Right, not vengeance (book)
Right, not vengeance. Memories is a collection of true stories written by Simon Wiesenthal .
overview
The work was created after his own experiences, which he wrote down after his liberation from the Mauthausen concentration camp in May 1945 when he devoted himself to his life's work, the “search for justice for millions of innocent murdered people” .
The book was published in 1988 by Ullstein Verlag in Berlin and in 1990 in the 7th edition and the new edition in 1995 in the 3rd edition. It was translated into English (Justice not vengeance, 1989), Polish (Prawo, nie zemsta, 1992), Czech and Slovenian (1994), Danish (1991) and Spanish (Justicia, no venganza, 1991). In this collection, Simon Wiesenthal tells of his most significant, distinctive and interesting hunts for Nazi criminals and of his anti-Semitism experiences . There is also a film adaptation of the same name for this book .
Contents at a glance
Law, Not Vengeance is a collection of 49 stories in 49 chapters, which deal with different topics but share a common core. They deal with different types of National Socialists. They reflect their characteristics and it is explained why exactly this type was used for this special task in the Nazi system, what he was capable of and what he could not have done. In some chapters Wiesenthal tells of the persecution of Nazi greats such as Adolf Eichmann , Josef Mengele and Franz Stangl . Most of the chapters, however, deal with the "little" National Socialists of various stripes who committed crimes without being induced to do so.
A few chapters deal with National Socialists who did not get into debt; who acted under the law of the time without harming anyone. Simon Wiesenthal makes it clear that a National Socialist was not just a Nazi criminal. He even thanks those who treated the victims humanely and were not guilty despite the difficult situation. He shows how he tried to bring Nazi criminals to justice with all his might. In a nutshell, fragments from Simon Wiesenthal's life during the Nazi era are inserted in order to make his point of view clear to the reader.
Comments
Jacob Heilbrunn writes in Commentary magazine, among other things: " In his memoirs, which caused a sensation when they were published in Austria (where he lives today) in 1988, W. explores the lack of remorse among the former Austrian Nazis regarding their past This is not an autobiography in the narrower sense .... Wiesenthal shows his way of persecuting war criminals in the network of Austrian politics.The book Justice Not Vengeance reaches its climax in a story about his fight with the Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky . ... "
Adaptation
Law, not revenge (film) is the almost three-hour film adaptation of the book material from 1989. It tells the life story of the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal with Ben Kingsley in the leading role. Brian Gibson directed it .
swell
- Book: right, not vengeance. Memories (year of publication: 1988) Author: Simon Wiesenthal, ISBN 3-550-07829-3