December 31, 1908
Simon Wiesenthal Is Born
Historical context
On this day, December 31, 1908, Simon Wiesenthal was born in Buczacz. After surviving Mauthausen he spent decades documenting Nazi crimes.
Archive record
Read the event, then follow its documented sources and archive threads.
- Date
- December 31, 1908
- Verified sources
- 2
- Archive threads
- 6
On this day, Simon Wiesenthal was born in Buczacz, then in Austria-Hungary. His May 1945 curriculum vitae, written at Mauthausen after liberation, gives this date. He studied architecture in Prague after Jewish quotas blocked the Lwów polytechnic.
During the German occupation he was imprisoned, including at the Janowska camp and finally at Mauthausen, which an American unit liberated in May 1945. After the war he documented Nazi crimes and pressed for prosecutions from offices in Linz and later Vienna, working at times with U.S. Army war-crimes investigators. His role in locating Adolf Eichmann has been debated; the 1960 capture in Argentina was carried out by Israeli agents.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- Simon Wiesenthal’s Curriculum Vitae, 1945 · Simon Wiesenthal · EHRI / The Sunflower (1945-05-25) View source
- Simon Wiesenthal: Holocaust Survivor & Nazi Hunter · Simon Wiesenthal Center · Simon Wiesenthal Center View source
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