Tracking the Obsessions of a ‘Jewish James Bond’

The story of the Holocaust is hardly new to television, or even to this television season; witness ABC’s mammoth miniseries “War and Remembrance,� which led viewers through many cold, dark hours in the concentration camps last November.

But HBO’s “Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story,� which airs Sunday at 8 p.m., tells the story of a different part of the Holocaust: what happened afterward.

Some tried to forget it ever happened. Simon Wiesenthal wouldn’t let them.

The three-hour HBO production, starring Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi�), dramatizes the life of Wiesenthal, now 80, a Holocaust survivor who forsook his career as an architect to open a center in Vienna devoted to tracking down war criminals and bringing them to trial.

That operation has since expanded worldwide, with offices in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Miami and Jerusalem. The U.S. headquarters is the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, opened in 1977. The centers are involved in ferreting out former Nazis and educating the public about the Holocaust.

Wiesenthal’s relentless pursuit is not motivated simply by a desire to see justice done, but also, he says, to try to make some moral sense out of the fact that he was one of only 500 spared out of the 150,000 imprisoned at a forced labor camp in Lemberg, Germany.

“You see, when you think deep in this, you feel you must apologize,� Wiesenthal said in a recent telephone interview from New York, where he attended a screening of the film, part of a tour that would include openings in Washington, London and Monte Carlo. “I think, through my work, I have apologized.�

Wiesenthal also believes the film will stand as testament to that lifelong apology.

“After my death, I will become sort of a legend--a Jewish James Bond,� Wiesenthal said laughingly in a subsequent interview from Vienna, where he has made his home since the war (the first interview from New York had been cut short due to Wiesenthal’s hectic travel schedule). “Or maybe Don Quixote, who knows?

“The first time I saw it was in Monte Carlo, and there was a standing ovation for me for five minutes, and for Ben Kingsley for another five minutes. And people are coming to me and saying how they understood better my motivation.

“This (seeing the film) was very hard for many people. In New York for the premiere, there were many survivors. They were sitting the whole evening and crying--this reminds me of how they felt.�

Even though many of the Nazis have died of old age, the “Jewish James Bond� insists that the pursuit of war criminals must go on.

“Sure, everything will eventually come to a biological solution,� he said. “The criminals will die, the witnesses will die, I will die. But I am one of the last witnesses. This is for me an obligation.�

This is not the first time Hollywood has wanted to dramatize “Murderers Among Us,� Wiesenthal’s 1967 autobiography. Wiesenthal finally granted permission to producer Robert Cooper after gaining Cooper’s promise that Wiesenthal would be allowed to consult on the script.

Said Wiesenthal: “I have always asked that I must say OK to the script, and many (producers) would say, ‘Have confidence in us.’ I would say, ‘Confidence is good, but control is better.’ I did not fight with this producer on every word, you understand, but generally, what people say about Simon Wiesenthal should be approved by Simon Wiesenthal.�

When asked about Wiesenthal’s statement, Cooper said Wiesenthal had substantial input, but not approval rights. “He wanted approval (rights), but I said no,� the film maker said. “I told him to do that would be to turn this into a propaganda piece--there has to be an arm’s length approach. And he agreed.�

Still, the film took 5 1/2 years to complete--mostly in the writing.

“The single most complicated thing,� Cooper explained, “was writing the script, writing something that would be accurate, that would be original, that would be dramatic, and could stand up to the scrutiny of a living person, who is a detective who knows every part of his own life.�

Wiesenthal does not protest Cooper’s decision to depict his failures as well as his successes--as well as to make clear the pain that his obsession caused his wife and daughter, who pleaded with him to take them out of Vienna so they could lead a normal life. Wiesenthal and his wife, Cyla, portrayed in the film by Dutch actress Renee Soutendijk, who were high school sweethearts, were interned in different camps; for six years, each believed the other had died.

“It is not so easy to be my wife, as you can see,� Wiesenthal said ruefully.

“I was more idealistic to the problem, but my wife was more practical--she was a woman with a child,� Wiesenthal said. “She wished to have a safe house, that I should go back to my profession as an architect. My wife argued: ‘It is not only you who survived.’ . . . Later, naturally, they saw they could not change me.�

Kingsley, interviewed during a visit to Los Angeles, said that the only way to play Wiesenthal was likewise not to question his obsession. “People who would perhaps wish that Simon were less vociferous are perhaps wishing that Simon wasn’t Simon,� he said.

“The film is, among other things, about starting a shattered life again--rehabilitation, justice, love, very much about love,� the actor said. “Not only love of his wife and daughter, but love of the dead, that they have a place in our history and in our hearts. It is very different from the graphic representation of what it is like in the camps (as depicted in other Holocaust films).�

Kingsley said he attempted to capture both the dark and the light of Wiesenthal’s obsession.

“You tread a very thin line,� he said. “The survivor who survives articulate, versus the survivor who survives deranged: Which is the normal person, and which is the slightly crazy person? I don’t want to imply that Simon is crazy, but he does have some extraordinary quality that not only enabled him to survive, but enabled him to talk and talk about it.�

Kingsley spent several days with Wiesenthal in Vienna to prepare for the role, and Wiesenthal was present for some of the filming. Another survivor of the Mauthausen camp from which Wiesenthal was eventually liberated was also sometimes on the set during filming as an adviser, but said little--only watched. “Whereas Simon cries a lot, which is healthier in some ways--he has always had the ability to express his grief,� Kingsley said.

Wiesenthal definitely approved of Kingsley’s interpretation.

“When I saw it, after the first half-hour I’d forgotten the reality that Ben Kingsley was playing me,� he said. “I had the feeling I played myself, how he talked--like twins, we are! In the German newspapers, the headlines said: ‘Gandhi played Simon.’ �

Since Wiesenthal began his work, 6,000 Nazis have been brought to trial; he says right now there are three at large who are at the top of his list: Anton Burger, deputy to Adolf Eichmann; Burger’s right-hand man, Alois Brunner, now living in Damascus under the assumed name of Georg Fisher, and SS officer Rolf Gunther.

Despite his obsession with seeing the guilty brought to justice, however, Wiesenthal is equally obsessed with making sure none of the innocent are unfairly prosecuted.

“I will tell you, if I were to be a hater, I could not do the job that I have done,� he said. “Hate and logic, they cannot go together.

“I have so carefully researched everything--checked, doubled-checked and rechecked the facts. I made for myself two (rules). First the the truth. Then justice.�