One of the world's most famous Holocaust survivors is the Austrian Jew, Simon Wiesenthal, who, after being interned at the Mauthausen concentration camp during the war, devoted his life to hunting ex-Nazis the world over. Wiesenthal also has an organization, devoted to Jewish interests and promoting the mass extermination propaganda, named after him.

Yet it is a little known fact that Wiesenthal's own personal Holocaust memoirs, entitled "KZ Mauthausen, Bild und Wort" (Concentration Camp Mauthausen - pictures and words) which was published in 1946, contains one of the most blatant forgeries of all Holocaust memoirs.

Wiesenthal illustrated his book with drawings which he allegedly did either while in Mauthausen or from memory thereafter, and one of the more famous pictures from his book is of three Jews, in their striped prisoner outfits, who had been shot at the stake by the Nazis. (reproduced below).

Top: The title page of Nazi Hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal's Holocaust memoirs, 'KZ Mauthausen Bild und Wort' and below that, an illustration of three Jews, shot by Nazis at the stake, as signed by Wiesenthal (his signature in the bottom left hand corner) and purporting to be a scene in the Mauthausen camp.

WIESENTHAL'S DRAWING PLAGIARIZED FROM LIFE MAGAZINE

Although Wiesenthal alleged in his book that the drawing of the three shot Jews occurred in Mauthausen, the truth is that he plagiarized this picture from a series of photographs which appeared in the Life magazine of June 1945.

The series of photographs were of German soldiers, captured during the 'Battle of the Bulge" wearing American uniforms, and executed by firing squad as allowed by the Geneva Convention. Wiesenthal copied his picture of "three shot Jews" from a Life photo essay which showed three Germans being shot by Americans!

Below is the full set of pictures from the Life Magazine of June 1945, along with that magazine's cover. Note the three photographs on the third inside page reproduced below.

Below are the photographs of the three shot Germans, from the above last page of Life Magazine, put side by side, and under that, Wiesenthal's "Mauthausen execution" drawing once again: a comparison of the two can leave no doubt as to where this world famous "Nazi hunter" stole this image for his "memoirs."