Memory eternal! A great benefactor of humanity and an utterly fearless voice. "Justice, justice shalt thou pursue..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/21//db2101.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/21/ixportal.html A great loss, by any measure.
Wiesenthal's part in the pursuit of Eichmann as well as others will always make him an heroic figure. He lived long and purposefully. Matt
It brings to mind the movie Hero, staring Hoffman, Garcia, and Davis. In the movie, Geena Davis' newscaster character comments that just once she'd like to find a "hero" who, when you peeled the layers away, was even a bigger hero inside. In our sometimes too cynical world, we might watch a movie like Hero and think that such heros don't really exist except in movies and escapist literature. When one reads the story and life of Simon Wiesenthal, one knows that there are such people, who continue to be true heros, no matter how many layers one peels. One is consoled by the fact that when higher duty called in the aftermath of unspeakable horror, women and men such as Simon Wiesenthal listened to that call and did not shrink.
Poor Analogy I'm puzzled by the analogy between the mediocre comedy Hero and the life of the great Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The Geena Davis character's comment notwithstanding, why would someone even mention them in the same sentence? Why don't you compare the lyrics of the Mariah Carey song Hero with the Wiesenthal legacy while you are at it? It would be equally inappropriate but I suspect more people are familiar with the song than the movie. BTW, the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie was a petty criminal who performed a heroic act - good for him - while Simon Wiesenthal was a concentration camp survivor who spent the rest of his life dedicated to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, and by doing so had to endure those horrible memories his entire life. Again, mentioning a movie character who is a common criminal with someone who was a concentration camp inmate is unfortunate. This would be like comparing the time your basement flooded to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. I hope that QTJ reconsiders his comments.
Second Thoughts Upon reflection (and the passage of time), I see that the original QTJ comments were not meant to detract from or trivialize the solemnity of Simon Wiesenthal's obituary. I reacted emotionally and in haste, and extend a sincere apology to QTJ for my comments.