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Simon Wiesenthal, Rest in Peace

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by RocketMan Tex, Sep 20, 2005.

  1. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter, has passed away in Vienna. I had the opportunity to meet him in his office in Vienna in 1978, when I was overseas as part of the annual pilgrimage trip that Jewish kids from Houston made to Israel and Europe during the summer between junior and senior year in High School. All of us met with him in his office and he talked with us for two hours. It was one of the highlights of the trip for me, and one of the highlights of my life.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050920/ts_nm/wiesenthal_dc

    Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal dies

    VIENNA (Reuters) - Simon Wiesenthal, the veteran Nazi hunter who tirelessly tracked down Nazi war criminals for more than six decades, has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said on Tuesday.

    In a campaign aimed at ensuring the world did not forget the terrors of the Third Reich, Wiesenthal brought 1,100 Nazi fugitives to trial. Among them was Adolf Eichmann, the man entrusted by Adolf Hitler with carrying out the Nazi genocide program against the Jews.

    "Simon Wiesenthal acted to bring justice to those who had escaped justice," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "In doing so, he was the voice of 6 million."

    Altogether the Nazis are estimated to have murdered 11 civilians, including 6 million Jews.

    Wiesenthal died in his sleep, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told Reuters by phone.

    Wiesenthal, born in 1908 in what is now Ukraine, traveled the world into his old age, lecturing on the Holocaust and as director of the Jewish Documentation Center collecting data on the whereabouts of the last unpunished villains of Nazi Germany.

    Himself a Jew and former concentration camp inmate, Wiesenthal founded the Jewish Documentation Center in his post-war home Austria. There he built up an information network which he used to uncover and pin evidence on those responsible for World War Two atrocities.

    He maintained that his motivation was not anger but justice. "I am someone who seeks justice, not revenge," Wiesenthal said.

    "His legacy is that he will be regarded by many as the conscience of the Holocaust," Hier said. Speaking of Wiesenthal's role as a Nazi hunter, Hier added: "He just took the job, nobody appointed him, nobody else wanted it."
     
  2. AggieRocket

    AggieRocket Member

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    A truly great man indeed! RIP :(
     
  3. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    wow...i've read bits about him before. very brave...and tireless. God rest his soul.
     

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