{"id":9752,"date":"2024-07-04T09:31:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=9752"},"modified":"2024-07-04T09:33:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T13:33:50","slug":"simon-wiesenthal-fraudulent-nazi-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=9752","title":{"rendered":"Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent \u2018Nazi Hunter\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent \u2018Nazi Hunter\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
By Mark Weber<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/a>
Simon Wiesenthal, the veteran Nazi hunter who helped bring more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to trial is seen in this June 2005 file photo. Wiesenthal has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said on September 20, 2005. Wiesenthal, born in 1908 in what is now Ukraine, helped to catch major figures such as Adolf Eichmann, one of Hitler’s chief henchmen in the campaign to exterminate Jews, and Franz Stangl, ex-commandant of the Treblinka death camp. REUTERS\/HBF\/Dragen Tatic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For more than 40 years, Simon Wiesenthal has been tracking hundreds of \u201cNazi criminals\u201d from his \u201cJewish Documentation Center\u201d in Vienna. For his work as the world\u2019s most prominent \u201cNazi hunter,\u201d he has been awarded several honorary degrees and numerous medals, including Germany\u2019s highest decoration. In a formal White House ceremony in August 1980, a teary-eyed President Carter presented him with a special gold medal awarded by the US Congress. President Reagan praised him in November 1988 as one of the \u201ctrue heroes\u201d of this century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This living legend was portrayed in flattering terms by the late Laurence Oliver in the 1978 film fantasy \u201cThe Boys From Brazil,\u201d and by Ben Kingsley in the 1989 HBO made-for-television movie \u201cMurderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story.\u201d One of world\u2019s most prominent Holocaust organizations bears his name: the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal\u2019s reputation as a moral authority is undeserved. The man whom The Washington Post<\/em> has called the \u201cHolocaust\u2019s Avenging Angel\u201d [1] has a little known but well-documented record of reckless disregard for truth. He has lied about his own wartime experiences, misrepresented his postwar \u201cNazi-hunting\u201d achievements, and has spread vile falsehoods about alleged German atrocities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Different Stories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Szymon (Simon) Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908, in Buczacz, a town in the province of Galicia (now Buchach in Ukraine) in what was then the eastern fringe of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His father was a prosperous wholesale sugar merchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In spite of all that has been written about him, just what Wiesenthal did during the war years under German occupation remains unclear. He has given conflicting stories in three separate accounts of his wartime activities. The first was given under oath during a two day interrogation session in May 1948 conducted by an official of the US Nuremberg war crimes commission. [2] The second is a summary of his life provided by Wiesenthal as part of a January 1949 \u201cApplication for Assistance\u201d to the International Refugee Committee. [3] And the third account is given in his autobiography, The Murderers Among Us, <\/em>first published in 1967. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soviet Engineer or Factory Mechanic?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In his 1948 interrogation, Wiesenthal declared that \u201cbetween 1939 and 1941\u201d he was a \u201cSoviet chief engineer working in Lvov and Odessa.\u201d [5] Consistent with that, he stated in his 1949 declaration that from December 1939 to April 1940 he worked as an architect in the Black Sea port of Odessa. But according to his autobiography, he spent the period between mid-September 1939 and June 1941 in Soviet-ruled Lvov, where he worked \u201cas a mechanic in a factory that produced bedsprings.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relative Freedom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
After the Germans took control of Galicia province in June 1941, Wiesenthal was interned for a time in the Janowska concentration camp near Lvov, from where he was transferred a few months later to a camp affiliated with the repair works (OAW) in Lvov of the Ostbahn (\u201cEastern Railroad\u201d) of German-ruled Poland. Wiesenthal reported in his autobiography that he worked there \u201cas a technician and draftsman,\u201d that he was rather well treated, and that his immediate superior, who was \u201csecretly anti-Nazi,\u201d even permitted him to own two pistols. He had his own office in a \u201csmall wooden hut,\u201d and enjoyed \u201crelative freedom and was permitted to walk all over the yards.\u201d [7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Partisan Fighter?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The next segment of Wiesenthal\u2019s life \u2014 from October 1943 to June 1944 \u2014 is the most obscure, and his accounts of this period are contradictory. During his 1948 interrogation, Wiesenthal said that he fled from the Janowska camp in Lvov and joined a \u201cpartisan group which operated in the Tarnopol-Kamenopodolsk area.\u201d [8] He said that \u201cI was a partisan from October 6, 1943, until the middle of February 1944,\u201d and declared that his unit fought against Ukrainian forces, both of the SS \u201cGalicia\u201d division and of the independent UPA partisan force. [9]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal said that he held the rank of lieutenant and then major, and was responsible for building bunkers and fortification lines. Although he was not explicit, he suggested that this (supposed) partisan unit was part of the Armia Ludowa (\u201cPeoples Army\u201d), the Polish Communist military force established and controlled by the Soviets. [10]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that he and other partisans slipped into Lvov in February 1944, where they were \u201chidden by friends of the A.L. [\u2018People\u2019s Army\u2019] group.\u201d On June 13, 1944, his group was captured by the German Secret Field Police. (Although Jewish partisans caught in hiding were often shot, Wiesenthal reports that he was somehow spared.) Wiesenthal told much the same story in his 1949 statement. He said that he fled from internment in early October 1943 and then \u201cfought against the Germans as a partisan in the forest\u201d for eight months \u2014 from October 2, 1943, to March 1944. After that, he was \u201cin hiding\u201d in Lvov from March to June 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal tells a totally different story in his 1967 autobiography. He reports there that after escaping from the Ostbahn Repair Works on Oct. 2, 1943, he lived in hiding in the houses of various friends until June 13, 1944, when he was discovered by Polish and German police and returned to a concentration camp. He makes no mention of any partisan membership or activity. [11]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to both his 1948 interrogation and his 1967 autobiography, he tried to commit suicide on June 15, 1944, by cutting his wrists. Remarkably, though, he was saved from death by German SS doctors and recovered in an SS hospital. [12] He remained in the Lvov concentration camp \u201cwith double rations\u201d for a time, and then, he reports in his autobiography, he was transferred to various work camps. He spent the remaining chaotic months, until the end of the war, in different camps until he was liberated from Mauthausen (in Austria) by American forces on May 5, 1945. [13]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did Wiesenthal invent a past as a heroic wartime partisan? Or did he later try to suppress his record as a Communist fighter? Or is the true story altogether different \u2014 and too shameful to admit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nazi Agent?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Did Wiesenthal voluntarily work for his wartime oppressors? That\u2019s the accusation leveled by Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, himself of Jewish ancestry and leader for many years of his country\u2019s Socialist Party. During an interview with foreign journalists in 1975, Kreisky charged Wiesenthal with using \u201cMafia methods,\u201d rejected his pretense of \u201cmoral authority,\u201d and suggested that he was an agent for the German authorities. Some of his more pertinent remarks, which appeared in Austria\u2019s leading news magazine Profil, include: [14]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
I really know Mr. Wiesenthal only from secret reports, and they are bad, very nasty. I say this as Federal Chancellor \u2026 And I say that Mr. Wiesenthal had a different relationship with the Gestapo than I did. Yes, and this can be proven. I can\u2019t say more [now]. Everything else, I\u2019ll say in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My relationship with the Gestapo is unambiguous. I was their prisoner, their inmate, and I was interrogated. His relationship was a different one, I can say, and this will come out clearly. It\u2019s bad enough what I\u2019ve already said here. But he can\u2019t clear himself by charging me with defaming his honor in the press, as he might wish. It\u2019s not that simple, because that would mean a big court case \u2026 A man like this doesn\u2019t have the right to pretend to be a moral authority. That\u2019s what I say. He doesn\u2019t have the right \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether a man who, in my view, is an agent, yes, that\u2019s right, and who uses Mafia methods \u2026 Such a man has to go \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is no gentleman, and I would say, to make this clear, so that he won\u2019t become a moral authority, because he is not \u2026 He shouldn\u2019t pretend to be a moral authority \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I say that Mr. Wiesenthal lived in that time in the Nazi sphere of influence without being persecuted. Right? And he lived openly without being persecuted, right? Is that clear? And you perhaps know, if you know what was going on, that no one could risk that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He wasn\u2019t a \u201csubmarine\u201d \u2026 that is, submerged and in hiding, but instead, he was completely in the open without having to, well, ever risk persecution. I think that\u2019s enough. There were so many opportunities to be an agent. He didn\u2019t have to be a Gestapo agent. There were many other services.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In response to these damning words, Wiesenthal began efforts to bring a lawsuit against the Chancellor. Eventually, though, both Wiesenthal and Kreisky backed away from a major legal clash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mauthausen Myths<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Before he became famous as a \u201cNazi hunter,\u201d he made a name for himself as a propagandist. In 1946 Wiesenthal published KZ Mauthausen, an 85-page work that consists mainly of his own amateurish sketches purporting to represent the horrors of the Mauthausen concentration camp. One drawing depicts three inmates who had been bound to posts and brutally put to death by the Germans. [15]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sketch is completely phony. It was copied \u2014 with some minor alterations \u2014 from photographs that appeared in Life magazine in 1945, which graphically record the firing-squad execution in December 1944 of three German soldiers who had been caught operating as spies behind the lines during the \u201cBattle of the Bulge.\u201d [16] The source of the Wiesenthal drawing is instantly obvious to anyone who compares it with the Life photos. [17]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The irresponsible character of this book is also shown by Wiesenthal\u2019s extensive citation therein of the supposed \u201cdeath bed confession\u201d of Mauthausen Commandant Franz Ziereis, according to which four million were gassed to death with carbon monoxide at the nearby Hartheim satellite camp. [18] This claim is totally absurd, and no serious Holocaust historian still accepts it. [19] Also according to the Ziereis \u201cconfession\u201d cited by Wiesenthal, the Germans supposedly killed another ten million people in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. [20] In fact, this fraudulent \u201cconfession\u201d was obtained by torture. [21]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years later, Wiesenthal was still lying about Mauthausen. In a 1983 interview with the daily newspaper USA Today, he said of his experience in Mauthausen: \u201cI was one of 34 prisoners alive out of 150,000 who had been put there.\u201d [22] This is a blatant falsehood. The years have apparently not been kind to Wiesenthal\u2019s memory, because in his own autobiography he wrote that \u201calmost 3,000 prisoners died in Mauthausen after the Americans liberated us on May 5, 1945.\u201d [23] Another former inmate, Evelyn Le Chene, reported in her standard work about Mauthausen that there were 64,000 inmates in the camp when it was liberated in May 1945. [24] And according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, at least 212,000 inmates survived internment in the Mauthausen camp complex. [25]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the war Wiesenthal worked for the US Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner of the CIA) and the US Army\u2019s Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC). He was also vice chairman of the Jewish Central Committee in the US occupation zone of Austria. [26]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Human Soap\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal has given circulation and credence to one of the most scurrilous Holocaust stories, the charge that the Germans manufactured soap from the corpses of murdered Jews. According to this tale, the letters \u201cRIF\u201d in bars of German-made soap allegedly stood for \u201cPure Jewish Fat\u201d (\u201cRein judisches Fett\u201d). In reality, the initials stood for \u201cNational Center for Industrial Fat Provisioning\u201d (\u201cReichstelle fur industrielle Fettversorgung\u201d). [27]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal promoted the \u201chuman soap\u201d legend in articles published in 1946 in the Austrian Jewish community paper Der Neue Weg (\u201cThe New Path\u201d). In an article entitled \u201cRIF,\u201d he wrote: \u201cThe terrible words \u2018transport for soap\u2019 were first heard at the end of 1942. It was in the [Polish] General Government, and the factory was in Galicia, in Belzec. From April 1942 until May 1943, 900,000 Jews were used as raw material in this factory.\u201d After the corpses were turned into various raw materials, Wiesenthal wrote, \u201cThe rest, the residual fat stuff, was used for soap production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued: \u201cAfter 1942 people in the General Government knew quite well what the RIF soap meant. The civilized world may not believe the joy with which the Nazis and their women in the General Government thought of this soap. In each piece of soap they saw a Jew who had been magically put there, and had thus been prevented from growing into a second Freud, Ehrlich or Einstein.\u201d [28]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another imaginative article published in 1946 entitled \u201cBelzec Soap Factory,\u201d Wiesenthal alleged that masses of Jews were exterminated in electrocution showers: [29]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
The people, pressed together and driven on by the SS, Latvians and Ukrainians, go through the open door into the \u201cbath.\u201d Five hundred persons could fit at a time. The floor of the \u201cbath chamber\u201d was made of metal and shower heads hung from the ceiling. When the room was full, the SS turned on the 5,000 volts of electric current in the metal plate. At the same time water poured from the shower heads. A short scream and the execution was over. An SS chief physician named Schmidt determined through a peep hole that the victims were dead. The second door was opened and the \u201ccorpse commando\u201d came in and quickly removed the dead. It was ready for the next 500.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Today no serious historian accepts the stories that Jewish corpses were manufactured into bars of soap or that Jews were electrocuted to death at Belzec (or anywhere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal\u2019s imaginative view of history is not limited to the twentieth century. In his 1973 book Sails of Hope, he argued that Christopher Columbus was a secret Jew, and that his famous voyage to the western hemisphere in 1492 was actually a search for a new homeland for Europe\u2019s Jews. [30]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal is not always wrong, of course. In 1975 and again in 1993 he publicly acknowledged that \u201cthere were no extermination camps on German soil.\u201d [31] He thus implicitly conceded that the claims made at the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal and elsewhere that Buchenwald, Dachau and other camps in Germany proper were \u201cextermination camps\u201d are not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Fabrications\u2019 About Eichmann<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In more than 40 years of \u201cNazi hunting,\u201d Wiesenthal\u2019s role in locating and capturing Adolf Eichmann is often considered his greatest achievement. [32] (Eichmann headed the wartime SS Jewish affairs department. He was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Argentina in May 1960 and hanged in Jerusalem after a trial that received worldwide media attention.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Isser Harel, the Israeli official who headed the team that seized Eichmann, has declared unequivocally that Wiesenthal had \u201cabsolutely nothing\u201d to do with the capture. (Harel is a former head of both the Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s foreign and domestic security agencies.) [33]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal not only \u201chad no role whatsoever\u201d in the apprehension, said Harel, but in fact he endangered the entire Eichmann operation. In a 278-page manuscript, Harel carefully refuted every claim by Wiesenthal about his supposed role in identifying and capturing Eichmann. Claims by Wiesenthal and his many friends about his supposedly crucial role in capturing the former SS officer, said Harel, have no foundation in fact. Many specific assertions and incidents described in two books by Wiesenthal, said the Israeli official, are \u201ccomplete fabrications.\u201d [34]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWiesenthal\u2019s reports and statements at that period prove beyond any doubt that he had no notion of Eichmann\u2019s whereabouts,\u201d said Harel. [35] (For example, just before Eichmann\u2019s capture in Argentina, Wiesenthal was placing him in Japan and Saudi Arabia.) [36]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Characterizing Wiesenthal as a rank opportunist, Harel summed up: \u201cAll the information supplied by Wiesenthal before and in anticipation of the [Eichmann] operation was utterly worthless, and sometimes even misleading and of negative value.\u201d [37]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reckless Charges in Walus Case<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One of Wiesenthal\u2019s most spectacular cases involved a Polish-born Chicago man named Frank Walus. In a letter dated December 10, 1974, he charged that Walus \u201cdelivered Jews to the Gestapo\u201d in Czestochowa and Kielce in Poland during the war. This letter prompted a US government investigation and legal action. [38] The Washington Post dealt with the case in a 1981 article entitled \u201cThe Nazi Who Never Was: How a witch hunt by judge, press and investigators branded an innocent man a war criminal.\u201d The lengthy piece, which was copyrighted by the American Bar Association, reported: [39]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
In January 1977, the United States government accused a Chicagoan named Frank Walus of having committed atrocities in Poland during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the following years, this retired factory worker went into debt in order to raise more than $60,000 to defend himself. He sat in a courtroom while eleven Jewish survivors of the Nazi occupation of Poland testified that they saw him murder children, an old woman, a young woman, a hunchback and others \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overwhelming evidence shows that Walus was not a Nazi War criminal, that he was not even in Poland during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 In an atmosphere of hatred and loathing verging on hysteria, the government persecuted an innocent man. In 1974, Simon Wiesenthal, the famous \u201cNazi hunter\u201d of Vienna, denounced Walus as \u201ca Pole in Chicago who performed duties with the Gestapo in the ghettos of Czestochowa and Kielce and handed over a number of Jews to the Gestapo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The Chicago weekly newspaper Reader also reported on the case in a detailed 1981 article headlined: \u201cThe Persecution of Frank Walus: To Catch a Nazi: The U.S. government wanted a war criminal. So, with the help of Simon Wiesenthal, the Israeli police, the local press and Judge Julius Hoffman, they invented one.\u201d [40] The article stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\u2026 It is logical to assume that the \u201creports received by Wiesenthal [against Walus] actually were rumors\u2026 In other words, Simon Wiesenthal had no evidence against Walus. He denounced him anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While [Judge] Hoffman had the Walus case under advisement, Holocaust aired on television. During the same period, in April 1978, Simon Wiesenthal came to Chicago, where he gave interviews taking credit for the Walus case. \u201cHow Nazi-Hunter Helped Find Walus,\u201d was the Sun-Times headline on a story by Bob Olmstead. Wiesenthal told Sun-Times Abe Peck that he \u201chas never had a case of mistaken identity.\u201d \u201cI know there are thousands of people who wait for my mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It was only after an exhausting legal battle that the man who was vilified and physically attacked as \u201cthe butcher of Kielce\u201d was finally able to prove that he had spent the war years as a peaceful farm laborer in Germany. Frank Walus died in August 1994, a broken and bitterly disappointed man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal\u2019s recklessness in the Walus case should have been enough to permanently discredit him as a reliable investigator. But his Teflon reputation survived even this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wrong about Mengele<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Much of the Wiesenthal myth is based on his hunt for Joseph Mengele, the wartime physician at Auschwitz known as the \u201cAngel of Death.\u201d Time and time again, Wiesenthal claimed to be close on Mengele\u2019s heels. Wiesenthal reported that his informants had \u201cseen\u201d or \u201cjust missed\u201d the elusive physician in Peru, Chile, Brazil, Spain, Greece, and half a dozen locations in Paraguay. [41]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the closest shaves came in the summer of 1960. Wiesenthal reported that Mengele had been hiding out on a small Greek island, from where he escaped by just a few hours. Wiesenthal continued to peddle this story, complete with precise details, even after a reporter whom he had hired to check it out informed him that the tale was false from beginning to end. [42]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to another Wiesenthal report, Mengele arranged for the murder in 1960 of one of his former victims, a woman he had supposedly sterilized in Auschwitz. After spotting her, and her distinctive camp tattoo, at a hotel in Argentina where he was staying, Mengele allegedly arranged to have her killed because he feared that she would expose him. It turned out that the woman was never in a concentration camp, had no tattoo, had never met Mengele, and her death was a simple mountaineering accident. [43]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mengele regularly dined at the finest restaurants in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, Wiesenthal said in 1977, and supposedly drove around the city with a bevy of armed guards in his black Mercedes Benz. [44]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal announced in 1985 that he was \u201c100 percent sure\u201d that Mengele had been hiding out in Paraguay until at least June 1984, and charged that the Mengele family in Germany knew exactly where. As it turned out, Wiesenthal was completely wrong. It was later definitively established that Mengele had died in 1979 in Brazil, where he had been living for years in anonymous poverty. [45]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s ambassador to Paraguay from 1968 to 1972, Benjamin (Benno) Varon, remarked in 1983 on the Mengele campaign: \u201cWiesenthal makes periodic statements that he is about to catch him, perhaps since Wiesenthal must raise funds for his activities and the name Mengele is always good for a plug.\u201d Wiesenthal \u201cfailed miserably\u201d in the Mengele case, the diplomat said on another occasion. [46] In the Mengele case, former Mossad chief Harel remarked, \u201cWiesenthal\u2019s folly borders on the criminal.\u201d [47]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In truth, the bulging Mengele file in Wiesenthal\u2019s Vienna \u201cDocumentation Center\u201d was such a jumble of useless information that, in the words of the London Times, it \u201conly sustained his self-confirmatory myths and gave scant satisfaction to those who apparently needed a definitive answer to Mengele\u2019s fate.\u201d [48]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the considered view of Gerald Posner and John Ware, coauthors of Mengele: The Complete Story, Wiesenthal spent years assiduously cultivating a mythical \u201cself-image of a tireless, dogged sleuth, pitted against the omnipotent and sinister might of Mengele and a vast Nazi network.\u201d Because of his \u201cknack of playing to the gallery,\u201d Posner and Ware concluded, Wiesenthal \u201cultimately compromised his credibility.\u201d [49]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Incompetence and Arrogance\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Eli Rosenbaum, an official with the US government\u2019s \u201cNazi hunting\u201d Office of Special Investigations and an investigator for the World Jewish Congress, took aim at Wiesenthal\u2019s carefully cultivated \u201cNazi hunter\u201d reputation in a detailed 1993 book, Betrayal. [50] For example, Rosenbaum mentioned, Wiesenthal \u201chad all these reports placing Mengele in almost every country in Latin America except the one he was in \u2014 namely, Brazil.\u201d [51]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal, wrote Rosenbaum, has been a \u201cpathetically ineffective\u201d investigator who had \u201cgone far beyond the buffoonery and false boasts in prior years.\u201d Much of his illustrious career, Rosenbaum said, has been characterized by \u201cincompetence and arrogance.\u201d [52]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bruno Kreisky once summed up his attitude towards the \u201cNazi hunter\u201d in these words: [53]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
The engineer Wiesenthal, or whatever else his title is, hates me because he knows that I despise his activity. The Wiesenthal group is a quasi-political Mafia that works against Austria with disgraceful methods. Wiesenthal is known as someone who isn\u2019t very careful about the truth, who is not very selective about his methods and who uses tricks. He pretends to be the \u201cEichmann hunter,\u201d even though everyone knows that this was the work of a secret service, and that Wiesenthal only takes credit for that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Commercializing\u2019 the Holocaust<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Los Angeles Wiesenthal Center pays the Vienna \u201cNazi Hunter\u201d $75,000 a year for the use of his name, the director of Israel\u2019s Yad Vashem Holocaust center said in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the Center and Wiesenthal \u201ccommercialize\u201d and \u201ctrivialize\u201d the Holocaust, the director added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal \u201cthrew out\u201d the figure of \u201c11 million who were murdered in the Holocaust \u2014 six million Jews and five million non-Jews,\u201d said the Yad Vashem official. When asked why he gave these figures, Wiesenthal replied: \u201cThe gentiles will not pay attention if we do not mention their victims, too.\u201d Wiesenthal \u201cchose \u2018five million (gentiles)\u2019 because he wanted a \u2018diplomatic\u2019 number, one that told of a large number of gentile victims but in no way was larger than that of Jews \u2026\u201d [54]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat Wiesenthal and the Los Angeles Center that bears his name do is to trivialize the Holocaust,\u201d commented The Jewish Press, a weekly that claims to be the largest-circulation English-language Jewish community paper in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years Wiesenthal has been concerned about the growing impact of Holocaust revisionism. In \u201cA Message from Simon Wiesenthal\u201d published by the Center that bears his name, he said: \u201cToday, when I see the rise of antisemitism here in Europe \u2026 the popularity of Le Pen, of David Duke, of the Holocaust revisionists, then I am convinced more than ever about the need for our new [Wiesenthal Center] Beit Hashoah-Museum of Tolerance\u201d in Los Angeles. [55]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal is often asked why he does not forgive those who persecuted Jews half a century ago. His stock answer is that although he has the right to forgive for himself, he does not have the right to forgive on behalf of others. [56] On the basis of this sophistical logic, though, neither does he have the right to accuse and track down anyone in the name of others. Wiesenthal has never confined his \u201chunt\u201d to those who victimized him personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Driven by Hatred\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It is difficult to say just what drives this remarkable man. Is it a craving for fame and praise? Or is he trying to live down a shameful episode from his past?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiesenthal clearly enjoys the praise he receives. \u201cHe is a man of considerable ego, proud of testimonials and honorary degrees,\u201d the Los Angeles Times has reported. [57] Bruno Kreisky has given a simpler explanation. He said that Wiesenthal is \u201cdriven by hatred.\u201d [58]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In light of his well-documented record of deceit, lies and incompetence, the extravagant praise heaped upon this contemptible man is a sorry reflection of the venal corruptibility and unprincipled self-deception of our age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Quoted in: M. Weber, \u201c\u2018Nazi Hunter\u2019 Caught Lying,\u201d The Spotlight<\/em> (Washington, DC), Oct. 26, 1981, p. 9.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interrogation of S. Wiesenthal on May 27 and 28, 1948, conducted by Curt Ponger of the Interrogation Branch of the Evidence Division of the Office (U.S.) Chief of Counsel for War Crimes. Interrogation No. 2820. On file at the National Archives (Washington, DC), \u201cRecords of the U.S. N\u00fcrnberg War Crimes Trials Interrogations, 1946-49,\u201d Record Group 238, microfilm M-1019, roll 79, frames 460-469 and 470-476. Also cited in: \u201cNew Documents Raise New Doubts About Simon Wiesenthal\u2019s War Years,\u201d The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Winter 1988-89 (Vol. 8, No. 4), pp. 489-503.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
PCIRO (International Refugee Organization, Austria) \u201cApplication for Assistance\u201d filled out and signed by Wiesenthal. Dated Jan. 16,1949. (This was a trial exhibit in the Walus court case. Photocopy in author\u2019s possession.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Simon Wiesenthal, The Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs<\/em>. Edited by Joseph Wechsberg. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1967)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interrogation of S. Wiesenthal, May 27, 1948, pp. 1-2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among Us<\/em>, p. 27.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among Us<\/em>, pp. 29-35. This account is not inconsistent with his 1948 and 1949 statements; See also: Simon Wiesenthal, Justice Not Vengeance<\/em> (New York: Grove Weidenfeld: 1989), pp. 7-9.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interrogation of May 27, 1948, p. 2. In a signed 1945 statement, Wiesenthal wrote:
\u201c\u2026 I escaped on October 18, 1943, from the Lemberg [Lvov] hard labor camp where I was kept as a prisoner during my two years of labor at the railroad works\u2026 and went into hiding until joining Jewish partisans on November 21, 1943, who operated there. It was while fighting in the partisan ranks against the Nazis that we managed to collect and bury for safekeeping considerable amount of evidence\u2026 When the partisans were dispersed by the Germans I fled to Lemberg on February 10, 1944, and again went into hiding. On June 13, 1944, I was found during a house to house search and was immediately sent to the famous Lacki camp, near that city \u2026\u201d Source: \u201cCurriculum Vitae of Ing. Wiesenthal, Szymon.\u201d SHAEF, Subject: War Crimes, July 6, 1945. Records of USAEUR, War Crimes Branch, National Archives (Suitland, Maryland), Records Group 338, Box 534, Folder 000-50-59. Wiesenthal\u2019s alleged partisans activities are also recounted in Alan Levy, The Wiesenthal File<\/em> (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), pp. 50-53.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interrogation of May 28, 1948, pp. 1-2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interrogation of May 28, 1948, p. 5.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among Us<\/em>, pp. 35-37.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among Us<\/em>, pp. 37-38; Interrogation, May 27, 1948, p. 2, and May 28, 1948, p. 5; A. Levy, The Wiesenthal File<\/em> (1994), p. 54.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among Us<\/em>, pp. 39-44; Interrogation, May 27, 1948, pp. 2-3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Interview with foreign journalists in Vienna, Nov. 10, 1975. Text published in: \u201cWar Wiesenthal ein Gestapo-Kollaborateur?,\u201d Profil<\/em> (Vienna), No. 47, Nov. 18, 1975, pp. 16, 22-23; Reprinted in: Robert H. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation<\/em> (Vienna: 1982), pp. 215-218, 222-223; Quoted in part in A. Levy, The Wiesenthal File<\/em> (1994), p. 349, and in, S. Wiesenthal, Justice Not Vengeance<\/em> (New York: 1989), pp. 7, 299. Kreisky was not alone in charging that Wiesenthal had collaborated with the German Gestapo. Wim Van Leer, columnist for the English-language daily Jerusalem Post, stated in May 1986 that a high-level police official in Vienna, citing confidential police records, had told him during the early 1960s that these and other charges against Wiesenthal were true. Source: J. Bushinsky, \u201cNazi hunter sues over charges of links to Gestapo,\u201d Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>, Jan. 31, 1987.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Simon Wiesenthal, KZ Mauthausen<\/em> (Linz and Vienna: Ibis-Verlag, 1946). Facsimile reprint in: Robert H. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation<\/em> (Vienna: 1982), p. 64.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFiring Squad,\u201d Life<\/em> magazine, US edition, June 11, 1945, p. 50.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
M. Weber and K. Stimely, \u201cThe Sleight-of-Hand of Simon Wiesenthal,\u201d The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Spring 1984 (Vol. 5, No. 1), pp. 120-122; D. National-Zeitung<\/em> (Munich), May 21, 1993, p. 3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
S. Wiesenthal, KZ Mauthausen<\/em> (1946). See also facsimile reprint in: Robert H. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation<\/em> (Vienna: 1982), pp. 42, 46. This \u201cconfession\u201d is a somewhat altered version of Nuremberg document NO-1973; A new edition of Wiesenthal\u2019s 1946 book has been published under the title Denn sie Wussten, was sie tun: Zeichnungen und Aufzeichnungen aus dem KZ Mauthausen (Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1995). I am grateful to Robert Faurisson for bringing this to my attention. He points out in a July 1995 essay that Wiesenthal has deleted from this new edition both the \u201cdeath bed confession\u201d of Ziereis as well as his drawing of the three Mauthausen inmates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica<\/em> (\u201cMauthausen,\u201d, Vol. 11, p. 1138), a grand total of 206,000 persons were inmates of Mauthausen and its satellite camps (including Hartheim) at one time or another.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
S. Wiesenthal, KZ Mauthausen<\/em> (1946). Facsimile reprint in: R. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation<\/em>, p. 47.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
R. Faurisson, \u201cThe Gas Chambers: Truth or Lie?,\u201d The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Winter 1981, pp. 330, 361. See also: Hans Fritzsche, The Sword in the Scales<\/em> (London: 1953), p. 185; Gerald Reitlinger, The Final Solution<\/em> (London: Sphere, pb., 1971), p. 515; M. Weber, \u201cThe Nuremberg Trials and the Holocaust,\u201d The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Summer 1992 (Vol. 12, No. 2), p. 182.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
USA Today<\/em>, April 21, 1983, p. 9A.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The Murderers Among<\/em> Us, p. 44.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Evelyn Le Chene, Mauthausen: The History of a Death Camp<\/em> (London: 1971), pp. 166-168 and 190-191.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMauthausen\u201d, Encyclopaedia Judaica<\/em> (New York and Jerusalem: 1971), vol. 11, p. 1138.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
C. Moritz, ed., Current Biography 1975<\/em> (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1975), p. 442; Wiesenthal interrogation of May 27, 1948, p. 3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Mark Weber, \u201cJewish Soap,\u201d The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Summer 1991 (Vol. 11, No. 2), pp. 217-227; See also: Robert Faurisson, \u201cLa savon juif,\u201d Annales d\u2019Histoire Revisionniste<\/em> (Paris), No. 1, Printemps<\/em> 1987, pp. 153-159.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Der Neue Weg<\/em> (Vienna), No. 17\/18, 1946, pp. 4-5. Article entitled \u201cRIF\u201d by \u201cIng. Wiesenth.\u201d (Simon Wiesenthal).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Der Neue Weg<\/em> (Vienna), Nr. 19\/20, 1946, pp. 14-15. Article entitled \u201cSeifenfabrik Belsetz\u201d (\u201cBelzec Soap Factory\u201d), by \u201cIng. S.Wiesenth.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
S. Wiesenthal, Sails of Hope<\/em> (Macmillan, 1973).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Letters by Wiesenthal in Books and Bookmen<\/em> (London), April 1975, p. 5, and in Stars and Stripes<\/em> (European edition), Jan. 24, 1993, p. 14. Facsimile of Stars and Stripes<\/em> letter in The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, May-June 1993, p. 10; In 1986 Wiesenthal lied about his 1975 statement. In a letter dated May 12, 1986, to Prof. John George of Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma (copy in author\u2019s possession), Wiesenthal wrote: \u201cI have never stated that \u2018there were no extermination camps on German soil.\u2019 This quote is false, I could never have said such a thing.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
For example, in a letter (dated Sept. 13, 1993), published in The New York Times<\/em>, Sept. 29, 1993, Wiesenthal boasted: \u201cI succeeded in putting a number of Nazis on trial who had perpetrated horrendous crimes in the Nazi era, including Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl, Gustav Wagner,\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
S. Birnbaum, \u201cWiesenthal\u2019s Claim on Eichmann Disputed by Former Mossad Head,\u201d Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin<\/em> (New York), April 4, 1989. (Dispatch dated April 3).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
J. Schachter, \u201cWiesenthal had no role in Eichmann capture,\u201d The Jerusalem Post<\/em>, May 18, 1991. Facsimile reprint in Christian News<\/em>, May 27, 1991, p. 19. See also: Ruth Sinai, \u201cWiesenthal\u2019s role in Eichmann\u2019s capture disputed,\u201d Associated Press, The Orange County Register<\/em>, Feb. 25, 1990, p. A 26; L. Lagnado, \u201cHow Simon Wiesenthal Helped a Secret Nazi,\u201d Forward<\/em> (New York), Sept. 24, 1993, pp. 1, 3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
J. Schachter, The Jerusalem Post<\/em>, May 18, 1991 (cited above). Facsimile in Christian News<\/em>, May 27, 1991, p. 19.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Arnold Forster, Square One<\/em> (New York: 1988), pp. 187-189. (Forster was general counsel of the Anti-Defamation League, a major Zionist organization.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
J. Goldberg, \u201cTop Spy Says Wiesenthal Lied About His Exploits,\u201d Forward<\/em> (New York), Nov. 12, 1993, pp. 1, 4; R. Sinai, \u201cWiesenthal\u2019s role\u2026,\u201d The Orange County Register<\/em>, Feb. 25, 1990 (cited above).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Michael Arndt, \u201cThe Wrong Man,\u201d The Chicago Tribune Magazine<\/em>, Dec. 2, 1984, pp. 15-35, esp. p. 23; Charles Ashman and Robert J. Wagman, The Nazi Hunters<\/em> (New York: Pharos Books, 1988), pp. 193-195.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Nazi Who Never Was,\u201d The Washington Post<\/em>, May 10, 1981, pp. B5, B8.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Persecution of Frank Walus,\u201d Reader<\/em> (Chicago), Jan. 23, 1981, pp. 19, 30. After Wiesenthal was ultimately proven wrong in a similar case in Canada, the Toronto Sun newspaper commented in an editorial: \u201cIt seems that material provided by professional Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal is wrong, but repeated anyway [in the media].\u201d (Quoted by M. Weber in The Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Spring 1984, pp. 120-122.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Gerald L. Posner and John Ware, Mengele: The Complete Story<\/em> (New York: Dell, 1987), pp. 220-221; Gerald Astor, The \u2018Last\u2019 Nazi: The Life and Times of Dr. Joseph Mengele<\/em> (Toronto: Paperjacks, 1986), p. 202.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele: The Complete Story<\/em> (cited above), p. 220.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele<\/em> (cited above), pp. 179-180; G. Astor, The \u2018Last\u2019 Nazi<\/em> (cited above), pp. 178-180.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Time<\/em> magazine, Sept. 26, 1977, pp. 36-38. Cited in: G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele<\/em> (cited above), p. 219.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHunting the \u2018Angel of Death\u2019,\u201d Newsweek<\/em>, May 20, 1985, pp. 36-38. See also: M. Weber, \u201cLessons of the Mengele Affair,\u201d Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Fall 1985 (Vol. 6, No. 3), p. 382. On Wiesenthal\u2019s distortion of truth in the Mermelstein-IHR case, see: M. Weber, \u201cDeclaration,\u201d Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Spring 1982 (Vol. 3, No. 1), pp. 42-43; M. Weber, \u201cAlbert Speer and the \u2018Holocaust,\u201d\u2018 Journal of Historical Review<\/em>, Winter 1984 (Vol. 5, Nos. 2-4), p. 439.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Midstream, Dec. 1983, p. 24. Quoted in: G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele<\/em> (cited above), p. 219; Los Angeles Times<\/em>, Nov. 15, 1985, p. 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
J. Schachter, \u201cWiesenthal had no role in Eichmann capture,\u201d The Jerusalem Post<\/em>, May 18, 1991. Facsimile reprint in Christian News<\/em>, May 27, 1991, p. 19.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Tom Bower in The Times<\/em> (London), June 14, 1985, p. 14. Quoted in: G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele<\/em> (cited above), pp. 222-223.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele<\/em> (cited above), pp. 222-223.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Betrayal<\/em>, by Eli M. Rosenbaum, with William Hoffer. Published in 1993 by St. Martin\u2019s Press<\/em> (New York). Reviewed by Jacob Heilbrunn in The New York Times Book Review<\/em>, Oct. 10, 1993, p. 9.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Quoted in L. Lagnado, \u201cHow Simon Wiesenthal\u2026,\u201d Forward<\/em> (New York), Sept. 24, 1993, p. 3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The New York Times Book Review<\/em>, Oct. 10, 1993, p. 9; Forward<\/em> (New York), Sept. 24, 1993, p. 3.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWas hat Wiesenthal zu verbergen?,\u201d D. National-Zeitung (Munich), Nov. 11, 1988, p. 4.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
David Sinai, \u201cNews We Doubt You\u2019ve Seen,\u201d The Jewish Press<\/em> (Brooklyn, NY), Dec. 23, 1988. Based on report in the Israeli newspaper Ha\u2019aretz, Dec. 16, 1988.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA Message from Simon Wiesenthal,\u201d Response: The Wiesenthal Center World Report<\/em>, Winter 1992, p. 11.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Charles Ashman and Robert J. Wagman, The Nazi Hunters<\/em> (New York: Pharos Books, 1988), p. 286; A. Popkin, \u201cNazi-Hunter Simon Wiesenthal: \u2018Information is Our Best Defense\u2019,\u201d Washington Jewish Week<\/em>, Oct. 29, 1987, p. 2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Quoted in: M. Weber, The Spotlight<\/em>, Oct. 26, 1981, p. 9.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Quoted in D. National-Zeitung<\/em> (Munich), July 8, 1988, p. 7, and in, R. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation<\/em> (Vienna: 1982), p. 199.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical Review. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich, Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he served as editor of the IHR\u2019s Journal of Historical Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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#2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent \u2018Nazi Hunter\u2019 By Mark Weber For more than 40 years, Simon Wiesenthal has been tracking hundreds of \u201cNazi criminals\u201d from his \u201cJewish Documentation Center\u201d in Vienna. For his work as the world\u2019s most prominent \u201cNazi hunter,\u201d he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,55,5576],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9756,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9752\/revisions\/9756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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