Simon Wiesenthal's Gravestone Unveiling

SIMON WIESENTHAL'SGRAVESTONE UNVEILING

Help Us To Continue Simon Wiesenthal’sLegacy

Please help us continue the legacy of Simon Wiesenthal, whose gravestone was unveiled today in Herzliya, Israel.

Speaking at the unveiling, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Center’s dean and founder said, “It is nine months since the world lost theconscience of the Holocaust, Shimon Ben Asher.

Millions knew what he did, but few realized the sacrifice he made in order to achieve it. His life’s work was to find those whomurdered six million Jews and millions of others, including 89 members of his family. He undertook this work, not as anact of vengeance but in search of justice and a better world. Use this link to read the full eulogy…

In his closing remarks, Rabbi Hier shared the poignant and heartfelt story of Mr. Wiesenthal’s wish for his 90thBirthday.

“One day Simon called and said that hewould like to celebrate his 90th birthday with a few friends in Vienna. It was at a time when he could no longer travel and his wife was bedridden. I asked him where he would like tocelebrate. He said, ‘I have one unfulfilled wish, to have a party at the Imperial Hotel.’ Before I had a chance to ask why the Imperial, he told me that it was Hitler’s favorite hoteland that both he and Himmler had permanent suites there. They built enormous bunkers beneath the hotel, which still exist today, because Hitler thought that this would serve as an idealheadquarters from where he could conduct the Second World War.

Photos: Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert speaking at the unveiling (above) and Rabbi Marvin Hier delivering the eulogy (below). Herzliya, Israel - Friday,June 23, 2006

During the Third Reich, it would have beenunthinkable, Simon said, for a Jew to be seen at the Imperial Hotel. ‘And I want to make sure,’ he said, ‘that all the taboos of the Third Reich are broken and that the record of this hotelwould affirm that Simon Wiesenthal celebrated his 90th birthday here with a Kosher dinner.’

On the night of the dinner, when the band played a favorite Yiddish song, ‘Belz, Mein Shtele Belz’ (Belz, My Little ShtetlBelz), he looked up at the ceiling, turned to me, and said: ‘You see even the chandeliers are shaking because this is the first time they have ever heard such music here. Let the recordread,’ he said, ‘that Hitler is no longer here, but even in the Imperial Hotel, Jews are still alive and still singing.’”

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