The New York Board of Rabbis, in a letter to the Austrian Ambassador to the U.S., today appealed to the Austrian government not to close the anti-Nazi Documentation Center in Vienna headed by Simon Wiesenthal. According to information reaching the U.S., there was a strong likelihood that this center, which is responsible for hunting down over 1000 World War II criminals, would be closed by the Austrian government. In their letter to the Ambassador, the rabbis stated that they were “appalled” at the prospect of the center’s closing. “It seems incredible to us,” said the rabbis, “that your government should take steps to close down an instrumentality whose function it is to trace Nazi war criminals whose acts of destruction of millions of people represents the most heinous crime of all time. Mr. Wiesenthal has made this his life work, in a singular dedication which is the admiration of the entire world and should be encouraged rather than discouraged by your own government.” Should the proposal to close this documentation office be carried out, it would be “construed by all humanity as an endorsement by your government of a period in world history which is considered the most shameful in the story of man,” the rabbis stated. They closed their appeal to the Ambassador with the hope that “Mr. Wiesenthal’s office be allowed to continue its sacred task of eradicating evil from the earth.” Last week a government official said there is no intention to shut down the center.
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