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Created Jan 0001
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nobel laureate, holocaust survivor, 57 books, night, auschwitz, buchenwald, the holocaust, soviet jews, ethiopian jews, south african apartheid

Elie Wiesel

“Eliezer 'Elie' Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust...”

Contents
  • 1. Overview
  • 2. Etymology
  • 3. Cultural Impact

Elie Wiesel

Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate , and Holocaust survivor . His prolific career spanned decades, during which he authored 57 books , primarily in French and English. Among his most significant works is Night , a searing account of his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during the Holocaust .

Beyond his literary contributions, Wiesel was a tireless advocate for human rights. He dedicated his life to speaking out against injustice, championing the causes of numerous oppressed groups worldwide. His activism extended to advocating for Soviet Jews , Ethiopian Jews , and victims of South African apartheid , the Rwandan genocide , the Bosnian genocide , the War in Darfur , the Kurdish independence movement , the Armenian genocide , Argentina’s Desaparecidos, Nicaragua’s Miskito people , the Sri Lankan Tamils , and the Cambodian genocide . He was also a staunch supporter of Israel, frequently intervening during periods of heightened Arab–Israeli conflict and the Iran–Israel proxy conflict . Wiesel publicly endorsed Netanyahu , including his controversial 2015 address to the U.S. Congress regarding Iran, and signed advertisements supporting settlers in Silwan , East Jerusalem, asserting that Jerusalem “belongs to the Jewish people” and opposing territorial concessions. Simultaneously, he engaged in efforts to facilitate the Israeli–Palestinian peace process .

Wiesel held a professorship in the humanities at Boston University , where the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies was established in his honor. His profound impact was recognized with numerous accolades, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the Human Rights Foundation and a pivotal figure in the establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993.

Early life

Born Eliezer Wiesel in Sighet (now Sighetu Marmației), within the Maramureș County of Romania , Wiesel’s formative years were shaped by a rich linguistic and cultural environment. His parents, Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel, raised him in a home where Yiddish was spoken, alongside German, Hungarian , and Romanian . His maternal grandfather, Dodye Feig, was a respected Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer.

Wiesel’s father instilled in him a deep sense of humanism , encouraging his studies in Hebrew and literature. His mother, Sarah, on the other hand, fostered his devotion to the Torah . Wiesel described his father as representing reason and his mother as embodying faith. He was also informed of his lineage, tracing back to Rabbi Schlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi) and Rabbi Yeshayahu ben Abraham Horovitz ha-Levi .

He had three older sisters, Beatrice and Hilda, who survived the Holocaust and were reunited with him in France before emigrating to North America. His younger sister, Tzipora, along with his parents, did not survive the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Imprisonment and orphaning during the Holocaust

The year 1944 marked a devastating turn for Wiesel and his family. Following Germany’s occupation of Hungary in March, the Holocaust extended into Northern Transylvania . At fifteen, Wiesel, his family, and the entire Jewish population of Sighet were confined to two ghettos within the town. In May 1944, under German coercion, Hungarian authorities began the systematic deportation of the Jewish community to Auschwitz concentration camp , where a staggering 90 percent of arrivals were murdered immediately.

Wiesel’s mother and younger sister perished in the gas chambers shortly after their arrival. He and his father were initially selected for forced labor, a grim reprieve before eventual extermination. They were subsequently deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Wiesel confessed to Oprah Winfrey that his sole motivation for enduring Auschwitz was the knowledge that his father was alive; “I knew that if I died, he would die.” Tragically, his father succumbed to the conditions at Buchenwald before the camp’s liberation. Wiesel’s memoir, Night , poignantly recounts the shame and helplessness he felt hearing his father being beaten without being able to intervene.

Wiesel bore the inmate number “A-7713” tattooed on his left arm. Buchenwald was liberated by the U.S. Third Army on April 11, 1945, mere moments before the prisoners were slated for evacuation.

March of the Living

The March of the Living stands as an annual educational initiative that has guided over 300,000 participants through Poland’s historical sites of the Holocaust . The program culminates in a symbolic trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau , offering students direct testimony from survivors. Wiesel was instrumental in the program’s inception, serving on the Presidium for its inaugural March in 1988. He participated again in 1990 and notably in 2005, during the 60th anniversary of World War II’s conclusion, addressing an audience of over 18,000 attendees, marking the largest event in the program’s history.

During the 1990 March, Wiesel delivered a powerful address at Auschwitz, confronting the persistent threat of antisemitism . He declared, “We were convinced that antisemitism perished here. Antisemitism did not perish here; its victims perished here.” He attempted to recount the story of a young girl but was overcome by emotion, unable to continue. Eli Rubenstein , present that day, noted that even Wiesel, the “world’s most eloquent witness to the Holocaust,” found the story too profound to convey fully.

In 2017, Wiesel’s son, Elisha , participated in the March of the Living to honor his father’s legacy. Since his father’s passing, Elisha has spoken at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Auschwitz, and is actively involved with the Elie Wiesel Foundation .

Wiesel is featured in the publication Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations . Alongside a photograph of him during his imprisonment at Buchenwald , a quote from his 1990 March of the Living address is included:

“Forever will I see the children who no longer have the strength to cry. Forever will I see the elderly who no longer have the strength to help them. Forever will I see the mothers and the fathers, the grandfathers and grandmothers, the little schoolchildren
their teachers
the righteous and the pious
. From where do we take the tears to cry over them? Who has the strength to cry for them?”

Post-war career as a writer

France

Upon liberation, Wiesel joined a contingent of 1,000 child survivors of Buchenwald who were transported to Ecouis , France, where the ƒuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) had established a rehabilitation center. He was part of a smaller group of approximately 90-100 boys from Orthodox homes who sought kosher facilities and a higher degree of religious observance. They were housed in Ambloy and later moved to Taverny, operating until 1947.

Wiesel then relocated to Paris, where he immersed himself in learning French and pursuing studies in literature, philosophy, and psychology at the Sorbonne . He attended lectures by renowned thinkers such as philosopher Martin Buber and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre , while dedicating his evenings to reading the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky , Franz Kafka , and Thomas Mann .

By the age of nineteen, Wiesel had embarked on a career in journalism, writing in French, while also teaching Hebrew and serving as a choirmaster. He contributed to Israeli and French publications, including Tsien in Kamf, written in Yiddish .

In 1946, upon learning of the Irgun ’s bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Wiesel made an unsuccessful attempt to join the underground Zionist movement. Though he translated articles from Hebrew into Yiddish for Irgun periodicals in 1948, he never became an official member. His journey continued in 1949 when he traveled to Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper L’arche . Subsequently, he was employed as the Paris correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth , later becoming its roving international correspondent.

Excerpt from Night

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

For a decade following the war, Wiesel maintained a deliberate silence regarding his Holocaust experiences. This resolve began to waver after a significant encounter with the French author François Mauriac , a 1952 Nobel Laureate in Literature and later Wiesel’s close friend. Mauriac, a devout Christian and veteran of the French Resistance , likened Wiesel to “Lazarus rising from the dead,” perceiving in his eyes “the death of God in the soul of a child.” Mauriac’s profound empathy eventually persuaded Wiesel to chronicle his harrowing experiences.

Wiesel’s initial memoir, Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Remained Silent), was penned in Yiddish and later published in an abridged version in Buenos Aires . He subsequently condensed the manuscript into French, titling it La Nuit, which was published in 1955. The English translation, Night , appeared in 1960. Despite modest initial sales, Night garnered critical attention, leading to television interviews with Wiesel and encounters with literary figures such as Saul Bellow . As its prominence grew, Night was translated into 30 languages and sold ten million copies in the United States. Film director Orson Welles expressed interest in adapting it into a feature film, but Wiesel declined, believing the cinematic medium could not capture the profound silences embedded within his written narrative. In 2006, Oprah Winfrey selected Night as a spotlight feature for her influential book club.

United States

In 1955, Wiesel relocated to New York, serving as the foreign correspondent for the Israeli daily, Yediot Ahronot . In 1969, he married Marion Erster Rose, an Austrian national who became a crucial collaborator, translating many of his books. Together, they had a son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel , named in honor of Wiesel’s father.

Wiesel’s prolific output in the U.S. resulted in over 40 books, predominantly non-fiction Holocaust literature and novels. His literary achievements were recognized with numerous awards, solidifying his position as a pivotal voice in describing the Holocaust from a deeply personal perspective. Some historians credit Wiesel with shaping the contemporary understanding of the term “Holocaust,” though he himself felt the word was insufficient to encompass the totality of the event. In 1975, he co-founded the magazine Moment with writer Leonard Fein .

The 1979 book and subsequent play, The Trial of God , are understood to draw inspiration from Wiesel’s visceral Auschwitz experience, particularly the harrowing scene where three Jews, facing imminent death, conduct a trial against God , accusing Him of oppression against the Jewish people.

Wiesel also played a role in the early reception of The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski . He offered an endorsement before it was widely known that the book was fiction and, in essence, a hoax presented as Kosinski’s personal testimony.

Wiesel published two volumes of his memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea (1994), chronicling his life up to 1969, and And the Sea is Never Full (1999), which covered the period from 1969 to 1999.

Political activism

In 1986, Wiesel and his wife, Marion , established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity . From 1978 to 1986, he chaired the President’s Commission on the Holocaust (later renamed the US Holocaust Memorial Council), playing a key role in the development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. During this period, Sigmund Strochlitz was a close friend and confidant.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum bestows the Elie Wiesel Award upon individuals recognized for their significant contributions to advancing the Museum’s mission of confronting hatred , preventing genocide , and promoting human dignity . The Foundation suffered a significant financial blow when its endowment was invested in Bernard L. Madoff ’s Ponzi scheme , resulting in a loss of $15 million and substantial personal savings for Wiesel and his wife.

Support for the Israeli government

In 1982, at the request of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Wiesel agreed to step down as chairman of a planned international conference that was to address the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide . He subsequently collaborated with the Foreign Ministry in their efforts to either cancel the conference or remove any discussion of the Armenian genocide. To this end, he provided the ministry with internal conference planning documents and actively lobbied academics against attending.

Wiesel was a co-founder of “Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East,” a pro-Israel organization. In 1984, he signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia .

On the Arab–Israeli conflict

Wiesel was a vocal critic of Hamas , condemning their “use of children as human shields ” during the 2014 Gaza War . He published an advertisement in several major newspapers to convey his message, though The Times declined to run it, citing its strong and potentially concerning opinion.

Throughout his life, Wiesel often deflected direct questions about Israeli settlements , framing it as a reluctance to interfere in Israel’s internal affairs. However, according to Lebanese-American columnist Hussein Ibish , Wiesel had publicly supported the expansion of Jewish settlements into the Palestinian territories captured during the Six-Day War , settlements widely considered illegal by the international community . Wiesel frequently emphasized the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and criticized the Obama administration for pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt settlement construction in East Jerusalem . He asserted that “Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture —and not a single time in the Koran … It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city.”

Awards and other activism

In 1986, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his unwavering stance against violence, repression, and racism. The Norwegian Nobel Committee lauded him as “one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression, and racism continue to characterize the world,” recognizing him as a “messenger to mankind.” The committee highlighted that while Wiesel’s commitment stemmed from the suffering of the Jewish people, it extended to encompass all oppressed peoples and races.

In his acceptance speech, Wiesel articulated a message of “peace, atonement, and human dignity,” stating, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.”

His prolific work garnered numerous other honors, including the Congressional Gold Medal in 1985, the Presidential Medal of Freedom , and the International Center in New York’s Award of Excellence. In 1996, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

Wiesel co-founded Moment magazine with Leonard Fein in 1975, aiming to provide a platform for American Jewish voices. He also served on the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor .

A staunch opponent of the death penalty , Wiesel expressed the view that even Adolf Eichmann should not have been executed. He advocated for clemency in the Cheshire murder case , supporting life imprisonment with hard labor for the perpetrators instead.

Wiesel was a vocal supporter of immigrant’s rights, popularizing the slogan “No human being is illegal.” He argued, “you who are so-called illegal aliens should know that no human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?”

In April 1999, Wiesel delivered his seminal speech, “The Perils of Indifference,” in Washington D.C. He condemned the indifference displayed by individuals and nations during the Holocaust, defining indifference as a dangerous neutrality that overlooks victims. He argued that even negative attention is preferable to none at all.

In 2003, he brought to light the massacre of at least 280,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews , along with other groups, in Romanian-run death camps .

During the 2005 opening ceremony of Yad Vashem , the Israeli Holocaust History Museum, he stated:

I know what people say – it is so easy. Those that were there won’t agree with that statement. The statement is: it was man’s inhumanity to man. NO! It was man’s inhumanity to Jews! Jews were not killed because they were human beings. In the eyes of the killers they were not human beings! They were Jews!

In early 2006, Wiesel accompanied Oprah Winfrey on her visit to Auschwitz , an experience broadcast on The Oprah Winfrey Show . The trip was coordinated by David Machlis, Vice Chair of the International March of the Living . On November 30, 2006, Wiesel was granted an honorary knighthood in London, recognizing his efforts to advance Holocaust education in the United Kingdom.

In September 2006, he addressed the UN Security Council alongside actor George Clooney , drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur . Upon Wiesel’s death, Clooney remarked, “We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt, and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations.”

Wiesel received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize ’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. That same year, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, along with 53 Nobel laureates including Wiesel, issued a letter condemning Armenian genocide denial . Wiesel consistently referred to Turkey’s protracted efforts to obscure its role in the Armenian genocide as a “double killing.”

President George W. Bush , alongside the Dalai Lama and Wiesel, attended the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on October 17, 2007, for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama.

In 2009, Wiesel criticized the Vatican for lifting the excommunication of bishop Richard Williamson , a member of the Society of Saint Pius X . The excommunication was later reinstated.

In June 2009, Wiesel accompanied U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on their tour of the Buchenwald concentration camp . He also served as an advisor at the Gatestone Institute . In 2010, Wiesel accepted a five-year appointment as Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, California , making an annual week-long visit to engage with students on topics ranging from Holocaust history to religion, languages, literature, law, and music.

In July 2009, Wiesel voiced his support for the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka, stating, “Wherever minorities are being persecuted, we must raise our voices to protest… The Tamil people are being disenfranchised and victimized by the Sri Lanka authorities. This injustice must stop. The Tamil people must be allowed to live in peace and flourish in their homeland.”

Wiesel returned to Hungary in 2009 for his first visit since the Holocaust. He participated in a conference at the Hungarian Parliament , met with Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and President LĂĄszlĂł SĂłlyom , and delivered a speech at an anti-racist gathering in Faith Hall attended by approximately 10,000 people. However, in 2012, he protested against the “whitewashing” of Hungary’s involvement in the Holocaust and renounced the Great Cross award he had received from the Hungarian government.

Wiesel was actively involved in efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, stating, “The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions.”

Teaching

Wiesel held the position of Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Boston University starting in 1976, teaching in both the religion and philosophy departments. He developed a close friendship with the university’s president and chancellor, John Silber . The university established the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. Prior to his tenure at Boston University, from 1972 to 1976, Wiesel served as a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York and was affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers .

In 1982, he was the inaugural Henry Luce Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at Yale University . He also co-instructed Winter Term courses at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida . From 1997 to 1999, he held the position of Ingeborg Rennert Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies at Barnard College , part of Columbia University .

Personal life

Wiesel married Marion Erster Rose in 1969. Originally from Austria, she was instrumental in translating many of his books from French into English. They had one son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel , named after Wiesel’s father. The family resided in Greenwich, Connecticut .

In February 2007, Wiesel was assaulted in a San Francisco hotel by Eric Hunt, a 22-year-old Holocaust denier . Wiesel was unharmed, and Hunt was arrested the following month on multiple charges.

In May 2011, Wiesel delivered the commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis .

In February 2012, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performed an unauthorized posthumous baptism for Simon Wiesenthal ’s parents. When Wiesel’s own name was submitted for a similar proxy baptism, he publicly condemned the practice of posthumously baptizing Jews and urged then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney to denounce it. Romney’s campaign deferred comment to church officials.

Death and aftermath

Elie Wiesel passed away on the morning of July 2, 2016, at his home in Manhattan , at the age of 87. A private funeral service was held at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue , followed by interment at Sharon Gardens Cemetery in Valhalla, New York on July 3.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch paid tribute to Wiesel on the Senate floor the following week, stating, “With Elie’s passing, we have lost a beacon of humanity and hope. We have lost a hero of human rights and a luminary of Holocaust literature.”

In 2018, antisemitic graffiti was found on the house where Wiesel was born.

Marion Wiesel passed away on February 2, 2025, at the age of 94.

Awards and honors

Wiesel received a vast array of prestigious awards and honors throughout his life, recognizing his literary achievements, humanitarian work, and commitment to justice. These include:

Honorary degrees

Wiesel received over 90 honorary degrees from institutions worldwide, including:

(This list is incomplete ; you can help by adding missing items.)

See also