[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S10510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     SIMON WIESENTHAL: IN MEMORIAM

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise to share with my colleagues the 
memory of one of the world's heroes, Mr. Simon Wiesenthal, who died on 
September 20, 2005, at the age of 96.
  Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to 
honoring its victims by bringing its perpetrators to justice. By 
fighting against intolerance and genocide everywhere, he worked 
tirelessly to see that ``never forget'' would someday mean ``never 
again.''
  We in California have a special bond with Simon Wiesenthal because 
the Simon Wiesenthal Center is based in Los Angeles. Founded in 1977, 
the Wiesenthal Center preserves the memory of the Holocaust and 
continues the work of Simon Wiesenthal by fostering tolerance and 
understanding through community involvement, educational outreach, and 
social action. Today, the center also includes the world-renowned 
Museum of Tolerance.
  Simon Wiesenthal was born on December 31, 1908, in western Ukraine. 
He received his degree in architectural engineering from the Technical 
University of Prague in 1932. After graduation, he worked as an 
architect in Lvov, Poland. In 1936, he married his high school 
sweetheart, Cyla Mueller.
  Three years later, Germany and Russia signed their nonaggression pact 
and partitioned Poland. As a result, the Soviet Army occupied Lvov and 
began purging Jewish professionals. Simon was forced to close his 
business and work in a bedspring factory. Many of his family members 
were imprisoned or killed. Simon tried to save his family from 
deportation by bribing the Soviet Secret Police. However, he and his 
wife were sent to the Janwska concentration camp and then to a forced 
labor camp for the Eastern Railroad. By 1942, nearly 90 members of his 
and his wife's family perished.
  Simon was able to help his wife Cyla escape through the Polish 
underground on false papers. However, after escaping the forced labor 
camp in 1943, Simon was captured and sent back to Janwska. When the 
Soviet Army advanced on the German eastern front, he was forced to join 
SS guards on a march westward. The march ended in the Mauthausen 
concentration camp. Simon narrowly survived when Mauthausen was 
liberated by the Americans on May 5, 1945. At 6 feet tall, he weighed 
100 pounds.
  In late 1945, Simon and his wife were reunited. Both had believed the 
other to be dead. In 1946, their daughter Paulinka was born.
  Simon spent the rest of his life tracking down Nazis and working to 
bring them to justice. He said that in various ways he helped bring 
1,100 former Nazis to trial. Of these were Adolf Eichmann, who 
supervised implementation of the ``Final Solution,'' Karl Silberbauer, 
the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank, and Hermie Braunsteiner 
Ryan, who supervised the killing of hundreds of children at a Polish 
camp.
  Mr. Wiesenthal prepared evidence on Nazi atrocities for the war 
crimes section of the U.S. Army. He headed the relief and welfare 
organization, Jewish Central Committee of the United States Zone of 
Austria. After the Nuremberg Trials, Simon opened the Historical 
Documentation Center in Linz, Austria, to assemble evidence for future 
Nazi trials. The center was eventually relocated to Vienna and 
continues to gather and analyze information on German war criminals and 
neo-Nazi groups; thousands of former Nazis are considered still at-
large throughout Germany today.
  For his courage and commitment to justice, Mr. Wiesenthal has been 
honored with many awards, including: the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal 
presented to him in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter; the United Nations 
League for the Help of Refugees Award; and an honorary British 
knighthood.
  Mr. Wiesenthal is survived by his daughter Paulinka Kreisberg, who 
lives in Israel, and three grandchildren.
  With the passing of Simon Wiesenthal, the world has lost one of its 
great heroes, but we shall never lose sight of the lesson he taught us: 
that humanity will rise up against hate and tyranny, and those who 
commit crimes against humanity will be brought to justice. As Mr. 
Wiesenthal said in a 1964 article in the New York Times Magazine:

        [w]hen we come to the other world and meet the millions of 
     Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, ``What have you 
     done?'' there will be many answers. . . . But I will say, I 
     didn't forget you.

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