S. Wiesenthal: Brave Crusader
Read about the brave life of this man who was a determined crusader and nazi hunter.
This is the story of a Jewish architectural engineer, the son of refugees from the dreaded Russian pogroms, who became a Nazi hunter after surviving the Holocaust. Born one half hour before midnight n December 31, 1908, his father, Asher Wiesenthal, was a sugar merchant who took care of the family until his death in combat during World War One. Four and one half harrowing years and more than ten concentration camps so terribly affected Simon's spirit that he spent the rest of his life tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazis so they could be brought to judgment for their ghastly crimes against humanity.
He narrowly escaped execution several times and the underground Polish army helped his wife, Cyla, escape from the camp, providing her with false papers. She was able to hide her Jewish identity because she was lucky enough to be blonde. Still, her existence was far from pleasant as she survived the war as a forced laborer in the Rhineland. In 1943, the underground army helped Simon escape as well, and in return he offered his expertise in architecture and engineering to help the Polish partisans with bunkers and lines of fortifications against German forces.
In 1977, a holocaust memorial agency, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was named in his honor. Its focus is awareness of anti-Semitism, the monitoring of neo-Nazi groups and the operation of the Museums of Tolerance in Los Angeles, California and Jerusalem.
Over the years, Wiesenthal received many death threats, and in 1982, a bomb placed by neo-Nazis exploded outside of his home in Vienna, Austria. Undaunted, he continued to fight until his death in 2005 for justice, freedom and human dignity in the face of hideous oppression.
Read all about the life of this most amazing man.
