May 5, 1945, Simon Wiesenthal had been living on 200 calories a day and weighed just 99 pounds. But, he was alive.
Why was Wiesenthal nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?
He was nonetheless, in 1985, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in restoring peace to the former Nazi regime, though he did little to promote himself. Finally, in 2003 following the death of his wife Cyla, Wiesenthal retired and sought a quiet life.
Why was the Simon Wiesenthal Center established?
In 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was established in Los Angeles to campaign to remove the statute of limitations on Nazi crimes. While it does continue to hunt for suspected Nazi war criminals today, it is mainly a source for include Holocaust remembrance and education.
Where was Simon Wiesenthal born?
Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908 in Buczacz, in what is now the Lvov Oblast section of the Ukraine. When Wiesenthal's father was killed in World War I, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family and fled to Vienna for a brief period, returning to Buczacz when she remarried. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Gymnasium in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in architectural engineering in 1932.
What did Wiesenthal learn from the press?
When, as often happens, they fail to take action, whether from indifference, pro-Nazi sentiment, or some other consideration, Wiesenthal goes to the press and other media, for experience has taught him that publicity and an outraged public opinion are powerful weapons. The work yet to be done is enormous.
How much did Wiesenthal weigh?
Weighing less than 100 pounds and lying helplessly in a barracks where the stench was so strong that even hardboiled SS guards would not enter, Wiesenthal was barely alive when Mauthausen was liberated by an American armored unit on May 5, 1945.
What happened to Eichmann?
He was captured there by Israeli agents and brought to Israel for trial. Eichmann was found guilty of mass murder and executed on May 31, 1961. Encouraged by the capture of Eichmann, Wiesenthal reopened the Jewish Documentation Center, this time in Vienna, and concentrated exclusively on the hunting of war criminals.
What happened to Wiesenthal's mother?
In August 1942, Wiesenthal's mother was sent to the Belzec death camp. By September, most of his and his wife's relatives were dead; a total of eighty-nine members of both families perished. Because his wife's blonde hair gave her a chance of passing as an "Aryan," Wiesenthal made a deal with the Polish underground.
Why did Simon turn away from the University of Prague?
Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in architectural engineering in 1932. In 1936, Simon married Cyla Mueller and worked in an architectural office in Lvov.
Where was Eichmann in Argentina?
He passed this information on to Israel through the Israeli embassy in Vienna and in 1954 also informed Nahum Goldmann, but the FBI had received information that Eichmann was in Damascus, Syria.
Where was Simon Wiesenthal born?
Simon Wiesenthal was born on 31 December 1908, in Buczaz, to Asher Wiesenthal and Rosa Wiesenthal. He was of Jewish descent. His family had emigrated from the Russian Empire, in 1905, to escape from the organized massacres of Jews.
Who was Wiesenthal married to?
Wiesenthal married his high school sweetheart, Cyla Müller in 1936. They were separated in 1941 during Nazi detention and were reunited in 1945. Tthey had one daughter, Paulinka, who was born in 1946.
What is Simon Wiesenthal Center?
The Simon Wiesenthal Center describes itself as "a Jewish global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context.". They have locations around the world, and they're also behind the Museum of Tolerance, the educational branch that teaches visitors about the consequences ...
Where was Simon Wiesenthal born?
Simon Wiesenthal's experiences with the darker side of human behavior go back before WWII. He was born on Dec. 31, 1908, in an area of the world once called Buczacz, that the Simon Wiesenthal Center says is now part of Ukraine. In 1915, the Cossacks — military units under the control ...
How old was Simon Wiesenthal when he retired?
In 2001 — when Simon Wiesenthal was 93-years-old — The Guardian visited him at his offices in Vienna. There was a rumor that he was retiring, but he made it clear that wasn't exactly true. What he had said was, "I have survived the majority of all the people I have searched for in 50 years.
How many prisoners were left in the Janowska concentration camp?
When he got there, nearly all of the other prisoners had been killed or evacuated. According to the LA Times, there were only 34 men left — and their lives were spared by Commandant Friedrich Warzok, who let them live so they would need to be guarded... and so he and his men wouldn't be sent to fight.
What happened to Wiesenthal's stepfather?
Wiesenthal's stepfather was arrested by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), and died in prison. His brother was shot, and Wiesenthal, pressured into closing his business, suddenly found himself needing to find another way to make a living.
Who was Cyla in Gross Rosen?
In exchange for drawing detailed maps that would be passed on to saboteurs, the blonde-haired Cyla was given a new identity as Irene Ko walska. According to the LA Times, he had been in Gross-Rosen when he met someone who knew her — as Irene.
When was Mauthausen liberated?
The concentration camp was liberated by the US 11th Armored Division on May 9, 1945.
Overview
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 concentrati…
Early life
Wiesenthal was born on 31 December 1908, in Buczacz (Buchach), Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then part of Austria-Hungary, now Ternopil Oblast, in Ukraine. His father, Asher Wiesenthal, was a wholesaler who had emigrated from the Russian Empire in 1905 to escape the frequent pogroms against Jews. A reservist in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Asher was called to active duty in 191…
World War II
In Europe, World War II began in September 1939 with the Nazi invasion of Poland. As a result of the partitioning of Poland under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, the city of Lwów was annexed by the Soviets and became known as Lvov in Russian or Lviv in Ukrainian. Wiesenthal's stepfather, still living in Dolyna, was arrested as a capitalist; he la…
Nazi hunter
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 arr…
Later life
Shortly after Bruno Kreisky was inaugurated as Austrian chancellor in April 1970, Wiesenthal pointed out to the press that four of his new cabinet appointees had been members of the Nazi Party. In an address in June, Kreisky's Minister of Education and Culture Leopold Gratz characterised Wiesenthal's Documentation Centre of the Association of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime as a private sp…
Dramatic portrayals
Wiesenthal was portrayed by Israeli actor Shmuel Rodensky in the film adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File (1974). After the film's release, Wiesenthal received many reports of sightings of the subject of the film, Eduard Roschmann, commandant of the Riga Ghetto. These sightings proved to be false alarms, but in 1977 a person living in Buenos Aires who saw the movie reported to police that Roschmann was living nearby. The fugitive escaped to Paraguay, …
Autobiographical inconsistencies
A number of Wiesenthal's books contain conflicting stories and tales, many of which were invented. Several authors, including Segev and British author Guy Walters, feel that Wiesenthal's autobiographies are not reliable sources of information about his life and activities. For example, Wiesenthal would describe two people fighting over one of the lists he had prepared of survivors of the Holocaust; the two look up and recognise each other and have a tearful reunion. In one ac…
List of books and journal articles
• Ich jagte Eichmann. Tatsachenbericht (I chased Eichmann. A true story). S. Mohn, Gütersloh (1961)
• Writing under the pen name Mischka Kukin, Wiesenthal published Humor hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang ("Humor Behind the Iron Curtain"). Gütersloh: Signum-Verlag (1962)
• The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs. New York: McGraw-Hill (1967)