9.21.2005

RIP: The "conscience of the Holocaust"

Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor turned Nazi hunter, died yesterday at age 96 in Vienna. Known for bringing more than 1100 Nazis to justice, he was twice imprisoned by the Nazis and saw 89 members of his and his wife's family killed at their hands. When he was freed from the Austrian concentration camp at Mauthausen in 1945, he set out to find and prosecute as many Nazi officers as he could find. Of his life, the Washington Post writes:
He didn't write the motto "Never again"; he personified it.

He saw life as an opportunity to make a point. The point was that people are responsible for their actions. The lesson was that looking backward is looking forward.

No comments: