 "Photo credit: Wikipedia")
Elie Wiesel, the prolific Nobel laureate who survived the horror of the Holocaust, penned 57 books, passed away on 2 July, 2016 at the age if 87. Born in Romania, the American Jewish writer and political activist Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was very vocal about the rights of the Jews and wrote about the atrocities that Jews went through in ghettos.
He has the Elie Wiesel Centre for Jewish Studies, named in his honour at the Boston University, while the Los Angeles Times referred to him as the Most Important Jew to America. But this all was in the making. His parents, imbibed in him the humanitarian values at a very tender age. His father, Shlomo Wiesel urged him to read more and more literature and learn Hebrew, making it the one of the seven languages he knew. His mother Sarah Feig introduced him to the Torah, the Jewish religious text.
Elie was barely 15, when in 1944 Germany captured Hungary. This lead to arrival of Holocaust into the country. The Wiesel family was thrown in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Along with several other Jews, the Wiesel family tired to endure the horror. His mother and a younger sister were killed in the camp. Elie's father succumbed to the injuries inflicted by a guard, shortly before the war going to be over. He and two elder sisters survived the war. Elsie was unaware that the horrific nights he was enduring at the concentration camp, would help him write a wonderful creation titled Night.
His life started to turn around when on April 11, 1945, USA's Third Army liberated the camp. He went to Paris to learn French and study literature. Subsequently, he penned his memoir Un di velt hot geshvign, which means And the World Remained Silent. It was a 900 page work in Yiddish, of the days spent in Auschwitz. Later in 1960, he shortened it and published it in English as Night.
In this book, he has makes the readers sense the coldness of the ambiance of Auschwitz. His style was very lucid but he captured simplest emotions and put them in even simpler words to shake the human heart to it's core. The book described how he was separated from his mother and sister and his desperation to not be separated from his father.
He worked as a journalist when he moved to New York. He was a foreign correspondent for the Israeli daily, Yediot Ahronot. He established himself as a non-fiction Holocaust writer. In Auschwitz, he saw three men conducting a trial of the God, for they held Him accountable for the oppression that Jews faced. His book, The Trial of the God, is based on this event.
He did not limit himself to just authoring books about the Holocaust. He wanted the world to be aware about what the survivors of the diabolic event went through. He started the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in 1986. His efforts lead to the formation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He worked to prevent genocide and promote human dignity. The organisation presents awards to individuals, who at some level try to do the same. Not surprisingly, this award too is named after Elie Wiesel. The same year he was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize for speaking against racism, violence and upholding and promoting the highest standards of human values.
As mentioned in his official website, his organisation works for the upliftment of the Ethiopian-Jewish community and gives the opportunity to the students if Ethiopian-Israeli descent to fully participate in the Israeli society. His undying spirit towards humanitarianism has been appreciated and well received by the world. He has been bestowed with numerous awards for the contribution to the society. His wife, Marion Erster Rose has worked along side him with same passion as he had.
As he passed away on 2 July, 2016, he has left behind a legacy that will out live the time itself. He shall be remembered as a survivor of the Holocaust who fought all odds. His unflinching support towards promotion of human vales shall live as an example to those who wish to serve the purpose in a time when world is going though serious crisis. And like he once said, "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death", his legacy won't die and he will be loved.
