"fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people"
Mary Madigan
In Austria, which took decades to acknowledge its own role in Nazi crimes, Wiesenthal was ignored and often insulted before being honored for his work when he was in his 80s.In 1975, then-Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, himself a Jew, suggested Wiesenthal was part of a "certain mafia" seeking to besmirch Austria. Kreisky even claimed Wiesenthal collaborated with Nazis to survive.
Ironically, it was the furor over Kurt Waldheim, who became president in 1986 despite lying about his past as an officer in Hitler's army, that gave Wiesenthal stature in Austria.
Wiesenthal's failure to condemn Waldheim as a war criminal drew international ire and conflict with American Jewish groups. But it made Austrians realize that the Nazi hunter did not condemn everybody who took part in the Nazi war effort.
Wiesenthal did repeatedly demand Waldheim's resignation, seeing him as a symbol of those who suppressed Austria's role as part of Hitler's German war and death machine. But he turned up no proof of widespread allegations that Waldheim was an accessory to war crimes.
Wiesenthal's work exposed him to danger.
His house and office have been guarded by an armed police officer since June 1982, when a bomb exploded at his front door, causing severe damage but resulting in no injuries, according to the Wiesenthal Center Web site. One German and several Austrian neo-Nazis were arrested.
He pursued his crusade of remembrance into old age with the vigor of youth, with patience and determination. But as he entered his 90s, he worried that his mission would die with him.
"I think in a way the world owes him and his memory a tremendous amount of gratitude," Hier said.
RIP Mr. Wiesenthal...
I'd thought he was already dead. I wish I'd known he was, I might have written him to express my admiration.
Never forget.
"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away"
Simon Wiesenthal was a giant. It took a lot of years for me to recognize that truth. And it took a lot of years for him to fade away. We have been blessed by his presence.
Caveat: I do not know his WW2 history. I do not know his recent history. I have only the perception that he tracked Nazis and brought them to justice, and that there is a tolerance center named after him in either LA or New York.
It strikes me as perverse that you are sitting around praising someone who made a point of tracking down 85 year old people who did something nasty 65 years ago when they were 20 year old weak idiots. Yes, Nazis did horrible things. Yes, the people who experienced it will have memory, and perhaps revenge, forever in their hearts. Some of the perpetrators were real nasty perverse bastards. Some of the perpetrators were ordinary people tested beyond their capacity. (Perhaps little difference in the eyes of God.) But if you weren't there, then you need to get over yourselves and get off the bus.
Again, I speak from ignorance. Was Simon vindictive? Was he forgiving? I don't know. I do know that I have no interest whatsoever in visiting a Simon Wiesenthal Center. It just sounds to me like a gigantic shrine to whining and victimhood. Do I need Simon Wiesenthal to tell me what is good behavior and what is not good behavior? I think not.
I'm asking, seriously. What good happens if I go there.
John
-I speak from ignorance-
At least there's one thing in your post we can all agree to.
requiescat in pace
But the main work of fighting the Nazis was performed by the multimillions of men who fought and many of whom died or suffered shattered bodies, in the process of neutralizing the armed Nazis who had taken over Germany, initiated a reign of mass murder, and attempted the conquest of Europe. That Germany and Austria today are normalized countries that have largely gotten rid of the sourge of racism was the result of their work and their sacrifices.
Would I have pursued bastards like Eichmann or the piece of shit who sent that young girl Anne Frank to a death camp? You bet I would have. But if I was there and thought I could get away with it, I would simply have killed them both in a back alley.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
"Just as you supported and carried out a policy of not wanting to share the earth with the Jewish people and the people of a number of other nations, we find that no one, no member of the human race, can be expected to want to share the earth with you."
I wouldn't want to share the earth with Eichmann, and I wouldn't want to share the earth with those oh so pitiful "ordinary people tested beyond their capacity." They were tested and they failed.
Wiesenthal was a hero. The people who currently want to appease and share the earth with genocidal fascism are, well, they're the opposite of Weisenthal.
For the record, the people Wiesenthal hunted down were senior officers who were directly responsible for the holocaust, or prison camp guards who personally murdered people.
Next time, try learning and thinking before you open your yap.
My wife's family was from Croatia. She wasn't born until 1948, but her parents told her of the horrors her country went through in wartime and how innocent people were simply deported for outright murder by the Nazis. That's how most of the jewish population of Croatia was wiped out. They were put in boxcars and hauled to Auschwitz under orders of the officialdom of Hitler's Third Reich. The fascist puppet government of the country helped only the Jews who were related to the leadership. There were quite a few of these. The rest got murdered and their property stolen.
On top of that, Croatia, like most of the rest of wartime Jugoslavia, was occupied by armies of five Axis countries (Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria), each busy with their own looting, and was beset by a civil war between the fascist Ustashe, the communist Partisans, and the Serb Orthodox Chetnici.
It took the survivors a long time to piece their lives back together, but hardly surprising under the circumstances. But if you stopped to examine what went on all over Nazi-occupied Europe during 1939-1945, you would find the same picture of mass death, largescale starvation, brutal repression, massive slave labor, and all the rest. Ask Dean Esmay's wife, Rosemary. Her family came here from Poland, where the combination of nazi German and communist Russian occupation all but snuffed out the life of that gallant country.
So I don't think Simon Wiesenthal was doing what he did just for some form of Jewish vengeance. He was a refined and well-educated European, who, you can be sure, would have preferred that the 20th century had not even taken place in Europe. And with damned good reason. But all this in fact happened all around Europe. And Wiesenthal was a man who believed in the pursuit of justice, which was one of the tenets of the culture in which he was raised.
Anyway, just count yourself as lucky you never had to walk in his shoes.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold, I never doubted it happened. How do you make that jump? If it happened to me or anyone near me, I know I would never let go. It is a sentiment I am susceptible to, but not a sentiment I am attracted to. From all indications, it appears that Simon Wiesenthal took the highest possible road in that regard.
I recently watched a documentary, interviewing the children of Beslan. It made me want to go out and stomp Chechyna flat. That is probably not the best response, but I could never argue with any Beslan Russians who chose to do so.
I guess that shows I am conflicted. My ignorance about Simon Wiesenthal is probably deliberate. It is a subject that does not appeal to me. Probably because I am caught between wanting to rage, and wanting not to perpetuate it.
Dean and Rune, ignorance is not good, but it does not stop me from having impressions or feelings, uninformed as they may be. The whole Museum of Tolerance, Never Again, routine rubs me the wrong way. OK! Point taken! I agree, Nazis were BAD! I always knew that! Please stop telling me that now! Why don't go you go out and save some non-Muslim Africans from genocide instead of sitting around comiserating about how horrible some Nazis were 60 years ago? (Sorry, too blunt again; but I want you to get the feel of my feelings, not the rational argument it.)
Expressing reactions before doing research may be bloviating; OK mea culpa. This IS my research. I am here. The people here are some of the most informed, most reasonable posters I have ever experienced on the internet (even when they a dead wrong!). I learn much by reading the links and the comments here. Note how even your response was as informative as it was exasperated. Also, I am part of your research until I hit your kill file. Uninformed as I may be, I am here. I am part of the "out there" that you face and may need to educate.
John
P.S. The sensible thing for me to do now is to let this drop. But, you already know I am not sensible. I would still like to hear an answer to "what good happens when I go to the Museum of Tolerance?"
Especially because Wiesenthal himself worked more than once to defend former members of the Nazi regime who had never participated or had anything to do with what happened. And because Wiesenthal himself was first and foremost among those who said that the holocaust should serve not as a reminder of what happened to the Jews, but as a reminder of the horrors of totalitarianism and mass murder in general.
In other words, he would have agreed with most of what you were saying.
Excellent. Every word you wrote. You know your history inside and out, and you put your knowledge to excellent use in the pursuit of liberty and justice.
Simon Wiesenthal:
Man and a half.
Auschwitz (et. al.) rapists, torturers, murderers:
I, too, would hunt them down like the rats they are. I, too, would avenge Anne Frank. There is no statute of limitations of what they did, no forgiveness. This is one reason why I believe in a punishment after death, i.e., a Hell. Justice.
And, yes, that most definitely includes Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Mengistu, Arafat, etc., as well.