Elie Wiesel

Early life

Eliezer Wiesel was born in Sighet (now Sighetu Marmației), Maramureș, in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. His parents were Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel. At home, the family spoke mainly Yiddish in addition to German, Hungarian, and Romanian. Wiesel's mother, Sarah, was the daughter of Dodye Feig, a Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer from the nearby village of Bocskó. Dodye was active and trusted within the community.

Wiesel's father, Shlomo, instilled a strong sense of humanism in his son, encouraging him to learn Hebrew and to read literature, whereas his mother encouraged him to study the Torah. Wiesel said his father represented reason, while his mother Sarah promoted faith. Wiesel was instructed that his genealogy traced back to Rabbi Schlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), and was a descendant of Rabbi Yeshayahu ben Abraham Horovitz ha-Levi.

Wiesel had three siblings. His older sisters were Beatrice and Hilda, and a younger sister Tzipora. Beatrice and Hilda survived the war, and were reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage. They eventually emigrated to North America, with Beatrice moving to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Tzipora, Shlomo, and Sarah were murdered in the Holocaust.

Imprisonment during the Holocaust

In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary, thus extending the Holocaust into Northern Transylvania as well. Wiesel was 15, and he, with his family, along with the rest of the town's Jewish population, was placed in one of the two confinement ghettos set up in Máramarossziget (Sighet), the town where he had been born and raised. In May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, under German pressure, began to deport the Jewish community to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where up to 90 percent of the people were murdered on arrival.

Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered in the gas chambers. After they were taken to Buchenwald, his father died before the camp was liberated. Wiesel recalled the shame he felt when he heard his father being beaten and was unable to help.

Wiesel was tattooed with inmate number "A-7713" on his left arm. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Third Army on April 11, 1945, when they were just prepared to be evacuated from Buchenwald.

March of the Living

The March of the Living is an annual educational program that has brought over 300,000 participants from around the world to Poland, where they visit historical sites of the Holocaust, make a two-mile trek from Auschwitz to the former extermination site of Birkenau. Students learn about the experience through live testimony from survivors. Wiesel served on the Presidium for the first March of the Living in 1988, during its founding year. Wiesel attended the March of the Living in 1990, and again in 2005, during the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. Wiesel addressed over 18,000 in attendance. It was the biggest event in the program's history .

On the 1990 March of the Living, Elie Wiesel addressed the participants at Auschwitz about his concerns about antisemitism. He stated, "We were convinced that antisemitism perished here. Antisemitism did not perish here; its victims perished here." He started to share a story of a young girl, paused, and left the stage. The footage stated Wiesel was simply unable to continue the story. The corroborating article from Eli Rubenstein, who was in attendance that day described that even "the world's most eloquent witness to the Holocaust," was not able to convey the story that led to the fate of this young girl.

In 2017, Wiesel's son, Elisha participated in the March of the Living in memory of his father, honoring his legacy. Since his father's death, he has spoken at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Auschwitz, and has begun working on his late father's foundation, the Elie Wiesel Foundation.

Wiesel is included in the publication Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations. Along with his picture from when he was imprisoned at Buchenwald, he was quoted from the 1990 March of the Living:

Post-war career as a writer

France

After World War II ended and Wiesel was freed, he joined a transport of 1,000 child survivors of Buchenwald to Ecouis, France, where the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) had established a rehabilitation center. Wiesel joined a smaller group of 90 to 100 boys from Orthodox homes who wanted kosher facilities and a higher level of religious observance; they were cared for in a home in Ambloy under the directorship of Judith Hemmendinger. This home was later moved to Taverny and operated until 1947.

Afterwards, Wiesel traveled to Paris where he learned French and studied literature, philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne. He heard lectures by philosopher Martin Buber and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and he spent his evenings reading works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann.

By the time he was 19, he had begun working as a journalist, writing in French, while also teaching Hebrew and working as a choirmaster. He wrote for Israeli and French newspapers, including Tsien in Kamf (in Yiddish).

In 1946, after learning of the Irgun's bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Wiesel made an unsuccessful attempt to join the underground Zionist movement. In 1948, he translated articles from Hebrew into Yiddish for Irgun periodicals, but never became a member of the organization. In 1949, he traveled to Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper L'arche. He then was hired as Paris correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, subsequently becoming its roaming international correspondent.

For ten years after the war, Wiesel refused to write about or discuss his experiences during the Holocaust. He began to reconsider his decision after a meeting with the French author François Mauriac, the 1952 Nobel Laureate in Literature who eventually became Wiesel's close friend. Mauriac was a devout Christian who had fought in the French Resistance during the war. He compared Wiesel to "Lazarus rising from the dead", and saw from Wiesel's tormented eyes, "the death of God in the soul of a child". Mauriac persuaded him to begin writing about his harrowing experiences.

Wiesel first wrote the 900-page memoir Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Remained Silent) in Yiddish, which was published in abridged form in Buenos Aires. Wiesel rewrote a shortened version of the manuscript in French, La Nuit, in 1955. It was translated into English as Night in 1960. The book sold few copies after its initial publication, but still attracted interest from reviewers, leading to television interviews with Wiesel and meetings with writers such as Saul Bellow.

As its profile rose, Night was eventually translated into 30 languages with ten million copies sold in the United States. At one point film director Orson Welles wanted to make it into a feature film, but Wiesel refused, feeling that his memoir would lose its meaning if it were told without the silences in between his words. Oprah Winfrey made it a spotlight selection for her book club in 2006.

United States

In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York as foreign correspondent for the Israel daily, Yediot Ahronot.

In the U.S., he eventually wrote over 40 books, most of them non-fiction Holocaust literature, and novels. As an author, he was awarded a number of literary prizes and is considered among the most important in describing the Holocaust from a highly personal perspective. In 1975, he co-founded the magazine Moment with writer Leonard Fein.

The 1979 book and play The Trial of God are said to have been based on his real-life Auschwitz experience of witnessing three Jews who, close to death, conduct a trial against God, under the accusation that He has been oppressive towards the Jewish people.

Wiesel also played a role in the initial success of The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski by endorsing it before it became known the book was fiction and, in the sense that it was presented as all Kosinski's true experience, a hoax.

Wiesel published two volumes of memoirs. The first, All Rivers Run to the Sea, was published in 1994 and covered his life up to the year 1969. The second, titled And the Sea is Never Full and published in 1999, covered the years from 1969 to 1999.

Political activism

Wiesel and his wife, Marion, started the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in 1986. He served as chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust (later renamed the US Holocaust Memorial Council) from 1978 to 1986, spearheading the building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Sigmund Strochlitz was his close friend and confidant during these years.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum gives the Elie Wiesel Award to "internationally prominent individuals whose actions have advanced the Museum's vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity". The Foundation had invested its endowment in money manager Bernard L. Madoff's investment Ponzi scheme, costing the Foundation $15 million and Wiesel and his wife much of their own personal savings.

Support for the Israeli government

In 1982, at the request of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Wiesel agreed to resign from his position as chairman of a planned international conference on the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. Wiesel then worked with the Foreign Ministry in its attempts to get the conference either canceled or to remove all discussion of the Armenian genocide from it, and to those ends he provided the Foreign Ministry with internal documents on the conference's planning and lobbied fellow academics to not attend the conference.

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

On the Arab–Israeli conflict

Wiesel was critical of Hamas; he condemned them for the "use of children as human shields" during the 2014 Gaza War, and ran an ad in several large newspapers to express this message. The Times refused to run the advertisement, saying, "The opinion being expressed is too strong, and too forcefully made, and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers."

During his lifetime, Wiesel had deflected questions on the topic of the Israeli settlements, claiming to abstain from commenting on Israel's internal debates. According to Lebanese-American columnist Hussein Ibish, despite this position, Wiesel had gone on record as supporting the idea of expanding Jewish settlements into the Palestinian territories conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War; such settlements are considered illegal by the international community. Wiesel often emphasized the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and criticized the Obama administration for pressuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem, stating 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

Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism. The Norwegian Nobel Committee described Wiesel as "one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression, and racism continue to characterize the world" and called him a "messenger to mankind". It also stressed that Wiesel's commitment originated in the sufferings of the Jewish people but that he expanded it to embrace all repressed peoples and races.

In his acceptance speech he delivered a message "of peace, atonement, and human dignity". He explained his feelings: "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."

He received many other prizes and honors for his work, including the Congressional Gold Medal in 1985, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996.

Wiesel co-founded Moment magazine with Leonard Fein in 1975. They founded the magazine to provide a voice for American Jews. He was also a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor.

A staunch opponent of the death penalty, Wiesel stated that he thought that even Adolf Eichmann should not have been executed. Wiesel advocated clemency in the Cheshire murder case, instead supporting a life sentence of hard labor for the perpetrators.

Wiesel, a supporter of immigrant's rights, popularized the slogan "No human being is illegal". stating "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 the speech "The Perils of Indifference" in Washington D.C., criticizing the people and countries who chose to be indifferent while the Holocaust was happening. He defined indifference as being neutral between two sides, which, in this case, amounts to overlooking the victims of the Holocaust. Throughout the speech, he expressed the view that a little bit of attention, either positive or negative, is better than no attention at all.

In 2003, he discovered and publicized the fact that at least 280,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews, along with other groups, were massacred in Romanian-run death camps.

In 2005, he gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the new building of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust History Museum:

In early 2006, Wiesel accompanied Oprah Winfrey as she visited Auschwitz, a visit which was broadcast as part of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The trip was organized by International March of the Living's Vice Chair, David Machlis. On November 30, 2006, Wiesel received a knighthood in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom.

In September 2006, he appeared before the UN Security Council with actor George Clooney to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. When Wiesel died, Clooney wrote, "We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt, and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations."

In 2007, Wiesel was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award. That same year, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a letter condemning Armenian genocide denial, a letter that was signed by 53 Nobel laureates including Wiesel. Wiesel repeatedly called Turkey's 90-year-old campaign to downplay its actions during the Armenian genocide a double killing.

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

In June 2009, Wiesel accompanied US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they toured the Buchenwald concentration camp. Wiesel was an adviser at the Gatestone Institute. In 2010, Wiesel accepted a five-year appointment as a Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, California. In that role, he made a one-week visit to Chapman annually to meet with students and offer his perspective on subjects ranging from Holocaust history to religion, languages, literature, law and music.

In July 2009, Wiesel announced his support to the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. He said that, "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."

In 2009, Wiesel returned to Hungary for his first visit since the Holocaust. During this visit, Wiesel participated in a conference at the Upper House Chamber of the Hungarian Parliament, met Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and President László Sólyom, and made a speech to the approximately 10,000 participants of an anti-racist gathering held in Faith Hall. However, in 2012, he protested against "the whitewashing" of Hungary's involvement in the Holocaust, and he gave up the Great Cross award he had received from the Hungarian government.

Wiesel was active in trying to prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons, stating that, "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 from 1976, teaching in both its religion and philosophy departments. The university created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor.

In 1982 he served as the first Henry Luce Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at Yale University.

Personal life

In 1969 he married Marion Erster Rose, who originally was from Austria and also translated many of his books from French to English. They had one son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, named after Wiesel's father.

Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel by 22-year-old Holocaust denier Eric Hunt in February 2007, but was not injured. Hunt was arrested the following month and charged with multiple offenses.

In May 2011, Wiesel served as the Washington University in St. Louis commencement speaker.

In February 2012, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performed a posthumous baptism for Simon Wiesenthal's parents without proper authorization. After his own name was submitted for proxy baptism, Wiesel spoke out against the unauthorized practice of posthumously baptizing Jews and asked presidential candidate and Latter-day Saint Mitt Romney to denounce it. Romney's campaign declined to comment, directing such questions to church officials.

Death and aftermath

Wiesel died on the morning of July 2, 2016, at his home in Manhattan, aged 87. A private funeral service was conducted in his honor at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, and then he was buried at the Sharon Gardens Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, on July 3.

Utah senator Orrin Hatch paid tribute to Wiesel in a speech on the Senate floor the following week, in which he said that "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 were found on the house where Wiesel was born.

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

Awards and honors

• Prix de l'Université de la Langue Française (Prix Rivarol) for The Town Beyond the Wall, 1963.
• National Jewish Book Award for The Town Beyond the Wall, 1965.
• Ingram Merrill award, 1964.{{cite encyclopedia | access-date = February 4, 2012 | archive-date = July 13, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180713134921/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007201 | url-status = live
• Prix Médicis for A Beggar in Jerusalem, 1968.
• National Jewish Book Award for Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters, 1973.
• Jewish Heritage Award, Haifa University, 1975.
• Holocaust Memorial Award, New York Society of Clinical Psychologists, 1975.
• S.Y. Agnon Medal, 1980.
• Jabotinsky Medal, State of Israel, 1980.
• Prix Livre Inter, France, for The Testament, 1980.
• Grand Prize in Literature from the City of Paris for The Fifth Son, 1983.
• Commander in the French Legion of Honor, 1984.
• U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, 1984.
• Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship, 1985.
• Medal of Liberty, 1986.{{Citation
• Nobel Peace Prize, 1986.
• Grand Officer in the French Legion of Honor, 1990.
• Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1992
• Niebuhr Medal, Elmhurst College, Illinois, 1995.{{cite web |access-date = February 5, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120205214340/http://public.elmhurst.edu/collections/niebuhrlegacy/2607586.html |archive-date = February 5, 2012
• Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 1996, presented by Awards Council member Rosa Parks at the academy's 35th annual Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.
• Grand Cross in the French Legion of Honor, 2000.
• Order of the Star of Romania, 2002.
• Man of the Year award, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2005.
• Light of Truth award, International Campaign for Tibet, 2005.
• Honorary Knighthood, United Kingdom, 2006.
• Honorary Visiting professor of humanities, Rochester College, 2008.
• National Humanities Medal, 2009.
• Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement, 2011.
• Loebenberg Humanitarian Award, Florida Holocaust Museum, 2012.
• Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, 2012
• Nadav Award, 2012.
• S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards, 2013.
• John Jay Medal for Justice John Jay College, 2014.
• Bust of Wiesel was carved on the Human Rights Porch of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., 2021.
• 18th stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s Distinguished Americans series

Honorary degrees

Wiesel had received more than 90 honorary degrees from colleges worldwide.

• Doctor of Humane Letters, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1985.{{cite news | access-date = February 3, 2012 | archive-date = January 19, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120119233446/http://articles.mcall.com/1985-05-15/news/2471811_1_honorary-humane-letters-elie-wiesel | url-status = live
• Doctor of Humane Letters, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, 1997.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = June 9, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100609214505/http://distinctions.depaul.edu/Pages/honorarydegree.aspx | url-status = live
• Doctorate, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, 1998.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = April 7, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140407092133/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-04-17/news/0504160074_1_carroll-county-elie-wiesel-public-school | url-status = dead
• Doctor of Humanities, Michigan State University, 1999.
• Doctorate, McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland, 2005.{{cite news | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = April 28, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120428214021/http://www.shu.edu/events/commencement/honorary-degree-recipients.cfm | url-status = dead
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Chapman University, 2005.
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Dartmouth College, 2006.{{cite journal | access-date = February 6, 2012 | archive-date = June 7, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100607215713/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~vox/0506/0515/commencement.html | url-status = dead
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Cabrini College, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 2007.{{cite journal
• Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Vermont, 2007.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = October 19, 2001 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20011019123910/http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=News | url-status = live
• Doctor of Humanities, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, 2007. |access-date = February 5, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140407103315/http://www.oakland.edu/news/?sid=34&nid=4191 |archive-date = April 7, 2014
• Doctor of Letters, City College of New York, 2008.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081003100536/http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/advancement/pr/ELIE-WIESEL-TO-DELIVER-INAUGURAL-PRESIDENTS-LECTURE-AT-THE-CITY-COLLEGE-OF-NEW-YORK.cfm | archive-date = October 3, 2008 | url-status = dead
• Doctorate, Tel Aviv University, 2008.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = January 26, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120126175755/http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7031 | url-status = dead
• Doctorate, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel, 2008.
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 2009. |access-date = February 5, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120802001644/http://www.bucknell.edu/Documents/Commencement/Honary%20Degrees_Wiesel.pdf |archive-date = August 2, 2012
• Doctor of Letters, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2010.{{cite web | access-date = February 3, 2012 | archive-date = August 8, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100808160523/http://www4.lehigh.edu/news/newsarticle.aspx?Channel=/Channels/News:+2010&WorkflowItemID=a5a6a73d-c3e6-4380-ba67-402257a7fa9b | url-status = live
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Washington University in St. Louis, 2011.{{cite web | access-date = February 5, 2012 | archive-date = January 9, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160109062827/https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22126.aspx | url-status = live
• Doctor of Humane Letters, College of Charleston, 2011.
• Doctorate, University of Warsaw, June 25, 2012. |access-date = July 6, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120716234729/http://www.uw.edu.pl/en/page.php/news/wiesel.html |archive-date = July 16, 2012
• Doctorate, The University of British Columbia, September 10, 2012.{{cite web | access-date = September 10, 2012 | archive-date = September 13, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120913211528/http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/09/10/nobel-laureate-elie-wiesel-receives-ubc-honorary-degree/ | url-status = live
• Doctorate, Pontifical University of John Paul II, June 30, 2015
• Doctorate of Humane Letters, Fairfield University, May 22, 1983

References

Informational notes

Citations

Speeches and interviews

• Elie Wiesel Video Gallery
• {{Citation | access-date = February 3, 2012 | archive-date = June 26, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110626010301/http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=17914 | url-status = live
• {{cite episode | access-date = February 6, 2012 | archive-date = February 8, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120208050602/http://billmoyers.com/content/facing-hate-with-elie-wiesel/ | url-status = live
• The Kennedy Center Presents: Speak Truth to Power: Elie Wiesel , PBS, October 8, 2000.
• An Evening with Elie Wiesel . Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies. UCTV (University of California). August 19, 2002
• Elie Wiesel: First Person Singular , PBS, October 24, 2002.
• {{Citation |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080602173852/http://www.thestar.com/Life/Religion/article/126609 |archive-date = June 2, 2008
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Elie Wiesel from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, May 24, 2007.
• {{cite episode |series-link = Today (BBC Radio 4) |access-date = February 6, 2012 |archive-date = September 14, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200914190151/http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7616000/7616231.stm |url-status = live
• {{cite episode |series-link = Charlie Rose (talk show) |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090613021629/http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10370 |archive-date = June 13, 2009
• {{cite episode |series-link = Oslo Freedom Forum |access-date = July 4, 2016 |archive-date = June 8, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190608162953/https://oslofreedomforum.com/speakers/elie-wiesel |url-status = live
• {{cite episode |series-link = Leon Charney#The Charney Report |access-date = November 8, 2013 |archive-date = September 14, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200914190216/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhwmPIE4E78 |url-status = live
• {{cite episode |series-link = Leon Charney#The Charney Report |access-date = November 29, 2016 |archive-date = February 2, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170202193250/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6UKnqxB9hA |url-status = live

References

1. "Elie Wiesel Timeline and World Events: 1928–1951".
2. "Elie Wiesel Timeline and World Events: From 1952".
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4. "NLS Other Writings: Say How, U-X". [[Library of Congress]].
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7. Arman, Abukar. (2016-07-16). "Paradoxical Legacy Of A 'Human Rights Icon'".
8. Ibish, Hussein. (2025-11-12). "Elie Wiesel's Moral Imagination Never Reached Palestine".
9. Sheizaf, Noam. (2014-10-10). "Elie Wiesel and Amos Yadlin congratulate East Jerusalem settlers".
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14. Wiesel, Elisha. "My father, Elie Wiesel, survived Auschwitz. He'd ask these questions about Israel-Hamas war.".
15. Erlanger, Steven. (2006-06-22). "Abbas and Olmert Embrace at Informal First Meeting". The New York Times.
16. (October 14, 1986). "The Nobel Peace Prize for 1986: Elie Wiesel". The [[Nobel Foundation]].
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18. Carrie Kahn. (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate, Dies At 87".
19. "Elie Wiesl". Human Rights Foundation.
20. "Human Rights Foundation Lauds OAS Discussion on Venezuela". Latin American Herald Tribune.
21. Liukkonen, Petri. "Elie Wiesel". [[Kuusankoski]] Public Library.
22. (2002). "The Life and Work of Wiesel". [[Public Broadcasting Service]].
23. "Elie Wiesel Biography and Interview". [[American Academy of Achievement]].
24. Fine 1982:4.
25. Wiesel, Elie, and Elie Wiesel Catherine Temerson (Translator). "Rashi (Jewish Encounters)". {{ISBN. 9780805242546. Schocken, January 1, 1970. Web. October 27, 2016.
26. "Elie Wiesel — Photograph". [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]].
27. Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be murdered in the gas chambers. Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at [[Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald]]. Until that transfer, he admitted to [[Oprah Winfrey]], his primary motivation for trying to survive Auschwitz was knowing that his father was still alive: "I knew that if I died, he would die."[http://www.oprah.com/world/Inside-Auschwitz/5 "Inside Auschwitz"] {{Webarchive. link. (August 21, 2016 , Oprah Winfrey broadcast visit, January 2006)
28. (July 2, 2016). "Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Dies".
29. Donadio, Rachel. (January 20, 2008). "The Story of 'Night'". [[The New York Times]].
30. "Eliezer Wiesel, 1986: Not caring is the worst evil". Nobel Peace Laureates.
31. Kanfer, Stefan. (June 24, 2001). "Author, Teacher, Witness".
32. See the film ''Elie Wiesel Goes Home'', directed by Judit Elek, narrated by William Hurt. {{ISBN. 1-930545-63-0
33. Staff, O. U.. (2016-07-06). "Rabbi Lau: Elie Wiesel was a man of tremendous faith".
34. MOTLorg. (2023-04-11). "The International March of the Living's 35th anniversary – interview - International March of the Living".
35. (2005-05-06). "A 'March of the Living' for the Holocaust dead". The New York Times.
36. "Auschwitz March to Recall Holocaust Victims – DW – 05/04/2005".
37. Jewish Remembrance. (2011-12-12). "The Day Words Failed Elie Wiesel - Auschwitz-Birkenau 1990 March of the Living".
38. MOTLorg. (2016-07-27). "THE DAY WORDS FAILED ELIE WIESEL - International March of the Living".
39. MOTLorg. (2017-05-12). "Elie Wiesel's Only Son Steps Up to His Father's Legacy - International March of the Living".
40. "Awards and Honors".
41. Rubenstein, Eli. (2015). "Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust to New Generations". [[Second Story Press]].
42. Niven, William John. (2007). "The Buchenwald Child: Truth, Fiction, and Propaganda". Harvard University Press.
43. Schmidt, Shira, and Mantaka, Bracha. "A Prince in a Castle". ''[[Ami (magazine). Ami]]'', September 21, 2014, pp. 136-143.
44. Sternlicht, Sanford V.. (2003). "Student Companion to Elie Wiesel". Greenwood Press.
45. Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. ''Beating the Odds: A Teen Guide to 75 Superstars Who Overcame Adversity'', ABC CLIO (2008) pp. 154–156
46. (2002). "Elie Wiesel: Conversations". University Press of Mississippi.
47. "Elie Wiesel". JewishVirtualLibrary.org.
48. Fine, Ellen S. ''Legacy of Night: The Literary Universe of Elie Wiesel'', State Univ. of New York Press (1982) p. 28
49. Wiesel, Elie. ''Night'', Hill and Wang (2006) p. ix
50. Naomi Seidman. (Fall 1996). "Elie Wiesel and the Scandal of Jewish Rage". Jewish Social Studies.
51. Andrew Grabois. (February 25, 2008). "Elie Wiesel and the Holocaust". Beneath The Cover.
52. Ravitz, Jessica. (May 27, 2006). "Utah Local News – Salt Lake City News, Sports, Archive". The Salt Lake Tribune.
53. In 1969, he married Austrian Marion Erster Rose, who also translated many of his books. They had one son, [[Elisha Wiesel|Shlomo Elisha Wiesel]], named after Wiesel's father.Telushkin, Joseph. ''"Rebbe"'', pp. 190–191. HarperCollins, 2014.
54. Wiesel, Elie. (2000). "And the Sea Is Never Full: Memoirs, 1969–". Random House Digital, Inc..
55. "The Painted Bird [NOOK Book]".
56. Finkelstein, Norman G.. (December 5, 2023). "The Holocaust Industry". Verso.
57. [https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/01/02/reviews/000102.02carrolt.html ''And the Sea Is Never Full''] {{Webarchive. link. (January 18, 2017 , ''The New York Times'' book review, January 2, 2000)
58. video: [https://vimeo.com/182905116 2016 Presidential Tribute to Elie Wiesel] {{Webarchive. link. (September 20, 2016 , 6 minutes)
59. (December 13, 1995). "President Clinton's and Elie Wiesel's Remarks on Bosnia Troops".
60. Lerman, Miles. (October 17, 2006). "In Memorium: Sigmund Strochlitz".
61. "The Elie Wiesel Award — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum".
62. Berger, Joseph. (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Dies at 87". [[The New York Times]].
63. Strom, Stephanie. (February 26, 2009). "Out Millions, Elie Wiesel Vents About Madoff". The New York Times.
64. Ofer Aderet (May 2, 2021) [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-israel-quashed-efforts-to-acknowledge-the-armenian-genocide-1.9766390 "How Israel Quashed Efforts to Acknowledge the Armenian Genocide"] {{Webarchive. link. (May 2, 2021 , ''[[Haaretz]]'')
65. "Gop Platform Committee Urged to Give Support to Israel".
66. Considine, p. 299
67. "Jewish Groups, Writers and Artists Join in a Campaign Urging Germany to Reconsider Arms Sales to Sau".
68. (August 3, 2014). "Nobel laureate Wiesel: Hamas must stop using children as human shields". CNN.
69. (August 6, 2014). "London Times refuses to run Elie Wiesel ad denouncing Hamas' human shields". Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
70. (August 8, 2014). "The Times refuses to carry ad accusing Hamas of 'child sacrifice'". The Guardian.
71. Wiesel, Elie. (January 24, 2001). "Jerusalem in My Heart". The New York Times.
72. (July 4, 2016). "Elie Wiesel's Moral Imagination Never Reached Palestine".
73. Cooper, Helene. (May 4, 2010). "Obama Tries to Mend Fences With American Jews". The New York Times.
74. (April 17, 2010). "Elie Wiesel: Jerusalem is Above Politics (ad also placed in 3 newspapers on April 16)". [[Arutz Sheva]].
75. "For Jerusalem". The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.
76. (May 4, 2010). "'Tension, I Think, is Gone', Elie Wiesel Says of U.S. and Israel". ABC News.
77. "Elie Wiesel – Acceptance Speech". The [[Nobel Foundation]].
78. link. (August 14, 2016 , Wharton Club of DC)
79. "American Academy of Arts and Letters - Current Members".
80. "About – Moment Magazine".
81. (2011). "International Advisory Board Profiles: Elie Wiesel". NGO Monitor.
82. (November 3, 2010). "Is Society the Angel of Death? Elie Wiesel's Take".
83. (October 30, 2010). "Elie Wiesel opposes death penalty in Connecticut home-invasion murders".
84. (February 27, 2009). "Elie Wiesel: "No Human Being is Illegal"".
85. Commons Librarian. (2024-07-08). "Watch Inspiring Activist and Protest Speeches: Elie Wiesel, The Perils of Indifference, 1999 [Holocaust survivor]".
86. [https://www.yahoo.com/news/hundreds-pay-tribute-elie-wiesels-native-romania-173059615.html "Hundreds pay tribute in Elie Wiesel's native Romania"] {{Webarchive. link. (December 4, 2020 , Agence France-Presse, July 7, 2016)
87. "Echoes & Reflections: Speech by Elie Wiesel - Education & E-Learning - Yad Vashem".
88. (January 1, 2006). "Oprah and Elie Wiesel Travel to Auschwitz". oprah.com.
89. Cohen, Justin. (November 30, 2006). "Wiesel Receives Honorary Knighthood". TotallyJewish.com.
90. [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c4e0c64c09434f30bb41e114a66f7f9e/reaction-death-holocaust-survivor-author-elie-wiesel "Reaction to death of Holocaust survivor, author Elie Wiesel"] {{Webarchive. link. (February 16, 2017 , Associated Press, July 2, 2016)
91. McAllister, Kristin. (October 15, 2007). "Dayton awards 2007 peace prizes". Dayton Daily News.
92. Holthouse, David. (Summer 2008). "State of Denial: Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide". [[Southern Poverty Law Center]].
93. Pullella, Philip. (January 28, 2009). "Elie Wiesel attacks pope over Holocaust bishop". Reuters.
94. (June 5, 2009). "Visiting Buchenwald, Obama speaks of the lessons of evil". [[CNN]].
95. "Paid Notice: Deaths Wiesel, Elie".
96. Sahagun, Louis. (April 2, 2011). "Wiesel offers students first-hand account of Holocaust". Los Angeles Times.
97. "The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity".
98. "Sri Lanka's victimization of Tamil people must stop - Elie Wiesel".
99. "Sri Lanka's victimization of Tamil people must stop - Elie Wiesel".
100. Quatra.Net Kft.. (November 10, 2009). "Elie Wiesel Magyarországon". Stop.hu.
101. (November 13, 2009). "Magyarországra jön Elie Wiesel". Hetek.hu.
102. link. (October 11, 2012 . ''The Jerusalem Post''. June 19, 2012.)
103. (December 18, 2013). "Elie Wiesel Says 'Iran Must Not Be Allowed to Remain Nuclear' in Full-Page Ads in NYT, WSJ". Algemeiner Journal.
104. [https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/07/02/fond-memories-elie-wiesel-boston/7pMwRcSBDU9KtJykuS5mJP/story.html "Fond memories of Elie Wiesel in Boston"] {{Webarchive. link. (July 4, 2016 , ''The Boston Globe'', July 2, 2016)
105. (November 30, 2012). "Illustrious Friends Remember John R. Silber". The Alcalde.
106. Passy, Charles. (July 3, 2016). "For Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel, New York City Became Home". The Wall Street Journal.
107. (August 19, 2022). "About Us".
108. Dearen, Jason. (February 17, 2007). "Police arrest suspect in Wiesel attack". Associated Press.
109. (August 18, 2008). "Man gets two-year sentence for accosting Elie Wiesel". [[USA Today]].
110. Rectenwald, Miranda. "Research Guides: WU Commencement History: Commencement Speakers".
111. Fletcher Stack, Peggy. (February 13, 2012). "Mormon church apologizes for baptisms of Wiesenthal's parents". The Salt Lake Tribune.
112. (14 February 2012). "Elie Wiesel calls on Mitt Romney to make Mormon church stop proxy baptisms of Jews". [[The Washington Post]].
113. Yuhas, Alan. (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Nobel winner and Holocaust survivor, dies aged 87". [[The Guardian]].
114. Shnidman, Ronen. (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned Holocaust survivor, dies at 87". [[Haaretz]].
115. Toppo, Greg. (July 3, 2016). "Elie Wiesel remembered at private service". [[USA Today]].
116. Urbain, Thomas. (July 3, 2016). "Mourners say farewell to Elie Wiesel at New York funeral". [[The Times of Israel]].
117. [http://www.weeklystandard.com/orrin-hatch-pays-tribute-to-elie-wiesel/article/2003215 "Orrin Hatch Pays Tribute to Elie Wiesel"] {{Webarchive. link. (June 19, 2018 , ''The Weekly Standard'', July 8, 2016)
118. (August 4, 2018). "Anti-semitic graffiti on Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel's house". BBC News.
119. (2 February 2025). "Marion Wiesel, Translator, Strategist and Wife of Elie Wiesel, Dies at 94". The New York Times.
120. "Past Winners".
121. "Past Winners".
122. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723055434/http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/goldMedal.aspx Congressional Gold Medal Recipients] (1776 to Present)
123. "Rooseveltinstitute.org".
124. "Elie Wiesel scheduled to appear at Distinguished Speaker Series--Click here for more information and to order tickets".
125. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". [[American Academy of Achievement]].
126. "Elie Wiesel Timeline and World Events: From 1952".
127. "Holocaust survivor honored". Christian Chronicle.
128. (July 21, 2011). "Winners of the National Humanities Medal and the Charles Frankel Prize".
129. "To Life: Celebrating 20 Years". [[Florida Holocaust Museum]].
130. "Kenyon Review for Literary Achievement".
131. (November 11, 2012). "Elie Wiesel receives 2012 Nadav Award. Ynetnews. November 11, 2012". Ynetnews.
132. "National Winners – public service awards – Jefferson Awards.org".
133. "John Jay Justice Award 2014". cuny.edu.
134. "Cathedral Adds Stone Carving of Elie Wiesel to Its Human Rights Porch".
135. "USPS Honors Holocaust Survivor and Human Rights Champion — Stamps Forever".
136. [http://www.newswise.com/articles/elie-wiesel-commencement-speaker "Elie Wiesel: Commencement Speaker"] {{Webarchive. link. (August 13, 2016 , ''Newswise'', May 7, 1999)
137. "Results - Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center".
138. Coker, Matt. "Elie Wiesel Joins Chapman University, to Guide Undergrads Spring Semesters Through 2015". OC Weekly.
139. "Honorary Doctorates of the Weizmann Institute of Science".
140. [http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20110926/PC1602/309269940 "Nobel laureate Wiesel holds hope for future"] {{Webarchive. link. (August 17, 2016 , ''The Post and Courier'', September 26, 2011)
141. (2015). "Other Important Events". Analecta Cracoviensia.
142. (December 19, 2014). "Polish school honors Elie Wiesel".
143. "Honorary Degrees".