Vienna – Political leaders, diplomats and young and old of all faiths bade farewell to Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal on Wednesday, paying tribute to his decades-long pursuit of World War II’s most heinous criminals.
The 96-year-old activist died in his sleep Tuesday. His dark, shrouded coffin lay in the center of a hall filled with his friends, Austria’s leaders and the media at Vienna’s Central Cemetery.
Mayor Michael Haeupl thanked Wiesenthal for remaining for decades in Austria’s capital.
He stayed at an uncomfortable time, when many in Vienna did not wish to be reminded of the country’s actions under Nazi rule.
“He was treated unfairly,” Haeupl said. “And when this unfairness comes from friends, it hurts twice as much.”
Austria’s Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn and Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, as well as the interior and justice ministers, attended the ceremony.
It was open to the public, and people of all ages and faiths came.
Schuessel told the crowd that Wiesenthal’s mission had offered an example for postwar officials dealing with war criminals, saying his belief that individuals should be held responsible set the tone for U.N. tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Israeli Ambassador Dan Ashbel described Wiesenthal as the conscience that led to justice for the victims.
“You left us with the task of reminding humanity of the Holocaust and to warn of misanthropy,” Ashbel said. “We share your hope for a better world and will carry on your mission and work.”
Several wreaths, including two large ones with purple and white flowers, lay near the casket. Their ribbons, in the blue and white colors of the Israeli flag, carried wishes from Israel and from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
Carla Amina Baghajati, who represented the Islamic community in Austria, said: “I felt obliged to pay respects to a man who had done so much. He was a person who spent his lifetime seeking justice.”
Paula Herzfeld, 73, who lives in Lisbon, Portugal, credited Wiesenthal and his center for tracking down the truth of the fate of her grandparents, who perished in a Nazi camp in Poland. “I am not an important person … but I wanted to be here today.” she said. “He was a great man and did a great job.”
Tributes to Wiesenthal poured in from President Bush, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
“He felt he had to do something for those who didn’t come back,” Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld told The Associated Press. “He was a witness.”
Wiesenthal was troubled recently by deteriorating relations between Muslims and Jews in Europe and by a rise in anti- Semitism on the continent, said Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal center’s director for international affairs
Wiesenthal will be buried Friday in Israel, where his daughter, Paulina Kreisberg, lives. His wife, Cyla, died in 2003.
