Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel is an author, Holocaust survivor and humanitarian who has committed his life to education about the Holocaust. Born in Sighet, Hungary (now Romania) in 1928, Wiesel was liberated by the U.S. Third Army in 1945 after surviving four concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where his mother and sister were murdered, and Buchenwald, where his father died of starvation and exposure.
Wiesel has spoken out repeatedly against injustices wherever they occur in the world. Over the years, he has received many awards for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and, in 1986, the Nobel Peace Prize. In presenting the award, Egil Aarvik, the chair of the Nobel Committee, said the following of Wiesel:
His mission is not to gain the world’s sympathy for the victims or the survivors. His aim is to awaken our conscience. Our indifference to evil makes us partners in the crime. This is the reason for his attack on indifference and his insistence on measures aimed at preventing a new Holocaust. We know that the unimaginable has happened. What are we doing now to prevent its happening again?
Through his books Elie Wiesel has given us not only an eyewitness account of what happened, but also an analysis of the evil powers which lay behind the events. His main concern is the question of what measures we can take to prevent a recurrence of these events.*
Facing History and Ourselves has produced a study guide for Wiesel’s memoir Night. Below are also video excerpts of a discussion he held with Facing History and Ourselves students.
* Egil Aarvik, “The Nobel Peace Prize, 1986” (Sweden, 1986).
