by Alan Levy
Across the border in the Czech Republic, where I live, that means skinheads, who bully and even murder Roma (Gypsies). But Wiesenthal was more general: ‘There are people in Western Europe who cannot forgive that for more than fifty years we have had no war. So they make war.’
As a champion of Roma, who endure discrimination – by bourgeois Czechs and the school system – that can be as painful as a beating by skinheads, Wiesenthal had a simple solution to the country’s ‘Romany problem’: ‘Let the Roma live. Make them more intelligent. Give them an education and, after a time, the only question will be: “What are Roma?” Nobody will even know any more that this intelligent man or that one is Romany.’
Our conversation about the seamy side of Bohemian life only served to make a mellow Wiesenthal wax nostalgic for his student years in Prague (1928–32):
‘Those four years were the best time of my young life. I came from Poland after being ‘liberated’ too many times by Cossacks and Ukrainians, Russians, Poles and Austrians – all at odds with each other, but all anti-Semites. The Czechs, on the other hand, were always fair to Jews; the Slovaks weren’t. Only in Prague was I ever forgetting I was a Jew.’
Once, though, a Czech classmate from the provinces invited him home for a weekend. Wiesenthal remembers hearing his friend shout into the crank-up phone in the dormitory corridor: ‘Mom, I’m bringing Wiesenthal with me. He’s a Jew, but you’ll like him.’
The old man recalls the episode fondly. If he has any regrets, it is that his self-curtailed travel schedule means he won’t provoke the Lord by seeing Prague again. Even when US President Bill Clinton presented him with America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, at the White House on 9 August 2000, Wiesenthal didn’t make the trip, but gave a resounding acceptance speech via a special radio hookup:
‘I am many times honoured, but that honour I particularly liked.’
Any regrets about the Nobel Peace Prize?
A sigh. ‘Ach! I got the Erasmus Prize – the Dutch Nobel Prize – in 1992. And I am a Doctor honoris causa nineteen times over.’
As I left, I heard him reciting by rote the universities that had granted him honorary doctorates – from Washington and Webster universities of St. Louis to Ohio Wesleyan to the University of Natal in South Africa. The man may have mellowed, but the mind is as agile as ever. Alois Brunner had better watch his step.
Vienna–Prague, April 2002
Index
Adenauer, Chancellor Konrad ref 1
Aharoni, Zvi ref 1
A. K. (Polish Home Army) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
A. L. (Polish People’s Army) ref 1
Allaf, Asst. UN Secretary General Mowaffak ref 1
Allaf, Rime ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
American Jewish Congress, New York ref 1
Amerongen, Martin van ref 1
Anders, General Wladyslaw ref 1, ref 2n
Anger, Per ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Arafat, Yasser ref 1
Arendt, Hannah ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Argentina ref 1, ref 2
Eichmann in ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6n
and Eichmann’s abduction from ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Mengele in ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Arnoni, M. S. Mother Was Not Home for Burial ref 1
Arrow Cross (Hungarian Catholic Fascists) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Arsakli (Greece), Waldheim based at ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Artukovic, Andrija ref 1, ref 2n, ref 3, ref 4
Askaris, Soviet members of SS ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Astor, Gerald ref 1
The Last Nazi ref 1, ref 2
Asunción (Paraguay) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17n, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23
Mengele and his experiments at ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
liberation of (1945) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Höss hanged at (1947) ref 1n, ref 2
Austria ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13
Anschluss, Hitler’s (1938) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19
death march of Hungarian Jews to (1944) ref 1
Operation Summer Festival (1934) ref 1
Kreisky-Wiesenthal controversy in ref 1, ref 2
and Kreisky’s Chancellorship of ref 1, ref 2
Waldheim’s Presidency of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Allied liberation of (1945) ref 1
denazification in ref 1
membership of UN (1955) ref 1
see also Vienna; Waldheim; Kreisky
Austrian Nazi Party ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Bad Aussee, Nazi loot at ref 1, ref 2
Bad Tölz detention camp, US ref 1
Bader Combat Group ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Badoglio, Marshal Pietro ref 1
Baeck, Rabbi Leo ref 1
Balfour Declaration (1917) ref 1
Bar-Zohar, Michael, Avengers ref 1, ref 2
Barbie, Klaus ref 1
Barry, John L. ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Barth, Corporal Adolf see Eichmann, Adolf
Bauer, Dr Fritz ref 1, ref 2
Bauer, Otto ref 1, ref 2
Beaverbrook, Lord ref 1
Becher, SS Major Kurt ref 1
Begin, Menachem ref 1, ref 2n, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
Beirut ref 1, ref 2
Sabra and Chatila massacres (1982) ref 1
Belov, Yuri ref 1
Belzec extermination camp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11n, ref 12, ref 13n, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16
Ben Nathan, Asher (Arthur Pier) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Ben-Gurion, David ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Berg, Lars ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Bergen-Belsen extermination camp ref 1
Bergman, Ingmar ref 1
Berlin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Eichmann in ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute ref 1, ref 2
Stangl at T4 ref 1
Bernadotte, Count Folke ref 1n
Betar (Polish Zionist youth group) ref 1, ref 2n
Between the Lines (film documentary) ref 1
Biener, Dr ref 1
Biroli, General Alessandro Pircio ref 1
Bitburg military cemetary, Waffen SS graves in ref 1n, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4n
Blagoveshensk Special Psychiatric Hospital ref 1
Blum, Howard, WANTED! The Search for Nazis in America ref 1
Blum, Léon ref 1
Blum (SS soldier in Janowskă) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
B’nai B’rith ref 1, ref 2n, ref 3
Böhm, Adolf, History of Zionism ref 1
Bormann, Martin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4n, ref 5
Born, Hanspeter, Certificate Correct, Kurt Waldheim ref 1
Bossert, Wolfram and Liselotte ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10
Bouvier, Lee ref 1
Boy-Zelénski, Tadeusz ref 1
The Boys from Brazil (film) ref 1, ref 2
Brand, Joel ref 1
Braun, Eva ref 1
Braune, Capt. Walter ref 1
Braunsteiner Ryan, Hermine ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
at Ravensbrück ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
at Majdanek ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
at Genthin ref 1, ref 2
trial at Graz (1948) ref 1, ref 2
in New York, and US court hearing ref 1
extradited to West Germany (1973) ref 1
, ref 2
Düsseldorf trial ref 1
Brazil ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
Mengele in ref 1, ref 2
and death of Mengele (1979) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Stangl in ref 1
Stangl’s extradition to West Germany from (1967) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Wagner in ref 1
Breuer, Dr Alice ref 1, ref 2
Brezhnev, Leonid ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Brigidki Prison, Lwów ref 1
Britain/England ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Suez War ref 1
Palestine Mandate and Balfour Declaration ref 1
Germans capture commandos in Greece ref 1
Brockdorff, Werner (alias Alfred Jarschel), Flight from Nuremberg ref 1, ref 2n
Bronfman, Edgar ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Brooks, Dr Robert S. ref 1
Broz, Misha (Tito’s son) ref 1
Bruckner, Bruno ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Brunner, Alois ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Buchenwald concentration camp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Buczacz (Galicia)
Wiesenthal’s birth and childhood in ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Humanistic Gymnasium ref 1, ref 2
Budapest ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Eichmann sent to (1944) ref 1
Wallenberg’s Jewish rescue operation in ref 1
Soviet occupation of ref 1, ref 2
Buenos Aires ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Eichmann in ref 1, ref 2
Mengele in ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Bühler, Dr Joseph ref 1
Bullock, Alan, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny ref 1
Bush, George ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Busse, Wilfried ref 1, ref 2
Butyrka Prison, Moscow ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Canizares, Juan ref 1
CAPRI (German firm in Argentina) ref 1
Carter, US President Jimmy ref 1
Central Council of German Gypsies ref 1, ref 2
Cham Work Camp, Bavaria ref 1, ref 2
Chelmno death camp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6n, ref 7, ref 8
Children of Auschwitz Survivors ref 1
China ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Chou En-lai ref 1
Christian, Gerold ref 1, ref 2
Churchill, Sir Winston ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) ref 1, ref 2
CIC (US Army Counter-Intelligence Corps) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Clarke, Thurston see Werbell, Frederick
Clinton, US President Bill ref 1
Cohen, Bernard see Rosenzweig
Collins Jnr, US Brigadier-General James Lawton ref 1
Columbus, Christopher ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Cominform, Soviet ref 1n
Yugoslavia expelled from ref 1
Concerned Citizens for Wallenberg (later: Free Wallenberg Association) ref 1
Conversos (Jewish Catholic converts in Spain) ref 1, ref 2
Cooper, Rabbi Abraham D. ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Cracow (Poland) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
CROWCASS ref 1
Czaykowska-Medryk, Dr Danuta ref 1
Czechoslovakia ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Hitler’s invasion of (1939) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Warsaw Pact invasion of (1968) ref 1, ref 2
Czernin, Hubertus ref 1
Dachau concentration camp ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10
Daim, Dr Wilfried, Depth Psychology and Salvation ref 1, ref 2
Dannecker, Captain Theodor ref 1, ref 2n
Dardel, Fredrik von ref 1, ref 2
Dardel, Maj von (Wallenberg’s mother) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
De Vito, Anthony ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Debrecen ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
DEGUSSA company ref 1, ref 2n
Deir Yassin massacre (1948) ref 1
Dekanosov, Vladimir ref 1, ref 2
Demjanjuk, John/Ivan Nicolaievich (‘Ivan the Terrible’) ref 1, ref 2n, ref 3
Derdacki, Professor ref 1, ref 2
desk undertakers ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Diamant, Henyek (‘Manos’) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Dien Bien Phu, Battle of (1954) ref 1
Dnyepropetrovsk, massacre of Jews in ref 1
Documents against Words: Simon Wiesenthal’s Conflict with the World Jewish Congress ref 1
Doenitz, Admiral Karl ref 1
Dolina ref 1, ref 2
Dollfuss, Chancellor Englebert ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
assassination of (1934) ref 1, ref 2
DPs (Displaced Persons), DP camps ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Druze (Muslims) ref 1
Dubček, Alexander ref 1
Düsseldorf trials ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4n, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9
Dyga, Richard ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Eastern Railroad Repair Works, Lemberg ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Eban, Abba ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Eberl, Dr Irmfried ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4n
Eckmann, Lieutenant see Eichmann, Adolf
Egberts-Hilker, Captain Karl-Heinz ref 1, ref 2
Ehrenpreis, Rabbi Marcus ref 1
Eichmann, Adolf ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16n, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20, ref 21, ref 22, ref 23, ref 24, ref 25, ref 26, ref 27, ref 28
autobiography of ref 1, ref 2
in Linz ref 1, ref 2
joins Nazi Party and SS (1932) ref 1
joins SA ref 1
works at SD HQ Berlin ref 1
and Zionism ref 1, ref 2
trip to Palestine (1937) ref 1
in Vienna ref 1
and Prague ref 1
Theresienstadt reorganized by ref 1
in Berlin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
at Wannsee Final Solution Conference ref 1
in Budapest ref 1, 173–92 passim
recalled to Berlin ref 1
as a fugitive ref 1
Simon’s search for ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
escapes to Argentina (1959–60) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7n
and sends for family ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Israeli ‘Operation Eichmann’ and kidnapping of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
trial and hanging in Israel of ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Eichmann, Dieter ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Eichmann, Horst ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Eichmann, Karl Adolf ref 1, ref 2
Eichmann, Klaus ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7
Eichmann, Veronicka/Vera (née Liebl) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Einsatzgruppen (SS ‘Special Action Groups’) ref 1, ref 2
Einstein, Albert ref 1, ref 2
Eisenhower, US General Dwight D. ref 1
Eguaseki, Philip ref 1
Eldad, Norit (Nora Eldoc) ref 1
Eliaz, Ruth ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Elkes, Dr Elchanan ref 1
Embu cemetery (Brazil) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Enskilda Bank ref 1, ref 2
Erlander, Tage ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Erhard, Prof. Sophie ref 1
Esposito, General Giovanni ref 1, ref 2
European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg ref 1
euthanasia programme, Nazi ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
see also Final Solution
Evian-les-Bains ref 1, ref 2
Fadro Farm Pharmaceuticals ref 1, ref 2
Farago, Ladislas, Aftermath ref 1
Farouk, King of Egypt ref 1n
Feodorenko, Fyodor ref 1, ref 2n, ref 3
Feron, James ref 1
Final Solution of the Jewish Problem ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17, ref 18, ref 19, ref 20
Wanssee Conference (1942) ref 1, ref 2
Fischer, Alois ref 1, ref 2
Fischer family ref 1, ref 2
Fleischer, Professor Hagen ref 1, ref 2
Fleming, Gerald ref 1, ref 2
Floss, SS Sergeant Herbert (Tadellos) ref 1, ref 2
Forgacs, Wilhelm ref 1, ref 2
Forsyth, Frederick, The Odessa File ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Franco, General Francisco ref 1, ref 2
Frank, Anne ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Frankfurt ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Mengele’s studies at Institute of Eugenics ref 1, ref 2
Auschwitz trial ref 1
Mengele ‘trial in absentia’ ref 1
Hirtreiter trial ref 1
Frantz, Konstantin ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Franz Joseph, Emperor ref 1
Franz, Kurt (‘The Doll’) ref 1, 374–ref 1n
Freedom Party, Austrian ref 1n, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
freemasons ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Freiburg ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
French Foreign Legion ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Freud, Dr Sigmund ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Friedman, Tuviah ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10
Frischenschlager, Friedhelm ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Fuchs, Hana ref 1
Fuchs, Miriam and Tovah ref 1
Galen, Count Clemens August von, Archbishop of Münster ref 1, ref 2n
Galicia ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
Garde-Widemar, Ingrid ref 1, ref 2
Gebauer, Fritz ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Genazzini, Zola ref 1
genocide
Wiesenthal on components of ref 1, ref 2
Soviet vs Nazi ref 1
Nazi policy of ref 1
Genocide (film documentary) ref 1
Genthin slave labour camp ref 1, ref 2
Gerhard, Adolf ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Gerhard, Ruth ref 1, ref 2
Gerhard, Wolfgang ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Gerstein, Kurt ref 1
Gilbert, Martin ref 1
Glasenapp, Judge Horst von ref 1
Glasenbach detention camp ref 1, ref 2
Glawe, Ernesto ref 1
Glawe, Norberto ref 1
Glazar, Richard ref 1, ref 2
Globocnik, Major-General Odilo ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Goebbels, Josef ref 1, ref 2
