The Wiesenthal File

Levy, an American who founded and edits the Prague Post , has known famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal since 1974. This moving account of his life and work is filled with Wiesenthal's outspoken comments and impromptu recollections. Levy's reconstruction of how the relentlessly determined survivor of Hitler's concentration camps brought Adolf Eichmann and other major Nazi criminals to justice packs in as much suspense and high drama as a thriller. Born in 1908 in Galicia (a region of the former Austria-Hungary), Wiesenthal tried to commit suicide after the Gestapo arrested him. His wife, Cyla Muller, also was sent to a concentration camp; he assumed she was dead until their postwar reunion in Poland. Levy offers a controversial analysis of Wiesenthal's role in the debate surrounding ex-U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, who became Austria's president. Wiesenthal called Waldheim a liar who concealed his knowledge of atrocities but concluded he was never a Nazi or war criminal. Levy praises Wiesenthal's ``principled stand,'' which possibly cost him a Nobel Peace Prize. Photos. Author tour. (Aug.)