A picture is worth a thousand
words, they say. Here we can see graphic evidence of the fraud of Simon
Wiesenthal and his chutzpah. On the left is a photocopy of three
photographs from LIFE magazine (June 11, 1945, p. 50) which appear at the
end of a photo essay titled "FIRING SQUAD: Army executes three German
spies who were caught in U.S. uniforms." The story appears on three pages
- 47, 48, and 50. There are a total of nine, mutually-consistent
photographs in the essay. The first paragraph of the story is:
During Nazi breakthrough at Bastogne
last December the Germans managed to smuggle some of their intelligence
officers behind U.S. lines. Three of these spies were captured, tried and
shot. Last week the War Department released pictures on this and the
following pages, taken by LIFE Photographer Johnny Florea, which show
their speedy execution. (p. 47)
On
the left is a photocopy of one of Simon Wiesenthal's drawings, signed "SWiesenthal,"
from p. 64 of his 1946 book of drawings KZ Mauthausen
showing three individuals in striped uniforms, tied to stakes, and
apparently either unconscious or executed. Wiesenthal's book is dedicated
to depicting the suffering of Jews at the hands of the Nazis at the
Mauthausen camp, and as his caption indicates that the drawing depicts
victims of Nazi torture, the reader is encouraged to the conclusion that
the drawing represents a scene witnessed by yourself of Jews tortured to
the point of unconsciousness or executed by Nazis at Mauthausen.
However, the similarity between the three individuals shown in the 1945
LIFE magazine photographs and in his1946 KZ Mauthausen
drawing is striking and unmistakable, and suggests the alternative
conclusion that he copied the LIFE magazine photographs, added striped
uniforms to the victims, and then misattributed the result. [paraphrased
from a letter to Wiesenthal by Lubomyr Prytula.]
This is typical of the fraud known as
Simon Wiesenthal. Is it obvious to you?
For
more than 40 years, Simon Wiesenthal has been tracking hundreds of "Nazi
criminals" from his "Jewish Documentation Center" in Vienna. For his work
as the world's most prominent "Nazi hunter," he has been awarded several
honorary degrees and numerous medals, including Germany's 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
"true heroes" of this century.
This living legend was portrayed in flattering terms by the late
Laurence Oliver in the 1978 film fantasy "The Boys From Brazil," and by
Ben Kingsley in the 1989 HBO made-for-television movie "Murderers Among
Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story." One of world's most prominent Holocaust
organizations bears his name: the Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles.
Wiesenthal's reputation as a moral authority is undeserved. The man whom
The Washington Post has called the "Holocaust's Avenging Angel" 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 "Nazi-hunting" achievements, and has spread vile falsehoods about
alleged German atrocities.
Different stories
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.
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 "Application for
Assistance" to the International Refugee Committee. 3 And the
third account is given in his autobiography, The Murderers Among Us,
first published in 1967. 4
Soviet engineer or factory mechanic?
In his 1948
interrogation, Wiesenthal declared that "between 1939 and 1941" he was a
"Soviet chief engineer working in Lvov and Odessa." 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 "as
a mechanic in a factory that produced bedsprings." 6
'Relative freedom'
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 ("Eastern Railroad") of German-ruled Poland.
Wiesenthal reported in his autobiography that he worked there "as a
technician and draftsman," that he was rather well treated, and that his
immediate superior, who was "secretly anti-Nazi," even permitted him to
own two pistols. He had his own office in a "small wooden hut," and
enjoyed "relative freedom and was permitted to walk all over the yards."
7
Partisan fighter?
The next segment of
Wiesenthal's life -- from October 1943 to June 1944 -- 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 "partisan group which operated in the
Tarnopol-Kamenopodolsk area."8 He said that "I was a partisan
from October 6, 1943, until the middle of February 1944," and declared
that his unit fought against Ukrainian forces, both of the SS "Galicia"
division and of the independent UPA partisan force.9
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 ("Peoples Army"), the Polish Communist military force
established and controlled by the Soviets.10
He said that he and other partisans slipped into Lvov in February 1944,
where they were "hidden by friends of the A.L. ['People's Army'] group."
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 "fought against the Germans as a partisan in
the forest" for eight months -- from October 2, 1943, to March 1944. After
that, he was "in hiding" in Lvov from March to June 1944.
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
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 "with double rations" 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
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 -- and too shameful to admit?
'Nazi agent'?
Did Wiesenthal
voluntarily work for his wartime oppressors? That's the accusation leveled
by Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, himself of Jewish ancestry and
leader for many years of his country's Socialist Party. During an
interview with foreign journalists in 1975, Kreisky charged Wiesenthal
with using "Mafia methods," rejected his pretense of "moral authority,"
and suggested that he was an agent for the German authorities. Some of his
more pertinent remarks, which appeared in Austria's leading news magazine
Profil, include: 14
I really know Mr. Wiesenthal only from secret
reports, and they are bad, very nasty. I say this as Federal Chancellor
... And I say that Mr. Wiesenthal had a different relationship with the
Gestapo than I did. Yes, and this can be proven. I can't say more [now].
Everything else, I'll say in court.
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's bad enough what I've already said here. But he can't clear
himself by charging me with defaming his honor in the press, as he might
wish. It's not that simple, because that would mean a big court case ... A
man like this doesn't have the right to pretend to be a moral authority.
That's what I say. He doesn't have the right ...
Whether a man who, in my view, is an agent, yes, that's right, and who
uses Mafia methods ... Such a man has to go ...
He is no gentleman, and I would say, to make this clear, so that he
won't become a moral authority, because he is not ... He shouldn't pretend
to be a moral authority ...
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.
He wasn't a "submarine" ... that is, submerged and in hiding, but
instead, he was completely in the open without having to, well, ever risk
persecution. I think that's enough. There were so many opportunities to be
an agent. He didn't have to be a Gestapo agent. There were many other
services.
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.
Mauthausen myths
Before he became famous
as a "Nazi hunter," 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
The sketch is completely phony. It was copied -- with some minor
alterations -- 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 "Battle of the Bulge."16 The source of the
Wiesenthal drawing is instantly obvious to anyone who compares it with the
Life photos.17
The irresponsible character of this book is also shown by Wiesenthal's
extensive citation therein of the supposed "death bed confession" 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
"confession" cited by Wiesenthal, the Germans supposedly killed another
ten million people in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.20 In fact,
this fraudulent "confession" was obtained by torture.21
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: "I was one of 34 prisoners alive out of 150,000 who had been
put there."22 This is a blatant falsehood. The years have
apparently not been kind to Wiesenthal's memory, because in his own
autobiography he wrote that "almost 3,000 prisoners died in Mauthausen
after the Americans liberated us on May 5, 1945."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
After the war Wiesenthal worked for the US Office of Strategic Services
(the forerunner of the CIA) and the US Army's Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC).
He was also vice chairman of the Jewish Central Committee in the US
occupation zone of Austria.26
'Human soap'
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 "RIF" in bars of German-made
soap allegedly stood for "Pure Jewish Fat" ("Rein judisches Fett"). In
reality, the initials stood for "National Center for Industrial Fat
Provisioning" ("Reichstelle fur industrielle Fettversorgung").27
Wiesenthal promoted the "human soap" legend in articles published in
1946 in the Austrian Jewish community paper Der Neue Weg ("The New Path").
In an article entitled "RIF," he wrote: "The terrible words 'transport for
soap' 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."
After the corpses were turned into various raw materials, Wiesenthal
wrote, "The rest, the residual fat stuff, was used for soap production."
He continued: "After 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."28
In another imaginative article published in 1946 entitled "Belzec Soap
Factory," Wiesenthal alleged that masses of Jews were exterminated in
electrocution showers: 29
The people, pressed together and driven on by
the SS, Latvians and Ukrainians, go through the open door into the "bath."
Five hundred persons could fit at a time. The floor of the "bath chamber"
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 "corpse commando" came in and quickly removed the dead.
It was ready for the next 500.
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).
Wiesenthal's 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's
Jews.30
Wiesenthal is not always wrong, of course. In 1975 and again in 1993 he
publicly acknowledged that "there were no extermination camps on German
soil."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 "extermination camps" are not true.
'Fabrications' about Eichmann
In more than 40 years of
"Nazi hunting," Wiesenthal's 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.)
But Isser Harel, the Israeli official who headed the team that seized
Eichmann, has declared unequivocally that Wiesenthal had "absolutely
nothing" to do with the capture. (Harel is a former head of both the
Mossad and Shin Bet, Israel's foreign and domestic security agencies.)33
Wiesenthal not only "had no role whatsoever" 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 "complete fabrications."34
"Wiesenthal's reports and statements at that period prove beyond any
doubt that he had no notion of Eichmann's whereabouts," said Harel.35 (For
example, just before Eichmann's capture in Argentina, Wiesenthal was
placing him in Japan and Saudi Arabia.)36
Characterizing Wiesenthal as a rank opportunist, Harel summed up: "All
the information supplied by Wiesenthal before and in anticipation of the [Eichmann]
operation was utterly worthless and sometimes even misleading and of
negative value."37
Reckless charges in Walus case
One of Wiesenthal's most
spectacular cases involved a Polish-born Chicago man named Frank Walus. In
a letter dated December 10, 1974, he charged that Walus "delivered Jews to
the Gestapo" 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
"The Nazi Who Never Was: How a witch hunt by judge, press and
investigators branded an innocent man a war criminal." The lengthy piece,
which was copyrighted by the American Bar Association, reported: 39
In January 1977, the
United States government accused a Chicagoan named Frank Walus of having
committed atrocities in Poland during World War II.
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 ...
Overwhelming evidence shows that Walus was not a Nazi War criminal, that
he was not even in Poland during World War II.
... In an atmosphere of hatred and loathing verging on hysteria, the
government persecuted an innocent man. In 1974, Simon Wiesenthal, the
famous "Nazi hunter" of Vienna, denounced Walus as "a 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."
The Chicago weekly
newspaper Reader also reported on the case in a detailed 1981 article
headlined: "The 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."40 The article stated:
... It is logical to
assume that the "reports received by Wiesenthal [against Walus] actually
were rumors... In other words, Simon Wiesenthal had no evidence against
Walus. He denounced him anyway.
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. "How Nazi-Hunter Helped Find Walus," was the Sun-Times
headline on a story by Bob Olmstead. Wiesenthal told Sun-Times Abe Peck
that he "has never had a case of mistaken identity." "I know there are
thousands of people who wait for my mistake," he said.
It was only after an
exhausting legal battle that the man who was vilified and physically
attacked as "the butcher of Kielce" 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, man.
Wiesenthal's recklessness in the Walus case should have been enough to
permanently discredit him as a reliable investigator. But his Teflon
reputation survived even this.
Wrong about Mengele
Much of the Wiesenthal
myth is based on his hunt for Joseph Mengele, the wartime physician at
Auschwitz known as the "Angel of Death." Time and time again, Wiesenthal
claimed to be close on Mengele's heels. Wiesenthal reported that his
informants had "seen" or "just missed" the elusive physician in Peru,
Chile, Brazil, Spain, Greece, and half a dozen locations in Paraguay.41
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
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
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
Wiesenthal announced in 1985 that he was "100 percent sure" 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
Israel's ambassador to Paraguay from 1968 to 1972, Benjamin (Benno)
Varon, remarked in 1983 on the Mengele campaign: "Wiesenthal 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." Wiesenthal "failed miserably" in the Mengele
case, the diplomat said on another occasion.46 In the Mengele case, former
Mossad chief Harel remarked, "Wiesenthal's folly borders on the criminal."47
In truth, the bulging Mengele file in Wiesenthal's Vienna "Documentation
Center" was such a jumble of useless information that, in the words of the
London Times, it "only sustained his self-confirmatory myths and gave
scant satisfaction to those who apparently needed a definitive answer to
Mengele's fate."48
In the considered view of Gerald Posner and John Ware, coauthors of
Mengele: The Complete Story, Wiesenthal spent years assiduously
cultivating a mythical "self-image of a tireless, dogged sleuth, pitted
against the omnipotent and sinister might of Mengele and a vast Nazi
network." Because of his "knack of playing to the gallery," Posner and
Ware concluded, Wiesenthal "ultimately compromised his credibility."49
'Incompetence and arrogance'
Eli Rosenbaum, an
official with the US government's "Nazi hunting" Office of Special
Investigations and an investigator for the World Jewish Congress, took aim
at Wiesenthal's carefully cultivated "Nazi hunter" reputation in a
detailed 1993 book, Betrayal.50 For example, Rosenbaum
mentioned, Wiesenthal "had all these reports placing Mengele in almost
every country in Latin America except the one he was in -- namely,
Brazil."51
Wiesenthal, wrote Rosenbaum, has been a "pathetically ineffective"
investigator who had "gone far beyond the buffoonery and false boasts in
prior years." Much of his illustrious career, Rosenbaum said, has been
characterized by "incompetence and arrogance."52
Bruno Kreisky once summed up his attitude towards the "Nazi hunter" in
these words: 53
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't very
careful about the truth, who is not very selective about his methods and
who uses tricks. He pretends to be the "Eichmann hunter," even though
everyone knows that this was the work of a secret service, and that
Wiesenthal only takes credit for that.
'Commercializing' the Holocaust
The Los Angeles
Wiesenthal Center pays the Vienna "Nazi Hunter" $75,000 a year for the use
of his name, the director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust center said in
1988.
Both the Center and Wiesenthal "commercialize" and "trivialize" the
Holocaust, the director added.
Wiesenthal "threw out" the figure of "11 million who were murdered in
the Holocaust -- six million Jews and five million non-Jews," said the Yad
Vashem official. When asked why he gave these figures, Wiesenthal replied:
"The gentiles will not pay attention if we do not mention their victims,
too." Wiesenthal "chose 'five million (gentiles)' because he wanted a
'diplomatic' number, one that told of a large number of gentile victims
but in no way was larger than that of Jews ..."54
"What Wiesenthal and the Los Angeles Center that bears his name do is to
trivialize the Holocaust," commented The Jewish Press, a weekly that
claims to be the largest-circulation English-language Jewish community
paper in America.
In recent years Wiesenthal has been concerned about the growing impact
of Holocaust revisionism. In "A Message from Simon Wiesenthal" published
by the Center that bears his name, he said: "Today, when I see the rise of
anti-Semitism here in Europe ... 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"
in Los Angeles.55
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 "hunt" to those who
victimized him personally.
'Driven by hatred'
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?
Wiesenthal clearly enjoys the praise he receives. "He is a man of
considerable ego, proud of testimonials and honorary degrees," the Los
Angeles Times has reported.57 Bruno Kreisky has given a simpler
explanation. He said that Wiesenthal is "driven by hatred."58
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.
Notes
- Quoted in: M.Weber, "'Nazi
Hunter' Caught Lying," The Spotlight (Washington, DC) Oct 26,
1981, p. 9.
- 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), "Records of the U.S. Nürnberg War
Crimes Trials Interrogations, 1946-49," Record Group 238, microfilm
M-1019, roll 79, frames 460-469 and 470-476. Also cited in: "New
Documents Raise New Doubts About Simon Wiesenthal's War Years," The
Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1988-89 (Vol. 8, No. 4), pp.
489-503.
- PCIRO (International
Refugee Organization, Austria) "Application for Assistance" filled out
and signed by Wiesenthal. Dated Jan. 16,1949. (This was a trial exhibit
in the Walus court case. Photocopy in author's possession.)
- Simon Wiesenthal, The
Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Memoirs. Edited by
Joseph Wechsberg. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1967)
- Interrogation of S.
Wiesenthal, May 27, 1948, pp. 1-2.
- The Murderers Among Us,
p. 27.
- The Murderers Among Us,
pp. 29-35. This account is not inconsistent with his 1948 and 1949
statements; See also: Simon Wiesenthal, Justice Not Vengeance
(New York: Grove Weidenfeld: 1989), pp. 7-9.
- Interrogation of May 27,
1948, p. 2. In a signed 1945 statement, Wiesenthal wrote:
"... 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... 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... 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 ..." Source: "Curriculum Vitae of Ing. Wiesenthal, Szymon."
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's alleged
partisans activities are also recounted in Alan Levy, The Wiesenthal
File (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), pp. 50-53.
- Interrogation of May 28,
1948, pp. 1-2.
- Interrogation of May 28,
1948, p. 5.
- The Murderers Among Us, pp.
35-37.
- The Murderers Among Us, pp.
37-38; Interrogation, May 27, 1948, p. 2, and May 28, 1948, p. 5; A.
Levy, The Wiesenthal File (1994), p. 54.
- The Murderers Among Us,
pp. 39-44; Interrogation, May 27, 1948, pp. 2-3.
- Interview with foreign
journalists in Vienna, Nov. 10, 1975. Text published in: "War Wiesenthal
ein Gestapo-Kollaborateur?," Profil (Vienna), No. 47, Nov. 18,
1975, pp. 16, 22-23; Reprinted in: Robert H. Drechsler, Simon
Wiesenthal: Dokumentation (Vienna: 1982), pp. 215-218, 222-223;
Quoted in part in A. Levy, The Wiesenthal File (1994), p. 349,
and in, S. Wiesenthal, Justice Not Vengeance (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, "Nazi hunter
sues over charges of links to Gestapo," Chicago Sun-Times, Jan.
31, 1987.
- Simon Wiesenthal, KZ
Mauthausen (Linz and Vienna: Ibis-Verlag, 1946). Facsimile reprint in:
Robert H. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation (Vienna:
1982), p. 64.
- "Firing Squad," Life
magazine, US edition, June 11, 1945, p. 50.
- M. Weber and K. Stimely,
"The Sleight-of-Hand of Simon Wiesenthal," The Journal of Historical
Review, Spring 1984 (Vol. 5, No. 1), pp. 120-122; D. National-Zeitung
(Munich), May 21, 1993, p. 3.
- S. Wiesenthal, KZ
Mauthausen (1946). See also facsimile reprint in: Robert H.
Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal: Dokumentation (Vienna: 1982), pp.
42, 46. This "confession" is a somewhat altered version of Nuremberg
document NO-1973; A new edition of Wiesenthal's 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 "death bed confession" of Ziereis
as well as his drawing of the three Mauthausen inmates.
- According to the
Encyclopaedia Judaica ("Mauthausen,", 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.
- S. Wiesenthal, KZ
Mauthausen (1946). Facsimile reprint in: R. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal:
Dokumentation, p. 47.
- R. Faurisson, "The Gas
Chambers: Truth or Lie?," The Journal of Historical Review,
Winter 1981, pp. 330, 361. See also: Hans Fritzsche, The Sword in the
Scales (London: 1953), p. 185; Gerald Reitlinger, The Final
Solution (London: Sphere, pb., 1971), p. 515; M. Weber, "The
Nuremberg Trials and the Holocaust," The Journal of Historical Review,
Summer 1992 (Vol. 12, No. 2), p. 182.
- USA Today, April 21,
1983, p. 9A.
- The Murderers Among Us,
p. 44.
- Evelyn Le Chene,
Mauthausen: The History of a Death Camp (London: 1971), pp. 166-168
and 190-191.
- "Mauthausen",
Encyclopaedia Judaica (New York and Jerusalem: 1971), vol. 11, p.
1138.
- C. Moritz, ed., Current
Biography 1975 (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1975), p. 442; Wiesenthal
interrogation of May 27, 1948, p. 3.
- Mark Weber, "Jewish Soap,"
The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991 (Vol. 11, No. 2),
pp. 217-227; See also: Robert Faurisson, "La savon juif," Annales
d'Histoire Revisionniste (Paris), No. 1, Printemps 1987, pp. 153-159.
- Der Neue Weg
(Vienna), No. 17/18, 1946, pp. 4-5. Article entitled "RIF" by "Ing.
Wiesenth." (Simon Wiesenthal).
- Der Neue Weg
(Vienna), Nr. 19/20, 1946, pp. 14-15. Article entitled "Seifenfabrik
Belsetz" ("Belzec Soap Factory"), by "Ing. S.Wiesenth."
- S. Wiesenthal, Sails of
Hope (Macmillan, 1973).
- Letters by Wiesenthal in
Books and Bookmen (London), April 1975, p. 5, and in Stars and
Stripes (European edition), Jan. 24, 1993, p. 14. Facsimile of
Stars and Stripes letter in The Journal of Historical Review,
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's possession), Wiesenthal
wrote: "I have never stated that 'there were no extermination camps on
German soil.' This quote is false, I could never have said such a
thing."
- For example, in a letter
(dated Sept. 13, 1993), published in The New York Times, Sept.
29, 1993, Wiesenthal boasted: "I 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,..."
- S. Birnbaum, "Wiesenthal's
Claim on Eichmann Disputed by Former Mossad Head," Jewish Telegraphic
Agency Daily News Bulletin (New York), April 4, 1989. (Dispatch
dated April 3).
- J. Schachter, "Wiesenthal
had no role in Eichmann capture," The Jerusalem Post, May 18,
1991. Facsimile reprint in Christian News, May 27, 1991, p. 19.
See also: Ruth Sinai, "Wiesenthal's role in Eichmann's capture
disputed," Associated Press, The Orange County Register, Feb. 25,
1990, p. A 26; L. Lagnado, "How Simon Wiesenthal Helped a Secret Nazi,"
Forward (New York), Sept. 24, 1993, pp. 1, 3.
- J. Schachter, The
Jerusalem Post, May 18, 1991 (cited above). Facsimile in
Christian News, May 27, 1991, p. 19.
- Arnold Forster, Square
One (New York: 1988), pp. 187-189. (Forster was general counsel of
the Anti-Defamation League, a major Zionist organization.)
- J. Goldberg, "Top Spy Says
Wiesenthal Lied About His Exploits," Forward (New York), Nov. 12,
1993, pp. 1, 4; R. Sinai, "Wiesenthal's role...," The Orange County
Register, Feb. 25, 1990 (cited above).
- Michael Arndt, "The Wrong
Man," The Chicago Tribune Magazine, Dec. 2, 1984, pp. 15-35, esp.
p. 23; Charles Ashman and Robert J. Wagman, The Nazi Hunters (New
York: Pharos Books, 1988), pp. 193-195.
- "The Nazi Who Never Was,"
The Washington Post, May 10, 1981, pp. B5, B8.
- "The Persecution of Frank
Walus," Reader (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: "It seems that material
provided by professional Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal is wrong, but
repeated anyway [in the media]." (Quoted by M. Weber in The Journal
of Historical Review, Spring 1984, pp. 120-122.)
- Gerald L. Posner and John
Ware, Mengele: The Complete Story (New York: Dell, 1987), pp.
220-221; Gerald Astor, The 'Last' Nazi: The Life and Times of Dr.
Joseph Mengele (Toronto: Paperjacks, 1986), p. 202.
- G. Posner and J. Ware,
Mengele: The Complete Story (cited above), p. 220.
- G. Posner and J. Ware,
Mengele (cited above), pp. 179-180; G. Astor, The 'Last' Nazi
(cited above), pp. 178-180.
- Time
magazine, Sept.
26, 1977, pp. 36-38. Cited in: G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele
(cited above), p. 219.
- "Hunting the 'Angel of
Death'," Newsweek, May 20, 1985, pp. 36-38. See also: M. Weber,
"Lessons of the Mengele Affair," Journal of Historical Review,
Fall 1985 (Vol. 6, No. 3), p. 382. On Wiesenthal's distortion of truth
in the Mermelstein-IHR case, see: M. Weber, "Declaration," Journal of
Historical Review, Spring 1982 (Vol. 3, No. 1), pp. 42-43; M. Weber,
"Albert Speer and the 'Holocaust,"' Journal of Historical Review,
Winter 1984 (Vol. 5, Nos. 2-4), p. 439.
- Midstream, Dec. 1983, p.
24. Quoted in: G. Posner and J. Ware, Mengele (cited above), p.
219; Los Angeles Times, Nov. 15, 1985, p. 2.
- J. Schachter, "Wiesenthal
had no role in Eichmann capture," The Jerusalem Post, May 18,
1991. Facsimile reprint in Christian News, May 27, 1991, p. 19.
- Tom Bower in The Times
(London), June 14, 1985, p. 14. Quoted in: G. Posner and J. Ware,
Mengele (cited above), pp. 222-223.
- G. Posner and J. Ware,
Mengele (cited above), pp. 222-223.
- Betrayal, by Eli M.
Rosenbaum, with William Hoffer. Published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press
(New York). Reviewed by Jacob Heilbrunn in The New York Times Book
Review, Oct. 10, 1993, p. 9.
- Quoted in L. Lagnado, "How
Simon Wiesenthal...," Forward (New York), Sept. 24, 1993, p. 3.
- The New York Times Book
Review, Oct. 10, 1993, p. 9; Forward (New York), Sept. 24,
1993, p. 3.
- "Was hat Wiesenthal zu
verbergen?," D. National-Zeitung (Munich), Nov. 11, 1988, p. 4.
- David Sinai, "News We Doubt
You've Seen," The Jewish Press (Brooklyn, NY), Dec. 23, 1988.
Based on report in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Dec. 16, 1988.
- "A Message from Simon
Wiesenthal," Response: The Wiesenthal Center World Report, Winter 1992,
p. 11.
- Charles Ashman and Robert
J. Wagman, The Nazi Hunters (New York: Pharos Books, 1988), p.
286; A. Popkin, "Nazi-Hunter Simon Wiesenthal: 'Information is Our Best
Defense'," Washington Jewish Week, Oct. 29, 1987, p. 2.
- Quoted in: M. Weber, The
Spotlight, Oct. 26, 1981, p. 9.
- Quoted in D. National-Zeitung
(Munich), July 8, 1988, p. 7, and in, R. Drechsler, Simon Wiesenthal:
Dokumentation (Vienna: 1982), p. 199.
This is a revised and
updated version of an article that first appeared in The Journal of
Historical Review, Winter 1989-90 (Volume 9, number 4), pages 439-452.
For the current IHR
catalog, with a complete listing of books and audio and video tapes, send
one dollar to:
Institute
For Historical Review
Post Office Box 2739
Newport Beach, California 92659
Send all questions and
comments to
webmaster@ihr.org
This article is taken
from The Journal for Historical Review, PO Box 2739, Newport Beach,
CA 92659, USA. Subscriptions to the Journal are $40 per year (6 issues).
Reproduction of this material is authorized as long as credit is given to
the Institute for Historical Review.
http://www.codoh.com/reference/refindex.html
More on Zionism and the Holocaust:
This is a crazy world. What can be done? Amazingly, we have been mislead. We have been taught that
we can control government by voting. The founder of the Rothschild dynasty, Mayer Amschel Bauer,
told the secret of controlling the government of a nation over 200 years ago. He said, "Permit me
to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who makes its laws." Get the picture?
Your freedom hinges first on the nation's banks and money system. Freedom is connected with Debt Elimination for each individual. Not only does
this end personal debt, it places the people first in line as creditors to the National Debt ahead
of the banks. They don't wish for you to know this. It has to do with recognizing WHO you really
are in A
New Beginning: A Practical Course in Miracles, an informational study.
Disclaimer - The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any of such posted material or parts therein.
The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.
Journalism is (or used to be) the profession of gathering and presenting a broad panorama of news about the events of our times and presenting it to readers for their own consideration. We believe in the intelligence, judgment and wisdom of our readers to discern for themselves among the data which appears on this site that which is valid and worthy...or otherwise. See full legal disclaimer
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. (attributed to Voltaire), but certainly embodies what the 1st amendment of the constitution refers to as the freedom of speech
Bill of Rights
Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
|
Is the high cost of quality supplemental health care getting you down? Are you one of 7 out of
10 Americans with no Dental saving program? Look no further...it is now possible to access
affordable dental, vision, prescription and chiropractic programs for your entire household*. MORE
* DISCLOSURE - This is not insurance. The Plan provides discounts at certain healthcare providers for medical services. The Plan member is obligated to pay for all healthcare services but will recieve a discount from those healthcare services who have contracted with the Discount Medical Plan. |
|
|
What are stem cell enhancers? 
There is now an all natural, plant based extract, patented in 2004, and identified as a stem
cell enhancer. The patent states that this natural botanical and its extracts support the release
of adult stem cells from the bone marrow and into the bloodstream where they can then circulate
throughout the body, helping to maintain the body's own Natural Healing System |
|
To contact the webmaster
please click on the dragonfly. |
|
 Queen
Victoria is back and she is amused! This time she's not taking HeRself
....or anything... seriously. HerStory Cont. |
The most effective CANDIDA DEFENSE product available. This proprietary formula
is teeming with live bacteria that start to work right away to help rid the body of tough Candida
organisms.
email us or visit this site: ghtdirect.com/KARA |
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
We are a nationwide association dedicated to providing honest legal advice, counsel and reform
in every state. OUTLAWS LEGAL
SERVICE provides information about the true nature of the law to everyone that seeks to
educate and free themselves from the abuse and corruption that is rampant in the courts and
slowly destroying America.
|
|
Survivor In 1942 a US Navy destroyer was shipwrecked off
Newfoundland. Of the few who survived, one man, Lanier Phillips, was black. The rescuers, never
having seen a black man before, tried to scrub his skin clean and white. This is a story about
growing up with fear in segregated Georgia, enlisting in a segregated navy, facing death in the
icy North Atlantic, and a rescue which galvanized a man to fight racial discrimination.
Listen to
Survivor with Real Player
|
|
Remembering Kent State 1970 When thirteen students were shot by Ohio
National Guard Troops during a war demonstration on the Kent State University Campus on the
first week of May 1970, four young lives were ended and a nation was stunned. More than 30
years later, the world at war is a different place. However, those thirteen seconds in May,
1970 still remain scorched into an Ohio hillside. Through archival tape and interviews,
Remembering Kent State tracks the events that led up to the shootings. Listen to Remembering Kent State 1970 with Real Player
|
|
War Comes to Twin Peaks explores the rumblings of protest at home during
the 1991 Persian Gulf War. From a priest who takes up the anti-war protests, disillusioned war
veterans, and a mother who fears for her son as he departs for service, War Comes to Twin Peaks
shows us the varied human faces affected by administration policy. Their stories strike a
familiar chord as the United States again confronts the possibility of war with Iraq more than
a decade later Listen to War Comes to Twin Peaks with Real Player
|
|
 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports Exposed RealVideo (streaming)
:: (37:01) The Biggest Game in Town exposes the two-tiered accounting of all federal,
state, county governments. Find out how the issue is confused by focusing on the budget and not
discussing the investments. There is no reason for continued taxation.
|
|
Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution, March 20, 1962
RealAudio (streaming) A recorded lecture (UC Berkeley 1962), of Aldous Huxley Brave
New World on the subject of "The Ultimate Revolution." He talks about using terrorism to
create willing slaves out of the population.
|
|
Play Biowarfare:
Looking in the Mirror (58:00)
|
|
