The Wiesenthal file

Publié le 1 août 1994 par Alan Levy

This biography of famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is so well written that it often seems like a thriller rather than a serious examination of the aftermath of the Holocaust filtered through one survivor's experience. Levy's journalistic training (he is editor of the English-language Prague Post) stands him in good stead as he brings Wiesenthal to life in the first part of the book, which outlines the former architect's path through the death camps and forced labor to his new career as a seeker of justice for the six million Jews murdered by Hitler (including nearly 90 of Wiesenthal's own relatives). Levy then traces in brief the careers of several Nazis Wiesenthal has pursued including Adolf Eichmann and Joseph Mengele. Finally, he offers a guarded evaluation of Wiesenthal's role in the controversy surrounding Kurt Waldheim, suggesting that a much earlier rift between Wiesenthal and the World Jewish Congress sparked much of the name-calling directed at the veteran Nazi-hunter in recent discussions of that case.