On July 2, it was confirmed by his family that Elie Wiesel—advocate for human rights, peace, and dignity—died peacefully after a long illness.
According to the Elie Wiesel Foundation, Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania, now part of Romania. At age 15, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz, Wiesel and his father later sent to Buchenwald. Only he and two of his sisters survived the deportation and the camps.
After the war, Wiesel became a journalist in Paris and was persuaded to write about his experiences. The result of this was his book Night (La Nuit). The book is now available in thirty languages. He has written over sixty books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Fifth Son (winner of the Grand Prize in Literature from the City of Paris), A Beggar in Jerusalem (Prix Médicis winner), and The Testament (Prix Livre Inter winner).
Writing is not all that Wiesel did in his life. He held the position as Chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, became the Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 1980, and was President of “The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity”, which he created with his wife, Marion, in order to fight intolerance and injustice in the world. He has defended countless causes in order to help oppressed and degraded people through support and education, which had always been a central focus to Wiesel’s work.
His efforts towards human rights did not go unnoticed. Wiesel has received:
- Nobel Prize for Peace
- Presidential Medal of Freedom
- U.S. Congressional Gold Medal
- Medal of Liberty
- National Humanities Medal
- Rank of Grand Croix in French Legion of Honor
Since the news of his death, there has been an outpouring of grief by the people who knew him personally, or knew of his great efforts to eliminate the causes of human degradation and neutrality. He has been called a “wordsmith” and a “ray of light” in dark times. He is hailed as someone who was able to give a voice to the voiceless in giving account of the horrors that went on in the camps, and in making sure that it would not be forgotten and have the chance to be repeated in the future.
Wiesel’s family has stated that the funeral will be private, though there will be a public memorial at a later date that has yet to be scheduled.
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” –Elie Wiesel
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