The Sleight-of-Hand of Simon Wiesenthal

"Falsus in Uno, Falsus in Omnibus"

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Mark Weber and Keith Stimely

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For many years Simon Wiesenthal has made a highly successful career for himself as the world's foremost "Nazi hunter." The American mass media have elevated him to secular sainthood and the U.S. Congress awarded him a special gold medal.

In reality Wiesenthal is a proven liar. The most infamous example was his charge that an elderly Polish refugee living in Chicago, Frank Walus, was a Gestapo official responsible for killing Jews during the Second World War. Only a long and costly court battle by an unusually tenacious attorney saved Walus from almost certain death. The government prosecutors were forced to drop their case ignominously. The popular Chicago Weekly Reader and the highly respected Chicago Lawyer published devastating expose's of Wiesenthal's role in the frame-up of Walus. Eventually even the Washington Post acknowledged his sordid role in the affair.

In Canada, the Toronto Sun, commenting on another "war criminal" case in which Wiesenthal was involved, and the accused finally determined to be innocent, editorialized: "It seems that material provided by professional Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal is wrong, but repeated [by the print and broadcast media] anyway."

Recently yet another example of Wiesenthal's blatant distortion of historical truth came to light.

In 1946 Wiesenthal published a book in Austria entitled _KZ Mauthausen_ [Concentration Camp Mauthausen]. It consists mainly of mediocre sketches by the young "Nazi hunter" purporting to represent the horrors of the Mauthausen concentration camp. One of the drawings depicts three Mauthausen inmates bound to posts who had apparently been sadistically put to death by the Germans. Another graphic example of murderous Nazi treatment of inmates!

Actually, the sketch is completely phoney.

In January 1945 Life Magazine published a series of photos graphically recording the firing-squad execution of three German soldiers who had been caught operating as spies behind the lines during the "Battle of the Bulge." Photographer Johnny Florea recorded the execution in December 1944 near Bastogne. The three soldiers died "singing patriotic German songs," Life reported.

In its issue of 16 December 1983 the West German weekly newspaper Deutsche National-Zeitung published the Life photos and the Wiesenthal sketch together. Even a quick comparison makes clear beyond any doubt that the "Nazi hunter" HAD COPIED HIS DRAWING FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHS. Wiesenthal's gruesome depiction of German barbarism in Mauthausen is actually the deceitful product of his malicious mind.

Another example of the generally spurious character of Wiesenthal's 1946 Mauthausen book is his citation therein of the supposed "death bed" confession of Commandant Franz Ziereis that FOUR MILLION inmates were gassed to death at the Hartheim satellite camp. Along with Dachau, Ravensbrueck, and Buchenwald, "Holocaust" historians no longer even mention Mauthausen as a "death camp" or gassing center. According to the official tourist brochure now distributed at the camp, a total of only 206,000 persons WERE EVER INMATES at Mauthausen and its satellite camps.

Question: How long can a self-respecting world continue to even put up with, let alone shower honours on, this man Simon Wiesenthal -- one of the biggest lying fakers of our age?

Above: "Life" magazine in January 1945 published these photos of three German soldiers shot by their American captors during the Battle of the Bulge.

WIESENTHAL FORGED AND LIED Above: Simon Wiesenthal's drawing (from his book "KZ Mauthausen," 1946) depicting three murdered inmate victims of German barbarity in the concentration camp of Mauthausen. Note the striped inmate garb on the figures. But did Wiesenthal really see this in Mauthausen? Compare this drawing and the three photos on the facing page and you will know what Wiesenthal drew from. With all his talk about the "millions" of victims of Nazi brutality, why is it that Simon Wiesenthal couldn't seem to find any of those for his graphic deptiction of such brutality? Why did he have to resort to copying from a scene of GERMAN VICTIMS of an AMERICAN EXECUTION?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Weber is editor of The Journal of Historical Review, published six times yearly by the Institute for Historical Review. He studied history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich, Portland State University, and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For five days in March 1988, he testified as a recognized expert witness on the "final solution" and the Holocaust issue in a Toronto District Court case. He is the author of many published articles, reviews and essays on various aspects of modern European history. Weber has appeared as a guest on numerous radio talk shows, and on the nationally-syndicated "Montel Williams" television show.

We wish to acknowledge that the above article was made available courtesy of the Institute for Historical Review.

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