Brief Biography 

               Simon Wiesenthal was born in 1908 in Buchach, Galicia, a town that was then part of Austria-Hungary and is located in modern day Ukraine. His father died in combat in World War I, and his younger brother died at a young age. Wiesenthal attended the Czech Technical University in Prague to study architecture, graduating in 1932. He married his wife Cyla in 1936 when he returned to Lwów, Galicia (Wiesenthal uses the German name of Lemberg). Lemberg was annexed by the Soviets in September 1939 with the partition of Poland. By November 1941, the Lemberg Ghetto had been set up using the forced labor of Jews, and Simon and his wife were forced out of their homes and into the Ghetto. During the war, Simon was separated from his wife and was processed through five different concentration camps, ending up in Mauthausen. Mauthausen was liberated by the Americans on May 5, 1945, and Simon and his wife were reunited in late 1945. Wiesenthal then began to work to gather information for future war crimes trials, founding the Jewish Documentation Center in Linz in 1947 for this purpose. Wiesenthal's work led to the capture and trial of many Nazi officials, though most of the people whose names he gathered were never tried. He spent most of the latter part of his life doing this work, until his death in September 2005

THE LEMBERG GHETTO

https://maps.geshergalicia.org/special/lemberg-ghetto-1941/

Peretz Opoczynski 

                was a journalist, writer, and educator. During World War II Opoczynski was a member of the underground archive in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Oneg Shabbat ("Joy of the Sabbath"). Opoczynski documented the sights he saw and his experiences as a mailman in the ghetto. 

Lemberg (Lwów) Jewish Ghetto Map & Poster 1941

              A poster with map issued by the German occupation administration in Lemberg (Lwów, Львів, Lviv, Lwow, Lvov, לעמבערג), dated Nov 8, 1941, to coincide with their announcement of the resettlement of the Jewish population of the city to the Lemberg ghetto. The ghetto was established north of the Lwów-Brody-Tarnopol railroad line. The Jewish population was given approximately 30 days to move into the ghetto; resettlement was done by neighborhoods (see the section marking and a supplemental order). The original paper document is in the extensive map collection of Harrie Teunissen and John Steegh; an excellent summary of the context is included in their online exhibition The Holocaust in Contemporary Maps.        

                  The Lwów Ghetto (German: Ghetto Lemberg; Polish: getto we Lwowie) was a Nazi ghetto in the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) in the territory of Nazi-administered General Government in German-occupied Poland.

The ghetto, set up in the second half of 1941 was liquidated in June 1943; all its inhabitants who survived prior killings were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp and the Janowska concentration camp.

                 He tought children about the Holocaust to prevent another mass genocide

He wanted to ensure that the Holocaust could not be repeated and he wanted to bring justice to those who were killed in the Holocaust

He believed my cause is justice not vengeance, my work is for a better tomorrow and a more secure future for our children and grandchildren

He felt it was his duty to take action and fight for Jewish rights after witnessing the horrible treatments of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis

After the war he headed the JEWISH CENTRAL COMMITTEE, a walfare program

for the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust

He started the Jewish historical documentation centre because he believed Jewish lives should be rememberd

He began collecting evidence for future trials which made him be the NAZI HUNTER in the 1950s

Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal : Know Thy Neighbour (1980) - The Fifth Estate

Ian Parker  interviews famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal in Vienna, who charges that at the time Canada was harbouring as many as 1,000 war criminals from WWII. 

Wiesenthal says that war criminals cannot live free in Canada, which took part in WWII and makes an example:

" a young boy comes to the Prime Minister and says my father died for freedom and I hear that war criminals live free in Canada, can you give an answer? "

" until war criminals will die as innocents, I won't go to such a country and feel frustrated ...

During the Cold war they emigrated to the US, Canada and Australia as refugees and after so many years they're living free

I think it is important for people to know who are their neighbors, I know this is not a sentence but a part of a sentence... when I die my message is a warning for the murders of tomorrow, that even 40 years after the crimes they won't be save. When we pardon one genocide, we open the door for the next and the history of me it's a history of crimes ... "

For four decades The Fifth Estate has been Canada's premier investigative documentary program. Hosts Bob McKeown, Gillian Findlay and Mark Kelley continue a tradition of provocative and fearless journalism. the fifth estate brings in-depth investigations that matter to Canadians - delivering a dazzling parade of political leaders, controversial characters and ordinary people whose lives were touched by triumph or tragedy

Mauthausen, 2 hours from Vienna, February 1945 

185 steps 

Every 10 minutes you might bring a stone from here to the top 

Every step, every stone is a corpse ( cadavere ) 

1943 Himmler visited the camp 

The parachute jumping 

THE NAZIS ...  

" They are free, we cannot bring them to justice in Germany   -- We lost 11 million witnesses "

Simon provided evidences on Nazi atrocities. He brought to justice: 

Adolf Eichmann, administrator of the final solution which killed 8 million Jews, on 11 May 1960 he was arrested in Buenos Aires. He was executed in Israel

Franz Stangl, was the Commandant at Sobibor and Treblinka death camps, he was working for Wolkswagen company in Brazil. He received life imprisonment following his trial ( processo )

Simon dedicated his life to his family and friends, those who died and the people who knew someone who died

If Simon hadn't survived, the Nazi who suvived would have restored the Party

INNA ROGATCHI's FILM: The LESSONS OF SURVIVAL. 

Conversations with Simon Wiesenthal 

Can you forgive?

                      maybe forgive but not forget