Post-war judiciary

Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal

Simon Wiesenthal is of eminent importance for the Austrian post-war judiciary. His personal commitment not only led to extensive networking among those formerly persecuted, but also to a number of lawsuits against the Nazi perpetrators. He was born in Buczacz (then Galicia, now Ukraine) in 1908. In July 1941 he was arrested and deported to a concentration camp. Over the years he was imprisoned in various concentration camps and finally experienced liberation in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Simon Wiesenthal began looking for evidence against Nazi perpetrators. In 1947 he founded the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Linz, which had to be closed due to a lack of financial support. Simon Wiesenthal finally went to Vienna and founded a new documentation center there. He devoted the rest of his life to searching for Nazi perpetrators and collecting extensive information that he made available to the law enforcement authorities. Simon Wiesenthal died in Vienna in September 2005. [1]

The search for witnesses

Statements by witnesses were central to post-war judiciary, but there were only a few survivors and some of them were scattered all over the world, in camps or in a new home. It is to Simon Wiesenthal's credit that he created a contact point for these witnesses where they could give their testimonies, or that he actively sought witnesses himself, for example in newspaper appeals.

This letter from Simon Wiesenthal to Hans Schueller asking for statements about Nazi crimes is an example of his search for witnesses. Simon Wiesenthal followed up every piece of information he received during his research.

Gathering historical sources

Timetable

Simon Wiesenthal's research was not limited to correspondence with authorities or possible witnesses. He also collected many Nazi documents, as evidenced by this timetable from Vienna to Minsk on 12 May 1942. [3]

Deportation lists for Minsk

Other documents that Simon Wiesenthal collected included deportation lists (in this case those of possible witnesses). This overview shows the date of the deportation to Minsk and then the further whereabouts of the person, if information on this was found. [4]

Letter from Josef Toch to Oberstleutnant Kaes

Letter from Josef Toch

In this letter Josef Toch writes to Oberstleutnant Kaes about his observations at the Koblenz trial of Nazi criminals who had committed crimes in Minsk and Maly Trascjenec. He refers to the work of Simon Wiesenthal. From this letter, above all, the displeasure against the Austrian prosecution of Nazi crimes emerges. The "victim theory", which was a central part of remembrance in Austria for a long time, is criticized and the participation of Austrians in National Socialist crimes is emphasized. [5]