Discovering witnesses is just as important as catching criminals.
Justice for crimes against humanity must have no limitations.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Justice for crimes against humanity should be pursued without time limits or barriers.
This quote highlights the belief that accountability for serious injustices, especially those affecting humanity at large, should not be constrained by time. It emphasizes that individuals and systems responsible for crimes against humanity must be held accountable regardless of when the crimes occurred, as the pursuit of justice is a continuous obligation of society to ensure that such atrocities do not repeat themselves.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for human rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of holding perpetrators accountable regardless of the passage of time.
More from Simon Wiesenthal
All quotes βMy cause was justice, not vengeance. My work is for a better tomorrow and a more secure future for our children and grandchildren.
The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.
We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?
Human rights is the only ideology that deserves to survive
You're a religious man, ... You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Another will say, 'I built houses.' But I will say, 'I didn't forget you.'
Similar quotes
If it be not a sin, an open, flagrant violation of all the rules of justice and humanity, to hold these slaves in bondage, it is indeed folly to put ourselves to any trouble and expense in order to free them.
Rule-following, legal precedence, and political consistency are not more important than right, justice and plain common-sense.
I believe that he who has less in life should have more in law.
Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment.
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.
I can't identify a race of people in this country who are more committed to the health of this country, who believe more in the Constitution, who believe more in equality and liberation and fairness to everyone else than black people.