Quotes from Simon Wiesenthal

There is no denying that Hitler and Stalin are alive today... they are waiting for us to forget, because this is what makes possible the resurrection of these two monsters.

The end was surely near. The Nazis killed you only when you were naked, because they knew, psychologically, that naked people never resist.

I have lost my mother, my father, my five, and ninety relatives in Poland. Poland is for me a cemetery.

What connects two thousand years of genocide? Too much power in too few hands.

God must have been on leave during the Holocaust.

For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.

When history looks back I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it.

If you know from history the danger, then part of the danger is over because it may not take you by surprise as it did your ancestors.

Justice for crimes against humanity must have no limitations.

Survival is a privilege which entails obligations. I am forever asking myself what I can do for those who have not survived.

Violence is like a weed - it does not die even in the greatest drought.

Humour is the weapon of unarmed people: it helps people who are oppressed to smile at the situation that pains them.

There were millions of such families anxious only for peace and quiet in their own little nests. These were the mounting blocks by which the criminals climbed to power and kept it.

Discovering witnesses is just as important as catching criminals.

Hatred can be nurtured anywhere, idealism can be perverted into sadism anywhere. If hatred and sadism combine with modern technology the inferno could erupt anew anywhere.

Technology without hatred can be a blessing. Technology with hatred is always a disaster.

Technology without hate can be so beneficial for mankind, but in conjunction with hatred, it leads to disaster.

Even before I had had time to really think things through, I realized we must not forget. If all of us forgot, the same thing might happen again, in 20 or 50 or 100 years.

Forgetting is something that time takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision.

We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?

The combination of hatred and technology is the greatest danger threatening mankind.

God must have been on leave during the Holocaust.

Forgetting is something time alone takes care of, but forgiveness is an act of volition, and only the sufferer is qualified to make the decision

There were millions of such families anxious only for peace and quiet in their own little nests. These were the mounting blocks by which the criminals climbed to power and kept it.