Sad News,....

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Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2005

'The conscience of the Holocaust'

By Danica Kirka
Associated Press

VIENNA, Austria - He lost 89 family members, survived a dozen Nazi camps and weighed less than 100 pounds when an American armored unit liberated Mauthausen in 1945.

Simon Wiesenthal, 96, who drew on his memories of the Holocaust to fight for justice for its victims, died in his sleep yesterday at his Vienna home.

He was very open about why he became a Nazi-hunter: He didn't want to meet millions of Holocaust victims in the afterlife and admit he had forgotten their suffering.

"Survival is a privilege which entails obligations," he said in the 1989 book Justice Not Vengeance.

(snip)

He spent more than 50 years hunting Nazi war criminals, speaking out against neo-Nazism and racism, and remembering the Jewish experience as a lesson for humanity. He estimated he helped bring 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice.

"When history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it," he once said.


TrekMedic's Musings:

That last quote explains why God, in whatever form you chose to believe, allowed Mr. Wiesenthal to live such a long life.