The Jewish Historical Documentation Centre (Zentrum für jüdische historische Dokumentation) was an office headed by Simon Wiesenthal in Linz. The centre collected and promulgated information about war crimes, specific mainly to crimes against the Jewish people as perpetrated by Nazi Germany in Europe during the Second World War.
The centre has been responsible for uncovering more than 1000 Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust".[1] The office was also interested in the whereabouts of alleged Nazi war criminals who may have escaped justice, including those individuals who escaped through the Nazi ratlines to havens in South America, particularly to Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile.
This Centre closed in 1954.