I think he'll be remembered as the conscience of the Holocaust, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said Tuesday, following the death of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
"In a way he became the permanent representative of the victims of the Holocaust, determined to bring the perpetrators of the greatest crime to justice," Hier said.
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| Nazi-hunter Wiesenthal dies / Ynetnews |
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Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal dies in Vienna at age 96. Rabbi: He was conscience of Holocaust. Efforts by man who became symbol of fight against Nazi atrocities helped bring more than 1,000 war criminals to justice; assisted Israel in capturing senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann |
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He lost 89 family members, survived a dozen Nazi camps and weighed less than 100 pounds (45 kilograms) when an American armored unit liberated Mauthausen in 1945.
"When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it," he once said.
President Moshe Katsav praised Wiesenthal as the "biggest fighter" of his generation. The Foreign Ministry said he "brought justice to those who had escaped justice."
'Never again'
Those offering accolades included former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who noted that Wiesenthal personally "felt the shadow of history in its brutality."
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Simon was a lion of a man, a survivor and a conqueror, a hero in every sense of the word."
"He suffered unspeakable hardships in the Nazi death camps but he did not let them break his spirit or compromise his will to live ... I will always be grateful that I knew one of the greatest men of our time."
"For many, his greatest achievement was turning the phrase 'Never again' from a catchy slogan into an effective international campaign against the perpetrators of genocide of all kinds, from Nazi Germany to modern Rwanda, " Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain, a spokesman for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany also offered his condolences.
"Humanity is poorer because a just man, Simon Wiesenthal, is gone," he said.
President of the Association of Jewish Deportees in France and Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld said, "We have the impression that a legendary horseman is leaving on his horse for another world."
"The name of Simon Wiesenthal ... will live on," Austrian President Heinz Fischer said.
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