Elie Wiesel

Eliezer Wiesel (born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania ? now part of Romania) is a Holocaust survivor, a world–renowned author, and a political activist. He is the author of over 40 books, the most famous of which, Night, serves as a testimony to his experiences during the Holocaust. In 1986, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.{{ref|Nobel}} The Norwegian Nobel Committee called Wiesel 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 Hitler's death camps", as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace", Wiesel has delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity. Wiesel lives in the United States, teaches at Boston University and serves as the Chairman of The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.{{ref|ewfoundation}} He was the first to use the term "Holocaust".

After the War

After the War, Wiesel was placed in a French orphanage where he learned the French language and accidentally found two older sisters who had also survived the war. In 1948, Wiesel began studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. He taught Hebrew and worked as a choirmaster before becoming a professional journalist. As a journalist he wrote for Israeli and French newspapers, including the French newspaper, L'arche. However, for ten years after the war, Wiesel refused to write about or discuss his experiences during the Holocaust. Like many survivors, Wiesel couldn't find the words to describe his experiences. However, a meeting with François Mauriac, the 1952 Nobel laureate in Literature, who eventually became Wiesel's close friend, persuaded him to write about his Holocaust experiences.

Related Topics:
1948 - Sorbonne - Newspaper - L'arche - François Mauriac - Nobel laureate in Literature

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Wiesel recounts his meeting with Mauriac as follows:

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:I was a young journalist in Paris. I wanted to meet the Prime Minister of France for my paper. He was, then, a Jew called Mendès-France. But he didn't offer to see me. I had heard that the French author François Mauriac? was his guru? So I would go to Mauriac, the writer, and I would ask him to introduce me to Mendès-France.

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:Mauriac was an old man then, but when I came to Mauriac, he agreed to see me. We met and we had a painful discussion. The problem was that he was in love with Jesus. He was the most decent person I ever met in that field — as a writer, as a Catholic writer. Honest, sense of integrity, and he was in love with Jesus. He spoke only of Jesus.

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:Whatever I would ask — Jesus. Finally, I said, "What about Mendès-France?" He said that Mendès-France, like Jesus, was suffering. That's not what I wanted to hear. I wanted, at one point, to speak about Mendès-France and I would say to Mauriac, can you introduce me? When he said Jesus again I couldn't take it, and for the only time in my life I was discourteous, which I regret to this day. I said, "Mr. Mauriac,"? "ten years or so ago, I have seen children, hundreds of Jewish children, who suffered more than Jesus did on his cross and we do not speak about it." I felt all of a sudden so embarrassed. I closed my notebook and went to the elevator. He ran after me. He pulled me back; he sat down in his chair, and I in mine, and he began weeping. I have rarely seen an old man weep like that, and I felt like such an idiot. I felt like a criminal. This man didn't deserve that. He was really a pure man, a member of the Resistance. I didn't know what to do. We stayed there like that, he weeping and I closed in my own remorse. And then, at the end, without saying anything, he simply said, "You know, maybe you should talk about it."

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:He took me to the elevator and embraced me. And that year, the tenth year, I began writing my narrative? That made me not publish, but write.

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Wiesel wrote a 800 page book on his experiences in Yiddish (although he usually writes in French). The work was originally published in Buenos Aires. Wiesel compressed and rewrote that book in French, and it was published as the 127 page novel La Nuit, published in English as Night. Even with Mauriac's support Wiesel had great difficulty finding publishers for his work and even when his books were published they sold very poorly.

Related Topics:
Yiddish - Buenos Aires - La Nuit - Night

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