Tag Archives: Wiesel

Editor’s Note: George Rislov and Nora O’Leary Roseberry co-authored this wonderful entry.

Elie Wiesel experienced terror, loss, and the most horrifying evil of the 20^th century. Sent by the Nazis to the Auschwitz concentration camp at fifteen, he eventually lost his parents, his

Buchenwald concentration camp, 1945. Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from the left. Courtesy Copyright Instructional Resources Corporation

sister, and countless other family and friends. Devastation such as this might understandably shake ones faith in humanity, cause one to withdraw from any contact with others, and to bury the memory and never speak of it. Yet throughout his life, Elie Wiesel has risen as a champion of human rights, an advocate for peace, a sophist preaching understanding.

We were recently fortunate enough to attend a live interview with this Nobel Peace Prize-winning humanitarian, and were moved by each soft-spoken story, each wise statement of truth. His wisdom, strength, and compassion seemed to resonate throughout the small theater, and it occurred to us that his story must not be lost.

Assiduously avoiding politics during the interview, Wiesel did make one incredibly simple policy statement: “Anything that curtails a person’s humanity — I’m against it.”

In the theater with us were children of Holocaust survivors, whose biggest fears were that the non-believers would outnumber the rememberers. Wiesel calmly noted that they should feel better, less worried with the “morally ill” and more aware of how far Holocaust education has come, that there is more of it now than ever.