The City of Paris inaugurated this week a Simon and Cyla Wiesenthal Square, to the memory of Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005) who devoted his life to bringing Nazi war criminals to justice and his spouse, Cyla.

The inauguration, in the 10th district of Paris, was attened by the City’s Deputy Mayor Catherine Vieu-Charier, Wiesenthals’ daughter, Paulinka Wiesenthal-Kreisberg and her family, as well as by diplomats, religious and community leaders, and members of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre-Europe.

In her speech, Deputy Mayor Vieu-Charier declared : "More than 70 years after the horror, women, men and their children continue to be stigmatised and murdered in the name of a criminal and paranoid ideology, as Jews only because they are Jews... and just because they wish to live together in peace and freedom".

"The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has made this its vocation, its very purpose. I salute their representatives present...and assure them that they have the support of Paris in their precious work..."

"To inscribe the names of Simon and Cyla Wiesenthal in the Paris domain is to indelibly engrave in our collective memory what they represented.. commitment and combat to inspire us to confront the challenges of our time... Without fail, Simon and Cyla have marked history... May their combat for justice continue to illuminate the future of our democracies."

Shimon Samuels, the Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, recalled that ‘’Simon survived six death camps with a very clear objective: to seek justice.’’

"Towards the end of his life he was crushed to see the recrudescence of anti-Semitism in Europe... He told me that he wished for his wife and himself to be buried in Israel to prevent the desecration of their graves if in Europe".

He added : "Paris, in honouring Simon and Cyla with this Square, is honouring that generation who sacrificed all for the values we now take for granted. I hope that young people will be brought to this Square by their teachers to have them 'Google' Simon, Cyla and their French comrades to understand why they deserve to be commemorated.’’