Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal (1908–2005) began his hunt for Nazi perpetrators in 1945 and handed them over to the judiciary.
Wiesenthal was born in Buczacz, Galicia. He studied Architecture in Prague and worked in Lwów. During the German occupation, he survived twelve different camps. In 1945, he was released from Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Shortly thereafter, he compiled a list of 91 names of SS members, to whose crimes he could testify. He handed the list over to the US Armed Forces and offered his services to the American authorities looking for Nazi perpetrators.
Since 1947, Wiesenthal continued this work independently in Linz. There, he founded a centre for jüdische historische Dokumentation (Jewish Historical Documentation). In 1961, he moved to Vienna, where he opened the Dokumentationszentrum des Bundes Jüdischer Verfolgter des Naziregimes (Documentation Centre of the Associaton of Jewish Victims of the Nazi Regime). Wiesenthal tirelessly collected evidence and testimonies. Although the Austrian authorities hardly supported him, Wiesenthal was successful in bringing numerous perpetrators to trial, including: Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl (commandant of Treblinka extermination camp) and Franz Murer (“the butcher of Vilnius”).
“I am convinced that each Nazi trial is crucial on its own, for historical und moral reasons, and each is of eminent importance in its function as a lesson to young people. Such trials serve as a warning to the murderers of tomorrow who might already have been born.”
Since January 2017, Wiesenthal’s holdings are open to the public at the Wiesenthal-Institut für Holocaust-Studien (Wiesenthal-Institute for Holocaust Studies) in Vienna.
Extract from the online event for the special exhibition "Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers"