Historical Figure
Elie Wiesel
1928–2016
American writer and activist (1928–2016)
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"The Perils of Indifference" — April 12, 1999
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Biography
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, which is based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Holocaust.
Timeline
The story of Elie Wiesel, told in moments.
Night has sold over 10 million copies in 30 languages. "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness." He turned survival into obligation and silence into a form of complicity.
Deported to Auschwitz with his entire family. He is 15. His mother and younger sister Tzipora are sent to the gas chambers upon arrival. He and his father are selected for forced labor. His father dies in Buchenwald three months before liberation.
Publishes La Nuit (Night), his memoir of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. It's rejected by 15 publishers before finally appearing. The original Yiddish manuscript was 862 pages. The published version: 116. He cut everything that wasn't bone.
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee calls him "a messenger to mankind." He uses the platform to speak for victims of oppression everywhere, not only Holocaust survivors.
Speaks at the dedication of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. He'd spent years on the founding council, pushing for the museum's creation under Presidents Carter and Reagan.
Dies at home in Manhattan at 87. He authored 57 books. He taught at Boston University for 40 years. He never stopped testifying.
In Their Own Words (20)
What I don't like today is, to put it coarsely, the phony Hasidism, the phony mysticism. Many students say, "Teach me mysticism." It's a joke.
In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 86, 2002
If you ask me what I want to achieve, it's to create an awareness, which is already the beginning of teaching.
In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 85, 2002
I rarely speak about God. To God yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But open discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree.
In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 87, 2002
Some writings could sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.
A statement of 1968, as quoted in "How And Why I Write: An Interview with Elie Wiesel" by Heidi Anne Walker, in Journal of Education, Vol. 162 (1980), p. 57, 1980
BERISH: I resigned from membership in God—I resigned from God. Let Him look for another innkeeper, let Him find another people, let Him push around another Jew—I’m through with Him!MARIA: Don’t you worry, Master. You say things, but God isn’t angry How could He be? He isn’t even listening.
Act I (p. 15), 1979
Artifacts (15)
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