Simon Wiesenthal

The Life and Legends

De: Tom Segev

Narrado por: Marc Cashman

This first fully documented biography of Simon Wiesenthal, the legendary Nazi hunter, is also a brilliant character study of a man whose life was part invention but wholly dedicated to ensuring both that the Nazis be held responsible for their crimes and that the destruction of European Jewry never be forgotten.

Like most Jews in Eastern Europe on the eve of Hitler’s invasion of Poland, twenty-four-year-old Simon Wiesenthal did not grasp the nature of the Nazi threat. But six years later, when a skeletal Wiesenthal was liberated from the concentration camp at Mauthausen, he fully fathomed the crimes of the Nazis. Within days he had assembled a list of nearly 150 Nazi war criminals, the first of dozens of such lists he would make over a lifetime as a Nazi hunter. A hero in the eyes of many, Wiesenthal was also attacked for his unrelenting pursuit of the past, when others preferred to forget.

For this new biography, rich in newsworthy revelations, historian and journalist Tom Segev has obtained access to Wiesenthal’s private papers and to sixteen archives, including records of the U.S., Israeli, Polish, and East German secret services. Segev is able to reveal the intriguing secrets of Wiesenthal’s life, including his stunning role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann, his relationship with Israel’s Mossad, his controversial investigative techniques, his unlikely friendships with Kurt Waldheim and Albert Speer, and the nature of his rivalry with Elie Wiesel.

Segev’s challenge in writing this biography was Wiesenthal’s own complicated relationship to truth. Wiesenthal told many versions of his life, his suffering in the camps, and his involvement with the arrest of individual Nazis. Segev shows that in order to gain the information he sought and twist the arms of reluctant government figures, Wiesenthal needed to seem more influential than he really was.

For two generations of Americans, Simon Wiesenthal was a Jewish superhero—depicted on film by Ben Kingsley and Laurence Olivier—and the muse for a Frederick Forsyth thriller. Now Segev demonstrates that the truth of Wiesenthal’s existence is as compelling as the fiction. Simon Wiesenthal is an unforgettable life of one of the great men of the twentieth century.

Well done. Balanced.

Thorough. Balanced. Well spoken. A man few now know of. A history being erased and revised.

His goal; Expose evil & avenge deaths of millions

What did you love best about Simon Wiesenthal?

He took his personal sufferings,loss of his family, & horrors he witnesses at the hands of the Nazis's, and made it his life's goal to locate, catch and bring to justice, the people who destroyed generations in what was called the "Final Solution".

What did you like best about this story?

Information brought to light about the differences between the Zionists and Jews. The constant walls he had to go through to get information and how his own ego got in the way of some of his success and created barriers between him and the people that he thought were there to help his cause.

Which character – as performed by Marc Cashman – was your favorite?

N/A

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

too emotional to listen to in one sitting even if I could.

Any additional comments?

An important part of Jewish history during WWII.
Simon was his own worst enemy, at times, but a prolific writer.
Worked his whole life to catch the murderers of millions, all the while, keeping his head above water. I also found it shocking how many of his enemy were Jewish.

Freedom is like health, you take it for granted until you lose it

Another man who should be taught about in schools, not only for his nazi-hunting, but for how he overcame his horrible struggles as a concentration camp inmate, and never tried to use it as an excuse for not achieving something or a reason to preach victimology. I also greatly admire him for his stance there is no such thing as "collective guilt", only individual responsibility. If I had to make one complaint, I felt the author was too nitpicky over differences in Wiesenthal's story over 96 years of telling it. "NEVER AGAIN! "

Important biography

This important biography is essential reading/listening.

however it is marred by the narrator being unable to correctly pronounce any of the Hebrew names and terms that appear in the book. Hence the 3 stars.