Nazi hunter knighted in London
2004-02-20 13:52
London - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who has made rooting out and bringing Nazi war criminals to justice his life's work, has been given an honorary British knighthood.
The 95-year-old Ukrainian-born Wiesenthal, who gained fame for uncovering proof that led to the trial of Adolf Eichmann -- the architect of Hitler's Final Solution against the Jews - will officially become a Knight of the British Empire later this year.
Israeli secret services captured Eichmann in Argentina in 1960. He was convicted and executed in Israel a year later.
Wiesenthal was freed by American soldiers from the Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen in May 1945, but dozens of his family members, among them his mother, stepfather and stepbrother died in the Nazi genocide.
He founded the Jewish Documentation Centre in Vienna two years after the end of the war.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre was founded in 1977, with headquarters today in Los Angeles and offices in Argentina, Austria, Canada, France and Israel aimed at fighting bigotry and anti-Semitism worldwide.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw hailed Wiesenthal, who retired last year after nearly 60 years of unending toil, as a man who symbolised "coming to terms with the past".
"Mr Wiesenthal has been untiring in his service to the Jewish communities in the UK and elsewhere by helping to right at least some of the awful wrongs of the Holocaust," Straw said in announcing the award on Thursday.
Queen Elizabeth will bestow the award on Wiesenthal, which the Foreign Office said was made "in recognition of a lifetime of service to humanity".
Wiesenthal, who was an architect before World War 2, said he had turned to hunting Nazis because "when history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it".