Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel dies
AFP/File / Jewel Samad
Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, renowned writer and Nobel peace laureate, has died at 87
Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor, renowned writer
and Nobel peace laureate who worked to keep alive the memory of Jews
slaughtered during World War II, has died aged 87, Israel's Yad Vashem
Holocaust centre said Saturday.A spokesman for the centre, Simmy Allen, confirmed Wiesel's death to AFP, saying late Saturday that "he did pass away several hours ago".
The New York Times reported that he died at home in Manhattan.
"The state of Israel and the Jewish people bitterly mourn the death of Elie Wiesel," Netanyahu said.
"Elie, a master of words, expressed in his unique personality and fascinating books the victory of human spirit over cruelty and evil.
AFP/File / Sven Nackstrand
Nobel Peace prize winner
and writer Elie Wiesel (L) in front of a photo of himself and other
inmates, taken at Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, during a visit
to the Holocaust Memorial Center "Yad Vashem" in Jerusalem on in 1986
"In the darkness of the Holocaust, in which six million
of our brothers and sisters perished, Elie Wiesel was a beacon of light
and an exemplar of humanity that believes in man's good."Wiesel, a Romanian-born US citizen, was perhaps best known for his memoir "Night" detailing his experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
He won the Nobel peace prize in 1986, described as having "made it his life's work to bear witness to the genocide committed by the Nazis during World War II".
- Rights activist -
AFP/File / Mandel Ngan
US President Barack Obama
(R) embraces Elie Wiesel as they visit the camp at Buchenwald near in
the eastern German city of Weimar on June 5, 2009
Wiesel said in his acceptance speech that the award "both frightens and pleases me."It frightens me because I wonder: do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honour on their behalf?
"I do not. That would be presumptuous. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.
While Wiesel's focus was the Holocaust and the plight of the Jewish people, he was also a rights activist on other subjects.
He had long served as a professor of Judaic studies and the humanities in the United States.
AFP/File / Don Emmert
Elie Wiesel addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on on July 2, 2016
Soon after he won the Nobel prize, Wiesel and his wife
Marion founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with a mission to
"combat indifference, intolerance and injustice through international
dialogue and youth-focused programs that promote acceptance,
understanding and equality".Throughout his life and career, Wiesel continued to speak out for victims of oppression across the world.
Tributes poured in following his death.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called Wiesel "a hero of the Jewish people, and a giant of all humanity".
- Internationally acclaimed -
AFP/File / Richard Wells
Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel (L) receives the US Congressional Medal of Honor from former US
President Ronald Reagan (R) at the White House on October 14, 1986 in
Washington, DC
Wiesel, born Eliezer Wiesel on September 30, 1928, grew up in a small town in Romania.He was raised with three sisters -- two older and one younger -- by their mother and father in a Jewish community until they were all detained during the Holocaust when he was a teenager.
His mother and younger sister were killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, according to his biography on the Nobel website.
He was later reunited with his two older sisters in France, and Wiesel eventually studied at the Sorbonne.
Wiesel's internationally acclaimed "Night" was originally published in 1956 and has been translated into more than 30 different languages.
It was later expanded into a trilogy with "Dawn" and "Day".
Wiesel travelled back to Auschwitz in 2006 with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey. He also accompanied US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a tour of the Buchenwald camp.
In 2007 Wiesel was attacked by a Holocaust denier. Although Wiesel was not injured, his attacker was arrested and sent to prison.
In 2014, Netanyahu reportedly sought to convince Wiesel to be a candidate for Israeli president, a largely ceremonial role.
Wiesel refused, reportedly saying "it's not for me".
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