Holocaust survior and Nazi hunter
Simon Wiesenthal passed on today (there is also a
Simon Wiesenthal Center. I realize he had his critics, as many do, but he lived a harrowing life with nightmares few can ever imagine.
Wiesenthal, who had been an architect before World War II, changed his life's mission after the war, dedicating himself to trying to track down Nazi war criminals and to being a voice for the 6 million Jews who died during the onslaught. He himself lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust.
His life's quest began after the Americans liberated the Mauthausen death camp in Austria where Wiesenthal was a prisoner in May 1945. It was his fifth death camp among the dozen Nazi camps in which he was imprisoned, and he weighed just 99 pounds when he was freed. He said he quickly realized "there is no freedom without justice," and decided to dedicate "a few years" to seeking justice.
"It became decades," he added.
So many on both sides of the fence often throw around words like "Nazi" and "Holocaust" or "worse than Hitler". I've done this myself. Stories like Simon Wiesenthal's shame me. It is so easy to forget the lessons of the Holocaust, to try to tell ourselves that any human beings could perpetuate such torture, subject millions up millions of men, women and children to horrors far worse than death.
It is our duty to never forget, and to ensure this never happens again.