Elie Wiesel

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Elie Wiesel (2012)

Elie Wiesel ([ ˈɛli_viˈzɛl ]; born September 30, 1928 in Sighetu Marmației , Kingdom of Romania ; died July 2, 2016 in New York City , United States ) was a Romanian-American writer , university professor, and publicist . As a survivor of the Holocaust , he wrote numerous novels and other publications on this subject and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his role model function in the fight against violence, oppression and racism.

life and work

Youth and Studies

Seventh from the left in the second row from the bottom (left of the post): Wiesel in Buchenwald concentration camp, April 16, 1945, 5 days after the liberation

Wiesel was the son of the Romanian businessman Shlomo Wiesel with a Jewish background and his wife Sarah, nee. Cowardly. His maternal grandfather, Reb Dodye Feig, was a deeply religious hasid . Wiesel grew up in an environment heavily influenced by Orthodox Jews . He attended school in his hometown and in 1944, under Hungarian rule, was deported by the German National Socialists together with his family to the main camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp . After three weeks he and his father were transferred to the Auschwitz-Monowitz camp. He later came to the Buchenwald concentration camp , from which he was liberated by US troops on April 11, 1945. After the Second World War , Wiesel went to Strasbourg and learned French . From there he went to study at the Sorbonne in Paris . In addition to other influences, Wiesel's thinking also reflects his in-depth study of the Talmud for decades , among others with the rabbis Mordechai Schuschani (Paris) and Saul Lieberman (New York).

Journalism

In 1948 he toured Israel and reported for the French newspaper L'Arche on the establishment of the Israeli state . From 1952 he was a correspondent in Paris for the newspaper Jedi'ot Acharonot , which appeared in Tel Aviv . For the same newspaper he went to New York City in 1956 and worked as a reporter at the United Nations . In 1963 he completely moved to the United States and became an American citizen .

In his books, Wiesel primarily processes the events experienced during the Holocaust in order to prevent forgetting or indifference to this time. At the same time, he criticizes the political leaders of the time, who could have changed the situation by publicly protesting against Germany, but who did not. His writing career was shaped especially at the beginning by the encouragement of François Mauriac . This motivated him to work through his experiences literarily. Wiesel wrote mostly in French.

In 1958 his first autobiographical book was published under the original French title La Nuit (In Germany 1962 under the title Die Nacht ). This was originally written by him as a book in Yiddish with a length of about 800 pages. It was only published when he shortened it to 127 pages. In the book he presents his experiences by ascribing them to the main character "Elisha". It was the first volume of a trilogy of novels that he named Elischa as The Night to Bury . This first volume closes with his so-called “mirror experience” in April 1945, in which Wiesel looks at himself in a mirror for the first time after his liberation from the concentration camp, and writes as the last line:

“A corpse looked at me from the mirror. His eyes never leave me. "

The following volumes, Dawn (1960) and Day (1961), describe Elisha’s subsequent life, first as a terrorist in Palestine , and later in his attempts to find a normal connection with life and society. In 1962, Tides of Silence appeared , in which Wiesel addressed the secret return of a Jew to his native Hungary after the war. The novel Gesang der Toten (1967) describes the life of the prisoners in the German extermination camps and is also an autobiographical sketch. The novel Dawn was filmed twice: The Dawn (1985) by Miklós Jancsó and Dawn (2014) by Romed Wyder .

He describes life as a Jew during the Six Day War in the novel The Beggar of Jerusalem (1968), in which he portrays a Jew who has difficulties reconciling his real way of life with the laws of the Talmud. In Zalmen (1968) and The Testament of a murdered Jewish poet (1980) is about the life of Jews in the reign of Stalin in the Soviet Union .

Wiesel wrote the foreword to the German edition of the life story of Jan Karski (Jan Karski. One against the Holocaust. As a courier on a secret mission) . In many other works and also in scientific studies, Wiesel presented the way of life of Jews around the world, but also drew attention to social problems, such as the hungry in African countries or the refugee camps in Cambodia .

Activity in institutions

He received a professorship at the City University of New York in 1972 and taught philosophy , Jewish studies and literature . Since 1978 he was Professor of Jewish Studies at Boston University . In 2003 Wiesel was appointed chairman of the International Commission for Research into the Holocaust in Romania , or Wiesel Commission for short . In 2005 he received the Dignitas Humana Award .

Elie Wiesel giving a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2003

From 1979 to 1986 he was chairman of the US Holocaust Memorial Council . From 1978 to 1979 he was also chairman of the previous President's Commission on the Holocaust , which was initiated by Jimmy Carter to establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . A controversy arose in the commission under his leadership about which victim should be remembered in the museum. Wiesel called for an exclusive concentration on Jews in the memorial to the Holocaust and largely prevailed against Simon Wiesenthal , among others , who broadened the term " Holocaust " and also wanted to commemorate non-Jewish Holocaust victims. Historian Howard Zinn described Wiesel's position on the Holocaust Museum as extremely shameful. Among other things, Wiesel wrote: "Auschwitz can neither be explained nor can it be imagined [...] The Holocaust stands outside of history". Norman Finkelstein accuses Wiesel of mystifying the Holocaust and criticizes Wiesel's theses on the "uniqueness of the Holocaust". Eric Hunt criticized Wiesel's Holocaust book The Night as fictional and dragged him out of an elevator in San Francisco on February 1, 2007, in order to force him to confess. But he let Wiesel's screams put him to flight and was later caught, charged and sentenced to imprisonment.

Shortly after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Wiesel and his wife founded the Elie Wiesel Foundation, the purpose of which is to fight intolerance and injustice in the world. In 2008 she lost $ 15.2 million in the Bernard L. Madoff investor affair , which was almost her entire net worth.

In 2000, Wiesel spoke to the German Bundestag on the occasion of the commemoration day for the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism .

The persecution of the Jews was not officially discussed in Romania for a long time, especially during communist rule. The processing has started in 2003. The then President Ion Iliescu convened the International Commission for Research into the Holocaust in Romania under the leadership of Wiesel. The Wiesel Commission presented its final report at the end of 2004. It confirmed the specific form of the Romanian extermination of the Jews; an Elie Wiesel Institute was founded and October 9 was set as the national Holocaust Remembrance Day (Romanian: Ziua Naţională de Comemorare a Holocaustului ).

Wiesel accompanied the American President Barack Obama on his visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp on June 6, 2009. In his speech on the occasion of this visit, Wiesel said that the world had learned nothing from the horrors of Buchenwald: “How else can a Darfur , a Rwanda and give a Bosnia ? "

During a joint appearance with Obama at the Washington Holocaust Museum, he said in view of the ongoing civil war in Syria : “At this place we have to ask ourselves: haven't we learned anything? How can it be that (President) Assad is still in power? "

Awards

Elie Wiesel is greeted by George W. Bush at the Capitol (2007)

Works

  • The Beggar of Jerusalem: Roman. Translated from the French by Christian Sturm. Bechtle, Munich / Esslingen 1986, ISBN 3-548-20809-6 .
  • What opens the gates of heaven: stories of Hasidic masters. With a foreword by Salcia Landmann and an afterword by Jakob J. Petuchowski . Translated from the English by Elisabeth Hank. Herder, Freiburg / Br./ Basel / Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-451-19114-8 .
  • Make prayers out of my stories: essays by a victim . Translated from the French by Hanns Bücker and Ursula Schottelius. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-451-20823-7 .
  • Jew today: short stories, essays, dialogues. From the French by Hilde Linnert. Hannibal, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-85445-029-X .
  • The Shamgorod Trial: As It Folded On February 25, 1649. One piece in 3 acts. Translated from the French by Alexander de Montléart. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-451-21117-3 .
  • Bury the night, Elisha. With prefaces by Martin Walser and François Mauriac . Translated from the French by Curt Meyer-Clason . Munich / Eßlingen 1962, ISBN 3-7628-0446-X .
  • Le serment de Kolvillág. novel. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 1973.
  • The Kolvillág oath. Novel. Translated from the French by Margarete Venjakob. Europa Verlags-AG, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-203-50567-3 .
  • The fifth son: Roman. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-451-20352-9 .
  • Hasidic Celebration: Stories and Legends. Translated from the French by Margarete Venjakob. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-451-21019-3 .
  • Packed by God: prophetic figures. From the American by Ursula Schottelius. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-451-18121-5 .
  • Song of the Dead: Memories and Testimony. with the Nobel Prize Speeches from Oslo. Translated from the French and English by Christian Sturm and Rudolf Walter. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-451-20991-8 .
  • The secret of the golem . With drawings by Mark Podwal. From the American by Ursula Schottelius. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-451-20278-6 :
  • Words like light in the night. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-451-21080-0 .
  • The will of a murdered Jewish poet: a novel. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder. Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-451-22282-5 .
  • Stories against melancholy. The wisdom of the Hasidic masters. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-451-04296-7 .
  • The six days of creation and destruction: A Book of Hope (with Albert H. Friedlander ). Translated from the English and French by Reinhold Boschert-Kimmig. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-451-22596-4 .
  • Adam or the secret of the beginning. Legends and portraits. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-451-04249-5 .
  • The forgotten: a novel. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-451-04186-3 .
  • Tide of Silence: Roman. Translated from the French by Curt Meyer-Clason . Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-451-04154-5 .
  • Celebrate the peace. With a preface by Václav Havel . Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-451-04019-0 .
  • The wisdom of the Talmud. Stories and portraits. From the French by Hanns Bücker. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-451-04768-3 .
  • Gleanings: Memories, two-part / François Mitterrand. From the French of Aglaia Citron. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-455-11128-9 .
  • The judge. Roman, 1999 (German edition 2001, ISBN 3-7857-1524-2 ), ISBN 3-451-04384-X .
  • All rivers flow into the sea. Autobiography. Translated from the French by Holger Fock. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-455-11108-4 .
  • ... and the sea doesn't get full. Autobiography 1969–1996. Translated from the French by Holger Fock and Sabine Müller. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-455-11110-6 .
  • S chweigen is impossible. Translated from the French by Wolfram Bayer. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-12012-3 .
  • The opposite of indifference is memory. M. Grünewald, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-7867-1825-3 .
  • Noah or the Metamorphosis of Fear: Biblical Portraits. From the American by Reinhold Boschki . Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-451-04878-7 .
  • Hasidism - a festival for life: legends and portraits. Translated from the French by Margarete Venjakob. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-451-04768-3 .
  • The judge. Roman, 1999 (German edition 2001, ISBN 3-7857-1524-2 ).
  • Only the guilty are guilty. In: Martin Doerry (Ed.): Nowhere and everywhere at home. Conversations with survivors of the Holocaust. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-04207-1 (also as CD) pp. 204–211.
  • Hope: stay true to life. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-451-05951-3 .
  • With an Open Heart: A Report Between Life and Death. Translated from the French by Sigrid Irimia. Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-451-30628-0 .
  • The night: memory and testimony. Translated from the French by Curt Meyer-Clason . Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-06641-2 .
  • Rashi . A portrait. From the French: Daniel Krohabennik . Herder, Freiburg / Br. / Basel / Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-451-31336-3 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Elie Wiesel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Elie Wiesel  - Quotes

Remarks

  1. ↑ teachingbooks.net
  2. ↑ Elie Wiesel, Nobel winner and Holocaust survivor, dies aged 87. In: The Guardian , July 3, 2016
  3. ↑ DNB 948290021 , entry in the catalog of the German National Library
  4. ↑ Elie Wiesel. ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Herder publishing house, Freiburg @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.herder.de
  5. ^ Wollheim Memorial.
  6. ↑ Night, p. 152.
  7. ↑ Shira Schoenberg: Elie Wiesel. In: Jewish Virtual Library.
  8. ↑ Counterpunch: How Elie Wiesel Perpetuates the Fraud , April 21, 2010.
  9. ↑ See Norman Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry . Piper, 2001, ISBN 3-492-04316-X , p. 53 ff.
  10. ↑ Police arrest one accused of attacking Wiesel , Associated Press , February 18 of 2007.
  11. ↑ Jaxon Van Derbeken: Jury convicts man in attack on Elie Wiesel , San Francisco Chronicle , July 22, 2008.
  12. ↑ Madoff victims: Elie Wiesel Foundation loses almost all of its assets . Mirror online
  13. ↑ October 9th is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Romania , Radio România Internaţional, Oct. 8th 2015 - Quotes: Since 2004, the national Holocaust Remembrance Day has been celebrated in Romania every year on October 9th. ... On October 9, 1941, the regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu, allied with Nazi Germany, began with the deportations of Jews from eastern Romania to the Soviet territories occupied (by German troops). According to statistics, more than 250,000 Jews died ...
  14. ↑ A German journey . In: Berliner Zeitung , 6./7. June 2009.
  15. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: To the death of Elie Wiesel: Admonishing voice for a better world . In: FAZ . July 3, 2016 ( faz.net [accessed July 13, 2016]).
  16. ↑ Members: Elie Wiesel. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Elie Wiesel visszaadta nagykeresztjét Kövér és a múlt átírása miatt . Külföld, NOL.hu
  18. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Elie Wiesel in Geneva: Warned against forgetting the Holocaust . NZZ.ch
  19. ↑ Excerpts
personal data
SURNAME Wiesel, Elie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian-American writer, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Sighetu Marmației , Kingdom of Romania
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 2016
Place of death New York City , United States