Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908 in Buczacz, in what is now the Lvov Oblast section of the Ukraine. In 1932, he completed a degree in architectural engineering at the Technical University of Prague.

In 1936, Simon married Cyla Mueller and worked in an architectural office in Lvov. Between 1939-1945, both Simon and Cyla experienced the worst of the Holocaust. Weighing less than 100 pounds and lying helplessly in a barracks, Wiesenthal was barely alive when Mauthausen was liberated by an American armored unit on May 5, 1945.

Late in 1945, he and his wife, each of whom had believed the other to be dead, were reunited. In 1946, their daughter Pauline was born.

As soon as his health was sufficiently restored, Wiesenthal began gathering and preparing evidence on Nazi atrocities for the United States Army. Over time, from a modest office and home in Vienna, Simon became a world famous Nazi hunter.

According to a New York Times Magazine article by Clyde Farnsworth (February 2, 1964), Wiesenthal once spent the Sabbath at the home of a former Mauthausen inmate, now a well-to-do jewelry manufacturer. His host asked, "Simon, if you had gone back to building houses, you'd be a millionaire. Why didn't you?" Simon replied, "When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?', there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler'. Another will say, 'I built houses'. But I will say, 'I didn't forget you'."

In November 1977, the Simon Wiesenthal Center was founded. Today, together with its world renowned Museum of Tolerance, it is a 400,000 member strong international center for Holocaust remembrance, the defense of human rights and the Jewish people. With offices throughout the world, the Wiesenthal Center carries on the continuing fight against bigotry and antisemitism and pursues an active agenda of related contemporary issues. "I have received many honors in my lifetime," said Mr. Wiesenthal. "When I die, these honors will die with me. But the Simon Wiesenthal Center will live on as my legacy."

Simon Wiesenthal died in Vienna at the age of 96.

Source: Simon Wiesenthal Center