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{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see ] -->
|name=Elie Wiesel
|awards=],<br>],<br>]
|image=Elie_Wiesel_2009.jpg
|caption=Wiesel speaking in Washington, DC, January 2009
|birthname = Eliezer Wiesel
|birthdate={{Birth date and age|1928|09|30}}
|birthplace=], ], ]
|occupation=Political activist, professor, novelist
|residence=]
}}


'''Eliezer''' "'''Elie'''" '''Wiesel''' ] (born September 30, 1928)<ref></ref> is a writer, professor at ], political activist, ] and ] survivor. He is the author of 57 books, the best known of which is ''],'' a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the ] and ] concentration camps.<ref name=AP>, '']'', January 16, 2006.</ref>. His diverse range of other writings offer powerful and poetic contributions to ], ], and his own articulation of Jewish ] today.


THE END.
When Wiesel was awarded the ] in 1986, the ] called him a "messenger to mankind," noting that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in ]'s death camps," as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace," Wiesel had delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity.<ref></ref>

==Early life==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2009}}
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in ], a little town in ], (now ]), ], ], in the ]. His mother, Sarah Frig, was the daughter of Dodye Feig, a celebrated ] ] and farmer from a nearby village. His father, Shlomo Wiesel, was an ] of ] descent, and a shopkeeper who ran his own grocery store. He was active and trusted within the community, and in the early years of his life had spent a few months in jail for having helped ] who escaped and were hungry. It was Sholomo who instilled a strong sense of ] in his son, encouraging him to learn ] and to read literature, whereas his mother encouraged him to study the ] and ]. Wiesel has said his father represented reason, and his mother Sarah promoted faith (Fine 1982:4). Elie Wiesel had three sisters &ndash; older sisters Hilda and Beatrice, and younger sister Tzipora. Beatrice and Hilda survived the war and were reunited with Elie at a French orphanage. They eventually emigrated to North America, with Beatrice moving to Montréal, Canada. Unfortunately, Tzipora, Sholomo and Sarah did not survive the war.

==World War II==
]
In 1940 Romania lost the town of Sighet following the ]. In 1944 Elie, his family and the rest of the town were placed in one of the two ghettos in Sighet. Elie and his family lived in the larger of the two, on Serpent Street. On May 16, 1944, the Hungarian authorities allowed the German army to ] the Jewish community in Sighet to ]. While at Auschwitz, his inmate number, "A-7713", was tattooed onto his left arm. Wiesel was separated from his mother and sister Tzipora, who are presumed to have died at Auschwitz. Wiesel and his father were sent to the attached work camp Buna-Werke, a subcamp of ]. He managed to remain with his father for over eight months as they were forced to work under appalling conditions and shuffled between three concentration camps in the closing days of the war. On January 29, 1945, just a few weeks after the two were marched to ], Wiesel's father died from ], ], and ], and was later sent to the crematorium, only months before the camp was liberated by the ] ] on April 11.<ref>see the film "Elie Wiesel Goes Home" by Judit Elek, narrated by William Hurt ISBN #1-930545-63-0</ref> His total time spent in concentration camps was less than eleven months.

==After the war==
After World War II, Wiesel taught ] and worked as a choirmaster before becoming a professional journalist. He wrote for Israeli and French newspapers, including '']'' (in ]) '']''. However, for ten years after the war, Wiesel refused to write about or discuss his experiences during the Holocaust. Like many survivors, Wiesel could not find the words to describe his experiences. However, a meeting with ], the 1952 ], who eventually became Wiesel's close friend, persuaded him to write about his experiences.
Wiesel first wrote the 900-page memoir ''Un di velt hot geshvign'' (And the World Remained Silent), in ], which was published in abridged form in ].<ref> Naomi Seidman, "Elie Wiesel and the Scandal of Jewish Rage," Jewish Social Studies 3:1 (Fall 1996), p. 5.</ref> Wiesel rewrote a shortened version of the manuscript in French, and it was published as the 127-page ''La Nuit'', and later translated into English as ''].'' Even with Mauriac's support, Wiesel had trouble finding a ] for his book, and initially it sold few copies.

In 1960, Arthur Wang of ] agreed to pay a $100 pro-forma advance, and published it in the US in September that year as ''Night''. It sold just 1,046 copies over the next 18 months, but attracted interest from reviewers, leading to television interviews with Wiesel and meetings with literary figures like ]. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies," Wiesel said in an interview. "And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print." The 1979 book and play ''The Trial of God'' is said to have been based on Wiesel's real life Auschwitz experience of witnessing three Jews who, close to death, conduct a ], under the accusation that He has been oppressive of the Jewish people.

"Night" has been translated into 30 languages. By 1997, the book was selling 300,000 copies annually in the United States alone. By March 2006, about six million copies were sold in the United States. On January 16, 2006, ] chose the work for her book club. One million extra paperback and 150,000 hardcover copies were printed carrying the "]" logo, with a new translation by Wiesel's wife, Marion, and a new preface by Wiesel. On February 13, 2006, ''Night'' was no. 1 on ''The New York Times'' bestseller list for paperback non-fiction.

==Life in the United States==
]
In 1955, Wiesel moved to ], having become a US citizen: due to injuries suffered in a traffic accident, he was forced to stay in New York past his visa's expiration and was offered citizenship to resolve his status. In the US, Wiesel wrote over 40 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and won many literary prizes. Wiesel's writing is considered among the most important in ]. Some historians credit Wiesel with giving the term 'Holocaust' its present meaning, but he does not feel that the word adequately describes the event and wishes it were used less frequently to describe significant occurrences as everyday tragedies (Wiesel:1999, 18).
He was awarded the ] in 1986 for speaking out against ], ], and ]. He has received many other prizes and honors for his work, including the ] in 1985, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was elected to the ] in 1996. He currently lives in ], where he is a professor of humanities at ].

Wiesel also played a role in the initial success of '']'' by ] by endorsing it prior to revelations that the book was fiction and, in the sense that it was presented as all Kosinski's true experience, a ].

He is also the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Wiesel has published two volumes of his ]. The first, ''All Rivers Run to the Sea'', was published in 1994 and covered his life up to the year 1969 while the second, titled ''And the Sea is Never Full'' and published in 1999, covered 1969 to 1999.
Wiesel and his wife, Marion, started the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. He served as chairman for the ] (later renamed ]) from 1978 to 1986, spearheading the building of the ] in ].
].]]
Wiesel is particularly fond of teaching and holds the position of ] Professor of the ] at ]. From 1972 to 1976, Wiesel was a Distinguished Professor at the ] and member of the ]. In 1982 he served as the first ] Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at ]. He also co-instructs Winter Term (January) courses at ], ]. From 1997 to 1999 he was Ingeborg Rennert Visiting Professor of ] at ].

Wiesel has become a popular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust. As a ], he has advocated for many causes, including ], the plight of ] and ], the victims of '']'' in ], ]'s '']'', ] victims of ] in the former ], ]'s ], and the ]. Conversely, he withdrew from his role as chair of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, and made efforts to abort the conference, in deference to Israeli objection to the inclusion of sessions on the ].<ref>Finkelstein, N.(2003) ''The Holocaust Industry'', 2nd edition, p.69.</ref><ref>Peter Novick. The Holocaust in American Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. 373 pp.</ref>

He recently voiced support for intervention in ], Sudan.<ref name="American Jewish World Service"></ref> He also led a commission organized by the ]n government to research and write a report, released in 2004, on the true history of the Holocaust in Romania and the involvement of the Romanian wartime regime in atrocities against Jews and other groups, including the ]. The Romanian government accepted the findings in the report and committed to implementing the commission's recommendations for educating the public on the history of the Holocaust in Romania. The commission, formally called the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, came to be called the ] in honor of his leadership.
Wiesel is the honorary chair of the ] Camp Miriam Campership and Building Fund, and a member of the International Council of the New York–based ].
On March 27, 2001, Wiesel appeared at the ] for Jewish Awareness Month and was presented with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the University of Florida by Dr. Charles Young.<ref></ref>
In 2002, he inaugurated the Elie Wiesel Memorial House in Sighet in his childhood home.<ref name="RoEmbUs">'''', Embassy of Romania in the United States, 23 July 2002.</ref>

==Recent years==
In early 2006, Wiesel traveled to ] with ], a visit which was broadcast as part of '']'' on May 24, 2006.<ref></ref> Wiesel said that this would most likely be his last trip there.
In September 2006, he appeared before the ] with actor ] to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in ].
On November 30, 2006 Wiesel received an honorary ] in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom.<ref></ref>
On April 25, 2007, Wiesel was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree from the ].
During the early 2007 selection process for the ] candidate for ] of ], ] ] reportedly offered Wiesel the nomination (and, as the ruling-party candidate and an apolitical figure, likely the Presidency), but Wiesel "was not very interested."<ref> Jerusalem Post, 18 October 2006</ref> ] was chosen as the Kadima candidate (and later President) instead.
In 2007, Elie Wiesel was awarded the ]'s Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref></ref> On April 9, 2008, Wiesel was presented with an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters at the City College of New York.

In 2007 the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a letter condemning ] that was signed by 53 Nobel laureates including Wiesel. Wiesel has repeatedly called ]'s 90-year-old campaign to cover up the ] a double killing, since it strives to kill the memory of the original atrocities.<ref></ref>

On September 29, 2008, the ] President ], on its 50th anniversary, bestowed Wiesel with a plaque conferring on him as an honorary visiting professor of humanities.<ref></ref>

On November 17, 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from the ] in ], ].<ref></ref>

In 2009, Wiesel criticized the ] over its lifting of the ] of controversial bishop ], a member of the ].<ref></ref>

In December 2008, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a press release<ref></ref> stating that nearly all of the foundation's assets (approximately $15.2 million USD) had been lost through ]'s investment firm.<ref>{{cite web
| last = Agence French Presse (AFP)
| title = Wiesel Foundation loses nearly everything in Madoff scheme
| date = December 24, 2008
| url = http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081224163605.lxui4v5w&show_article=1&catnum=1
| accessdate =2008-12-24 }}</ref>

At a ] roundtable, Wiesel spoke about losing his entire life savings to Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme.

On June 5, 2009, Wiesel accompanied US President ] and German Chancellor ] as they toured Buchenwald.<ref name=buchcnn></ref> Merkel, Obama, and Wiesel each spoke about Buchenwald in personal terms, with Obama speaking of his great uncle liberating an outlying camp, Merkel considering the responsibility of Germans vis-à-vis ] history, and Wiesel reflecting on the suffering and death of his father in the camp.<ref name=buchcnn />

Wiesel returned to ] for the first official visit since the Holocaust between December 9–11, 2009 by the invitation of Rabbi ], executive rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation and the Hungarian branch of the ] movement. During his visit Wiesel participated in a conference at the Upper House Chamber of the ], met Prime Minister ] and President ] and made a speech to the approximately 10 thousand participants of a major anti racist gathering held in ]. The speech was broadcasted live by ], a nationwide television channel.

===2007 Attack on Wiesel===
On February 1, 2007, Wiesel was attacked in a ] hotel by 22-year-old ] Eric Hunt who tried to drag Wiesel into a hotel room. Wiesel was not injured and Hunt fled the scene. Later, Hunt bragged about the incident on a Holocaust denial website. Approximately one month later, he was arrested and charged with multiple offenses.<ref>, ''MSNBC'', February 16, 2007</ref><ref name=yahoo>{{cite web |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070218/ap_on_re_us/wiesel_accosted |title=N.J. man arrested in attack on Wiesel |publisher=Yahoo! News |date=2007-02-17}}</ref>

Hunt was convicted on July 21, 2008,<ref name=yahoo/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUKN2146787020080722 |publisher=] |title=Man guilty in false imprisonment of Elie Wiesel}}</ref> and was sentenced to two years but was given credit for time served and good behavior and was released on probation and ordered to undergo psychological treatment. The jury convicted Hunt of three charges but dismissed the remaining charges of attempted ], ], and an additional count of ], amid Hunt's withdrawal of his not guilty by reason of ] plea.<ref></ref><ref></ref> District Attorney ] said: "Crimes motivated by hate are among the most reprehensible of offenses ... This defendant has been made to answer for an unwarranted and biased attack on a man who has dedicated his life to peace."<ref></ref> At his sentencing hearing, Hunt apologized and insisted that he no longer denies the Holocaust,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-18-wiesel-accosted_N.htm |title=Man gets two-year sentence for accosting Elie Wiesel |date=2008-08-18 |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=] |author=]}}</ref> however he continues to maintain and update a blog which denies the Holocaust and is critical of prominent Jewish people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://erichunt.net/ |title=Eric Hunt: Stop tormenting children with Holyhoax lies}}</ref>

===Criticism===
Wiesel is thoroughly criticised by ] in his book '']''. Finkelstein accuses Wiesel of promoting the "uniqueness doctrine" which holds, according to Finkelstein, the Holocaust as the paramount of evil and therefore historically incomparable to other genocides.<ref>Finkelstein, N.(2003) ''The Holocaust Industry'', 2nd edition, p.44-45.</ref> In the book Wiesel is also lambasted for playing down the importance of other genocides, especially the ], and thwarting efforts of raising awareness of the genocide of the ] executed by the Nazis. These claims are exemplified by Wiesel's lobbying for commemorating Jews alone (not the Romani people) in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in addition to numerous Wiesel quotes on the "uniqueness of Holocaust"<ref>Finkelstein, N.(2003) ''The Holocaust Industry'', 2nd edition, p.75-76.</ref>

==Philanthropy==
In 2004, Elie Weisel attended ]'s annual gala to present Nelson Mandela with the ] Humanitarian Award.<ref>http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/1153-elie-weisel</ref>

==Works==
* '']'' (Tsentral-Farband fun Poylishe Yidn in Argentine, 1956) ISBN 0-374-52140-9; (first version of ''Night'')
* '']'' (Hill and Wang 1958; 2006) ISBN 0-553-27253-5 (Personal account of the Holocaust)
* '']'' (Hill and Wang 1961; 2006) ISBN 0-553-22536-7
* '']'', previously titled "The Accident" (Hill and Wang 1962; 2006) ISBN 0-553-58170-8
* ''The Town Beyond the Wall'' (Atheneum 1964)
* '']'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1966)
* ''The Jews of Silence'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1966) ISBN 0-935613-01-3
* ''Legends of our Time'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1968)(Artistically depicted memories)
* ''A Beggar in Jerusalem'' (Random House 1970)(Novel)
* ''One Generation After'' (Random House 1970)
* ''Souls on Fire'' (Random House 1972) ISBN 0-671-44171-X (First book of portraits and legends of ] Masters: many of the most famous)
* ''Night Trilogy'' (Hill and Wang 1972)
* '']'' (Random House 1973) ISBN 0-935613-11-0
* ''Ani Maamin'' (Random House 1973)
* ''Zalmen, or the Madness of God'' (Random House 1974)
* ''Messengers of God'' (Random House 1976) ISBN 0-671-54134-X (Biblical portraits)
* ''A Jew Today'' (Random House 1978) ISBN 0-935613-15-3 (Essays and imaginative works on Jewish identity)
* ''Four Hasidic Masters-and their struggle against melancholy'' (University of Notre Dame Press 1978)(Portraits of Hasidic Masters)
* ''Images from the Bible'' (The Overlook Press 1980)
* ''The Trial of God'' (Random House 1979)(Play)
* ''The Testament'' (Summit 1981)
* ''Five Biblical Portraits'' (University of Notre Dame Press 1981)(Biblical figures reinterpreted)
* ''Somewhere a Master'' (Further Hasidic portraits, after "Souls on Fire") (Summit 1982)
* ''The ]'' (illustrated by ]) (Summit 1983) ISBN 0-671-49624-7 (Children's book on the Jewish legend)
* ''The Fifth Son'' (Summit 1985)
* ''Against Silence'' (Holocaust Library 1985)
* '']'' (Summit 1988)
* ''The Six Days of Destruction'' (co-author ], illustrated by ]) (Paulist Press 1988)
* ''A Journey of Faith'' (Donald I. Fine 1990)
* ''From the Kingdom of Memory'' (Summit 1990)(essays and depictions after "A Jew Today")
* ''Evil and Exile'' (University of Notre Dame Press 1990)
* ''Sages and Dreamers'' (Summit 1991)(Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic figures)
* '']'' (Summit 1992) ISBN 0-8052-1019-9
* ''A Passover ]'' (illustrated by ]) (Simon and Schuster 1993) ISBN 0-671-73541-1 (Jewish liturgy)
* ''All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs, Vol. I, 1928–1969'' (Knopf 1995) ISBN 0-8052-1028-8
* ''Memoir in Two Voices'', with ] (Arcade 1996)
* ''And the Sea is Never Full: Memoirs Vol. II, 1969'' (Knopf 1999) ISBN 0-8052-1029-6
* ''King Solomon and his Magic Ring'' (illustrated by ]) (Greenwillow 1999)
* ''Conversations with Elie Wiesel'' (Schocken 2001)
* ''The Judges'' (Knopf 2002)
* ''Wise Men and Their Tales'' (Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic and Hasidic figures) (Schocken 2003) ISBN 0-8052-4173-6
* ''The Time of the Uprooted'' (Knopf 2005)
* ''A Mad Desire to Dance'' (2009)
* ''Rashi'' a biography (2009)

Additionally, as Elie Wiesel has offered a unique and poetic articulation of traditional Jewish thought and identity today, other books sometimes carry introductions or reviews from him:

* ''A Vanished World'' by ], forward by Elie Wiesel (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1986) ISBN 0374520232, ISBN 978-0374520236; classic photographs of Eastern European Jewish life from the 1930s

Critical analysis and appreciation of Wiesel's position in the history of literature:

* ''Student Companion to Elie Wiesel (Student Companions to Classic Writers)'' Sanford Sternlicht (Greenwood Press, 2003) ISBN 0313325308, ISBN 978-0313325304 (Covers his personal and literary background, "Night", main novels, and one chapter on his most important non-fiction)

==See also==
* '']'' &ndash; A documentary about the orphanage in which he stayed after the Holocaust
* '']'' &ndash; A 2008 joint ] / ] dramatisation of his book ''The Trial of God'', about a group of Auschwitz prisoners who place God on trial for breaching his contract with the Jewish people.

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
{{Citation style|date=September 2009}}
* Berenbaum, Michael: ''The Vision of the Void. Theological Reflections on the Works of Elie Wiesel'', Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University Press, 1979 ISBN 0-8195-6189-4 PA
* Fonseca, Isabel: ''Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey'', London, Vintage, 1996
* Fine, Ellen S. ''Legacy of Night: The Literary Universe of Elie Wiesel''. State University of New York Press, 1982. ISBN 0-87395-590-0 (paperback)
* Rota, Olivier. ''Choisir le français pour exprimer l’indicible. Elie Wiesel'', in Mythe et mondialisation. L’exil dans les littératures francophones, Actes du colloque organisé dans le cadre du projet bilatéral franco-roumain « Mythes et stratégies de la francophonie en Europe, en Roumanie et dans les Balkans », programme Brâcuşi des 8-9 septembre 2005, Editura Universităţii Suceava, Suceava, 2006, pp.&nbsp;47-55. Re-published in Sens, dec. 2007, pp.&nbsp;659-668.
* Wiesel, Elie. ''All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs.'' New York: Knopf, 1995.
* Wiesel, Elie. ''And the Sea is Never Full: Memoirs 1969-''. New York: Schocken, 1999.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
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{{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 1976-2000}}

<!-- Metadata: see ] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Wiesel, Elie
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Wiesel, Eliezer
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= American-Jewish political activist, professor, and novelist
|DATE OF BIRTH= {{Birth date and age|1928|9|9|mf=y}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH= ], ], ]
|DATE OF DEATH=
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiesel, Elie}}
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Revision as of 18:05, 8 January 2010

Sydney Page McClure is the bomb.


THE END.