“The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria...”
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Elie Wiesel
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.
sports · American writer and activist (1928–2016) · writer · political activist · Judaic scholar · novelist · autobiographer · university teacher · translator · journalist · humanist · philosopher · also Elie Wiesel, Eliezer Wiesel, A-7713, Élie Wiesel, Wiesel
Born 30 September 1928 · Died 2 July 2016 · Q18391
105 published statements · 0 followers
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20266 items
Jewish Journal: Elie Wiesel Film Premiere, JNF-USA Golf Tournament, AJC Los Angeles Names Director
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Why was Elie Wiesel awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Which Nazi concentration camps was Elie Wiesel imprisoned in during World War II?
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Yahoo: Elie Wiesel’s son discusses new doc on his dad, the Ye apology and loving ‘The Producers’
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The tenth anniversary of Wiesel’s death was marked by renewed attention to his legacy and his connection with the March of the Living
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20252 items
Newsweek: Let the World Listen to Elie Wiesel | Opinion
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A documentary by filmmaker Oren Rudavsky, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, examined the history behind the writing and publication of Night
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20191 item
Newsweek: Three Years After Elie Wiesel’s Death, We Are Desperate for Voices Like His | Opinion
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20182 items
New York Post: Elie Wiesel’s childhood home defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti
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Antisemitic graffiti were found on the house where Wiesel was born
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20171 item
Wiesel's son, Elisha participated in the March of the Living in memory of his father, honoring his legacy
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201625 items
Yahoo: Elie Wiesel Laid to Rest as Widow Pays Tribute: 'He Waged Countless Battles for Innocent Victims'
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The Hollywood Reporter: Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Remembered at Private Service
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CNN: Friends and world leaders remember Elie Wiesel
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Died 2016-07-02.
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JSTOR Daily: The Struggle for Understanding: Elie Wiesel's Literary Works
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“I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it. One doesn't study calculus before studying arithmetic. In my tradition, one must wait until one has learned a lot of Bible and Talmud and the Prophets to handle mysticism. This isn't instant coffee. There is no instant mysticism.”
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“When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming.”
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“Notas: original en inglés [If anything can, it is memory that will save humanity].”
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“Ninguna raza humana es superior; ninguna fe religiosa es inferior. Todos los juicios colectivos están equivocados. Solo los racistas los hacen.”
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“El deber del superviviente es dar testimonio de lo que ocurrió, [...] hay que advertir a la gente de que estas cosas pueden suceder, que el mal puede desencadenarse. El odio racial, la violencia y las idolatrías todavía proliferan.”
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“It's up to you now, and we shall help you — that my past does not become your future.”
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“From time immemorial, people have talked about peace without achieving it. Do we simply lack enough experience? Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace. . . . War may be too much a part of history to be eliminated—ever.”
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“Juré no callarme jamás cuando los seres humanos soporten sufrimientos y humillaciones en cualquier lugar. Siempre debemos tomar partido. La neutralidad ayuda al opresor, nunca a la víctima. El silencio alienta al perseguidor, nunca al perseguido.”
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“For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.”
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“Desde tiempos inmemoriales la gente ha hablado de paz, pero no la ha conseguido. ¿Será sencillamente que carecemos de suficiente experiencia? Aunque hablamos de paz, hacemos la guerra. A veces hasta guerreamos en el nombre de la paz. [...] Puede que la guerra sea una parte tan intrínseca de la historia que no pueda eliminarse... jamás.”
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“I had anger but never hate. Before the war, I was too busy studying to hate. After the war, I thought, What's the use? To hate would be to reduce myself.”
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“The duty of the survivor is to bear testimony to what happened . . . You have to warn people that these things can happen, that evil can be unleashed. Race hatred, violence, idolatries—they still flourish.”
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“Cada judío debería guardar, en algún lugar de su corazón, una zona para el odio, ese odio sano, varonil contra todo aquello que representa el alemán y que forma parte de la esencia de lo alemán. Todo lo demás sería traición a los muertos.”
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“En la historia judía no hay coincidencias.”
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“In Jewish history there are no coincidences.”
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“When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”
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“There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.”
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“Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.”
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“I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.”
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“Whenever an angel says "Be not afraid!" you'd better start worrying. A big assignment is on the way.”
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20151 item
Awarded honorary citizen of Jerusalem (2015).
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20121 item
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
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20112 items
Awarded Norman Mailer Prize (2011).
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In May 2011, Wiesel served as the Washington University in St.
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20101 item
Wiesel accepted a five-year appointment as a Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, California
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20094 items
Won National Humanities Medal (2009).
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Wiesel returned to Hungary for his first visit since the Holocaust
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“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.”
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Wiesel criticized the Vatican for lifting the excommunication of controversial bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X
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20073 items
Awarded Great Immigrants Award (2007).
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Wiesel was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award
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Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel by 22-year-old Holocaust denier Eric Hunt in February 2007, but was not injured.
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20061 item
Wiesel received a knighthood in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom
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20052 items
Awarded Light of Truth Award (2005).
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Gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the new building of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust History Museum:
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20041 item
“the worlds most durable ideology”
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20031 item
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
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20012 items
Awarded doctor honoris causa from the Paris-Sorbonne University (2001).
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Awarded Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (2001).
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19971 item
Awarded honorary doctor of the Florida Atlantic University (1997).
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19952 items
Awarded honorary degree from Spelman College (1995).
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Picardie Jules Verne (1995).
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19941 item
And covered his life up to the year 1969
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19931 item
Awarded honorary doctorate of the Bordeaux Montaigne University (1993).
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19921 item
Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by George H. W. Bush (1992).
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19903 items
Awarded Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (1990).
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And again in 2005, during the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII
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“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?”
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19882 items
Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Miami (1988).
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Attended the program in 1990, and returned in 2005, when he addressed more than 18,000 participants during the 60th anniversary year of the end of the Second World War
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19872 items
Awarded Freedom Award (1987).
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne (1987).
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19863 items
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace — for being a messenger to mankind: his message is one of peace, atonement and dignity.
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Awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1986).
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For speaking out against violence, repression, and racism
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19851 item
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, and The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence
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19842 items
Awarded Lucien Barrière Literary Award (1984).
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Signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia
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19831 item
Awarded Grand Prix littéraire de la Ville de Paris (1983).
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19822 items
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
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Served as the first Henry Luce Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at Yale University
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19801 item
Awarded Prix du Livre Inter (1980).
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19751 item
Co-founded the magazine Moment with writer Leonard Fein
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19721 item
Awarded Bordin Prize (1972).
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19692 items
Married Marion Erster Rose, who originally was from Austria and also translated many of his books from French to English
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Married Austrian Marion Erster Rose, who also translated many of his books
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19681 item
Awarded Prix Médicis for A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968).
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19551 item
Wiesel moved to New York as foreign correspondent for the Israel daily, Yediot Ahronot
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19491 item
Traveled to Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper L'arche
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19481 item
Translated articles from Hebrew into Yiddish for Irgun periodicals, but never became a member of the organization
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19461 item
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
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19451 item
When they were just prepared to be evacuated from Buchenwald
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19281 item
Born 1928-09-30.
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190015 items
Awarded Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
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Awarded Honorary doctor of the Catholic University of Louvain.
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Won Medal of Liberty.
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Awarded honorary doctor of Tel Aviv University.
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Awarded honorary doctorate of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
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Awarded honorary doctorate of Haifa University.
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Awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
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Won Congressional Gold Medal.
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Awarded Four Freedoms Award – Freedom of Worship.
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Awarded Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Romania.
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Awarded Honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva.
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Awarded honorary doctor of the Bar-Ilan University.
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Studied at Faculty of Arts of Paris.
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Career landmark: Participated in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (tournament / event).
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Career landmark: captivity.
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