"I didn't forget you."

<via> CNN Student News and the New York Times

Simon Wiesenthal died September 20, 2005 at the age of 96. He was a Holocaust survivor who spent 4 years inside Nazi concentration camps. This famous death camp survivor dedicated the remainder of his life to hunting down fugitive Nazi war criminals.

During World War II, Germany's Nazi regime carried out mass killings. This tragic event became known as the Holocaust.  At least six million Jews died along with  several million others whom the Nazis opposed.

Simon Wiesenthal vowed to remember the names of his torturers. He held on to the belief that he would make it out alive....And when he did, at the age of 37, Wiesenthal spent 60 years tracking down the men and women who carried out -the Holocaust. His one-man detective agency helped provide the evidence that led to the trials of more than 1,000 former Nazi war criminals.

Adolf Eichman, the Commandant of Auschwitz, was brought to trial in Jerusalem in 1961 and given the only death penalty ever imposed in Israel.

Many notorious war criminals like Stangl, Veesenmayer, Rauter were arrested.  Karl Silberbauer was the Nazi officer who arrested Anne Frank. Wiesenthal's main regret was his failure to capture the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele...whose human experiments led to the deaths of thousands.

Later in life, Wiesenthal would devote his life to teaching tolerance...he spoke at the United Nations in 1995 on the dangers of internet hate sites.

He was often asked why he had become a searcher of Nazi criminals instead of resuming a profitable career in architecture. He gave one questioner this response: "You're a religious man. You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Still another will say, 'I built houses,' but I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'”

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Simon was a lion of a man, a survivor and a conqueror, a hero in every sense of the word."

"He suffered unspeakable hardships in the Nazi death camps but he did not let them break his spirit or compromise his will to live ... I will always be grateful that I knew one of the greatest men of our time."

Many other  world leaders have paid tribute to this brave and inspiring man. If you would like to add your voice to pay tribute to Simon Wiesenthal's life please leave a comment below.