Legacy Matters

Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi Hunter

Simon Wiesenthal died in his sleep at 96. He helped track down Nazi war criminals following World War II and spent decades fighting anti-Semitism. His greatest success was the discovery in Argentina of Adolf Eichmann, the man Adolf Hitler entrusted with carrying out his genocidal campaign against the Jews.

From the Associated Press.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, “I think he’ll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust. In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice,”
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“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. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Wiesenthal “brought justice to those who had escaped justice.” “He acted on behalf of 6 million people who could no longer defend themselves,” ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. “The state of Israel, the Jewish people and all those who oppose racism recognized Simon Wiesenthal’s unique contribution to making our planet a better place.”

UPDATE: I like this Wiesenthal quote, found at It Comes in Pints

"Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived. The answer I have found for myself (and which need not necessarily be the answer for every survivor) is: I want to be their mouthpiece, I want to keep their memory alive, to make sure the dead live on in that memory."