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Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi Hunter
Simon Wiesenthal was an Austrian Jewish Holocaust survivor who came to prominence after World War II as a Nazi hunter. With the aid of the Israeli, Austrian and West German governments he helped capture nearly 1100 Nazi war criminals.
He was born in 1908 in Lvov (in current Ukraine). He studied architecture in high school and married Cyla Muller in 1936. After the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Lvov was annexed by the Russians. The Soviets began the “Red purge” forcing Jewish professionals to give up property and possessions. Wiesenthal’s stepfather was arrested as a “capitalist” and died in prison. His stepbrother was shot and Wiesenthal was forced to close his architectural business.
In 1941, the Nazis displaced the Russians in Lvov. Wiesenthal and his wife were sent to the Janowska concentration camp then reassigned to the forced labor camp at Ostbahn Works, a repair shop for the Lvov Railroad. In 1942, the Nazis began their “Final Solution” campaign to annihilate all Jews in occupied Europe. Wiesenthal’s mother was killed at Belzec concentration camp. Wiesenthal made a deal with the Polish underground to help his wife obtain false papers and escape the camps. In return, he provided charts of railroad junction points to be used by saboteurs.
In 1943, 54 Jewish intellectuals were gathered at Ostbahn to be killed in celebration of Hitler’s…
