Simon Wiesenthal, the “Nazi-hunter” who tracked down Adolf Eichmann. Franz Paul Stangl and 900 other Nazi criminals, has issued a worldwide appeal to help save his Documentation Center in Vienna from what he fears is imminent closure by the Austrian government. In a letter being circulated to “our friends abroad,” Mr. Wiesenthal states his apprehension over “heavy attacks and defamations” made against his center at the June 11 Congress of Austria’s ruling Socialist Party. He reports that Minister Leopold Gratz called the center a “secret-agent organization.” The letter continues: “Presently we are the only ones to be active against the Nazis…We know very well that the Socialist Party needs the votes of the former Nazis to reach the majority. It is reported that there might be a Nazi amnesty.” (In New York, Harry Evans, a lawyer, said he had received a copy of the appeal and had cabled Dr. Bruno Kreisky, head of the Austrian Socialist Party and the country’s new Premier, stating:”Austria will be shamed by world opinion if Herr Wiesenthal’s Documentation Center is closed.”)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
