A Summery of Simon's life
Simon Wiesenthal Born december 31 1908 in buczacz in now present day Ukraine. Wiesenthal’s father was killed in world war 1, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family and fled to Vienna for a brief period in 1916. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Gymnasium in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov.
Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to
the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in
architectural engineering in 1932. In 1936, Simon married Cyla Mueller and
worked in an architectural office in Lvov. Their life together was happy until 1939 when Germany and Russia signed their "non-aggression" pact and agreed to partition Poland between them. The Soviet occupation of Lvov, started at the beginning of World War II.
Wiesenthal's stepfather was arrested by the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs - Soviet Secret Police) and eventually died in prison in 1941, his stepbrother was shot, and Wiesenthal himself, forced to close his business, became a mechanic in a bedspring factory.
Later, Simon saved himself, his wife, and his mother from deportation to Siberia
by bribing an NKVD commissar. When the Germans displaced the Russians in the
fall of 1941, a former employee of his, then serving the collaborationist Ukrainian Auxiliary police, helped him to escape execution by the Nazis. Following initial detention in the Janowska concentration camp just outside Lvov,he and his wife were assigned to the forced labor camp serving the Ostbahn Works, the repair shop for Lvov's Eastern Railroad of the Third U.S. Army on May 5, 1945. As soon as his health was fully restored, Wiesenthal began gathering and preparing evidence on Nazi atrocities for the War Crimes Section of the United States Army.
In the late fall of 1945, he worked for the Army's Office of Strategic Services and
Counter-Intelligence Corps and headed the Jewish Central Committee of the United States Zone of Austria. Simon traveled all over South America to find and
capture hidden Nazis.
He felt compelled to bring them to justice for the crimes they committed against
the Jewish people. Simon risked his life trying to capture Nazis. That act of
bravery is part of what makes him our hero. One of Simon Wiesenthal biggest
accomplishments was capturing Adolf Eichmann. Adolf was responsible for the
extermination camps and ghettos for the Jews. Through Simon's career he helped find and bring to justice over 90 Nazis. He died in 2005 at the age of 96 in Vienna, Austria.
Simon Wiesenthal Born december 31 1908 in buczacz in now present day Ukraine. Wiesenthal’s father was killed in world war 1, Mrs. Wiesenthal took her family and fled to Vienna for a brief period in 1916. The young Wiesenthal graduated from the Gymnasium in 1928 and applied for admission to the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov.
Turned away because of quota restrictions on Jewish students, he went instead to
the Technical University of Prague, from which he received his degree in
architectural engineering in 1932. In 1936, Simon married Cyla Mueller and
worked in an architectural office in Lvov. Their life together was happy until 1939 when Germany and Russia signed their "non-aggression" pact and agreed to partition Poland between them. The Soviet occupation of Lvov, started at the beginning of World War II.
Wiesenthal's stepfather was arrested by the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs - Soviet Secret Police) and eventually died in prison in 1941, his stepbrother was shot, and Wiesenthal himself, forced to close his business, became a mechanic in a bedspring factory.
Later, Simon saved himself, his wife, and his mother from deportation to Siberia
by bribing an NKVD commissar. When the Germans displaced the Russians in the
fall of 1941, a former employee of his, then serving the collaborationist Ukrainian Auxiliary police, helped him to escape execution by the Nazis. Following initial detention in the Janowska concentration camp just outside Lvov,he and his wife were assigned to the forced labor camp serving the Ostbahn Works, the repair shop for Lvov's Eastern Railroad of the Third U.S. Army on May 5, 1945. As soon as his health was fully restored, Wiesenthal began gathering and preparing evidence on Nazi atrocities for the War Crimes Section of the United States Army.
In the late fall of 1945, he worked for the Army's Office of Strategic Services and
Counter-Intelligence Corps and headed the Jewish Central Committee of the United States Zone of Austria. Simon traveled all over South America to find and
capture hidden Nazis.
He felt compelled to bring them to justice for the crimes they committed against
the Jewish people. Simon risked his life trying to capture Nazis. That act of
bravery is part of what makes him our hero. One of Simon Wiesenthal biggest
accomplishments was capturing Adolf Eichmann. Adolf was responsible for the
extermination camps and ghettos for the Jews. Through Simon's career he helped find and bring to justice over 90 Nazis. He died in 2005 at the age of 96 in Vienna, Austria.
How He Showed Moral Courage
Wiesenthal survived the horrors of concentration camps and then began a pursuit of Nazi war criminals. He tracked down and brought to justice more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals around the world. It amazes me that he survived through all of that horror and then wanting to find and capture the remaining Nazis. Normal people go to yoga, play baseball, do whatever they can to maintain their energy, focus and physical activity but Simon felt like he had a revenge to make on the hiding Nazis and bring them to justice.