SIMON WIESENTHAL - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 70287

SIMON WIESENTHAL
"Conscience of the Holocaust"; relentless Nazi-hunter
Photograph inscribed and signed: "To George John Williams/Simon Wiesenthal". B/w, 4x5¾. Accompanied by unsigned sheet with printed message: "With compliments of Simon Wiesenthal". Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005), born in Poland, practiced architecture in Lvov until World War II. Persecuted first by Soviet authorities after the partition of Poland (1939), Wiesenthal narrowly escaped being a victim of the Holocaust which claimed the lives of 89 family members. He survived three years in the Nazi death camps, escaping once only to be recaptured. After the war, he dedicated his life to pursuing the perpetrators of genocide, on behalf of the 6 million Jews and millions of other victims of crimes against humanity. From his Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, Wiesenthal compiled the clues which led to the capture of notorious Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann, tried and executed in Jerusalem in 1961. Other villains tracked down by Wiesenthal included the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank and the commandant of the Treblinka death camp. His writings include The Murderers Among Us (1967). 1977 saw the creation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, to continue the pursuit of Holocaust criminals while combating all forms of bigotry. A further legacy of Wiesenthal will be the Center for Human Dignity and Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. Fine condition.