Soiling his Memory
Aussie Dave | Sep 21, 2005 | 9 comments
Yesterday in my post on Simon Wiesenthal z’”l, I posted excerpts from Wikipedia. Today I have learned that this was not wise.
An Australian Jewish group has been angered by the use of an online encyclopedia to attack the memory of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, who died yesterday.The Wikipedia website, a collection of articles that can be freely edited by users, displayed false information about Mr Wiesenthal, claiming he partook in various sex acts in Austria with other men.“In the 1970′s he became involved in gay life when he began spending his free time giving oral sex to older black men”, the site read in part this morning. It continued on for several paragraphs.Wiesenthal, a holocaust survivor who helped track down more than 1000 Nazi war criminals, died in his sleep at home in Vienna yesterday. He was 96.The Council of Australian Jewry was angered at the posting on the Wikipedia website, which gets about 60 million hits a day, and said it was a blatant attempt to denigrate the memory of Mr Wiesenthal.“I suppose if you are a former Nazi or sympathiser then it makes sense to try and denigrate the person who is bringing you down,” said executive officer with the group, Josh Landis.“This is abhorrent and shows a lack of respect to his memory.”Mr Landis said he would informally speak with other members of the council to see what action could be taken against he website.“I can imagine people will regard this as extremely offensive, and degrading the history of someone who was known universally for their stand on human rights,” he said.
I am at a loss for words.
Update: Reader Womble seems to have uncovered evidence that it may have been a member of the white supremacist group Stormfront. Here’s a post on their forum by a commenter named Val Kyrie. The post is entitled Zionist Cabal taking over Wikipedia.
I’ve tried adding a few things to Wikipedia on pages to do with our cause. They are gone by the time I check the following morning. Try writing some extra stuff about Wiesenthal or Wiesel etc. and see how quickly it disappears!!! Been there…Done that. But do it anyway. Write about how Wiesenthal saved his own neck by ratting on his fellow Jews. See how long it stays there. Even though it’s true! As an added experiment. Add something to one of the pages about some (in)famous Jew and praise the #^*^. See if that remains…It will. Then get rid of it! And tell us the results.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Dave,
I would love to see the article you’re quoting. Could you provide a link?
Oh and something else.
I think I may have found the ones who did this disgusting prank. Here’s what appeared on the Stormfront forum in the thread titled “Group of Jews taking over Wikipedia”:
“I’ve tried adding a few things to Wikipedia on pages to do with our cause. They are gone by the time I check the following morning. Try writing some extra stuff about Wiesenthal or Wiesel etc. and see how quickly it disappears!!! Been there…Done that. But do it anyway.”
This was part of the post made by an Australian who goes by the nickname Val Kyrie. An edited post above this one is dated 08-20-2005, a month ago. Still, it shows that these guys are engaging in this kind of Wikipedia vandalism on regular basis, which makes them very likely suspects.
Oops..I didn’t realize I forgot the link. I have included it now.
What’s the link to the Stormfront thread you cited?
Here:
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=225536&page=2
Post number 14 by Val Kirye.
Thanks for the link
what went wrong with those sick minds? is it an educational problem? or is it the pollution? is it sexual?
i just really don’t get it.
how dare someone commit such a horrific and heinous crime, defacing the memory, blatantly lying, especially to a person who, their entire life, fought for justice! i’m sickened
A tactic much used by stormfronters is to insinuate themselves onto message boards, become members, make their comments on occasion, leave their little smutty tracks all over, post their web sites, articles, all manner of conspiracies and contact information, try to passively convert other members and, in general, cause havoc. The internet is their new play toy and being annoying as hell is a prime pasttime with many of these yokels. Spit!
You know what I find most amazing? Since it’s Wikipedia, that article would probably have been fixed within ten minutes and very few people would have seen “Val Kyrie”‘s work. But, thanks to the Council of Australian Jewry, it’s made the national papers and will now live forever.
Yelling about racist pranks just makes them ten times more effective. The sooner that well-meaning idiots realise that, the better off we’ll all be.