Elie Wiesel was born on 30 September 1928 in
\nthe Romanian town of Sighetu Marmatiei, and passed away on 2 July 2016 in New
\nYork. He was one of the best known and most vocal activists for keeping alive
\nthe memory of the Holocaust, that claimed the lives of around 6 million
\nEuropean Jews, 400,000 of them in Romania or Romanian administered territories,
\nbetween 1941 and 1944. At the time of his deportation to Northern Transylvania
\nin May 1944, his native town was a Romanian territory annexed by Hungary
\nthrough the Vienna Award of August 30, 1940. He was 15 years old when he was
\nsent to Auschwitz together with his parents and his three sisters. In April
\n1944, the camp he was in was liberated, but only he and two of his sisters
\nsurvived the ordeal. <\/p>\n
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Elie Wiesel’s book of memoirs called Night,
\ntranslated into 30 different languages, tells the story of the time spent in
\nNazi death camps. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, in recognition
\nof a lifetime spent fighting against genocidal policies and regimes around the
\nworld. He talked to the world about his suffering and that of the Jewish people
\nduring WWII, so that such things would never occur again. He left behind a
\nlegacy of civic spirit and the everlasting ideals of tolerance and respect for
\ndiversity. Alexandru Florian, the head of the National Institute for the Study
\nof the Holocaust in Romania that bears Wiesel’s name, said that his passing is
\na great loss for humanity: <\/p>\n
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I think it’s a huge loss. And if in 1986, when
\nthe received the Nobel Peace Prize, he was described as ‘a messenger to
\nmankind’, today I believe we are not wrong in saying that this is a huge loss
\nfor mankind. He practically dedicated his entire life after the Holocaust
\nkeeping alive the memory of the Holocaust, and so that people, no matter where
\nthey live on this planet, can have rights and freedoms. He fought a balanced,
\nconsistent and tireless fight to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust so that
\neach and every one of us understands that what happened to the Jews in WWII was
\na murderous tragedy that should never be repeated. At the same time, he was
\ninvolved in the condemnation of the great genocides such as that in Rwanda. For
\nhuman rights militants, for each and every one of us, Wiesel’s death is a great
\nloss.<\/p>\n
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We asked Alexandru Florian about the symbolic
\nforce of Wiesel’s legacy: <\/p>\n
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For any normal and rational human being, Elie
\nWiesel represented something important. On the other hand, for people who plan
\nor participate in exterminations or crimes against humanity, Elie Wiesel’s life
\nis nothing but a barrier in the way of their criminal intentions. For such
\ncreatures, for I could not refer to them as human, Elie Wiesel did not even
\nexist, they do not want people such as him to exist. I can recall cases in
\nRomania when Elie Wiesel was accused of not being a survivor of the Holocaust,
\nand of propaganda perpetrated by Holocaust deniers aimed at disqualifying and
\ndownplaying his actions.<\/p>\n
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Anyone who has ever suffered, everyone who
\nloves tolerance and understanding, want humanity to learn from history. We
\nasked Alexandru Florian if the Holocaust could ever be repeated: <\/p>\n
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Just as in politics you should never say
\nnever, or say that something may be impossible, I cannot say that it could
\nnever happen again, I would not make a pronouncement on that. I believe,
\nhowever, that it is very difficult for us to see once again such a destruction
\nof a group of population as a result of policies as the ones perpetrated during
\nWWII. I believe that Elie Wiesel’s public and civic activity played a role in
\nthis respect. A role was also played by those few European politicians and the
\npeople after WWII who showed rationality, humanity and restraint, even when faced
\nwith the possibility of conflict. I believe that disasters such as those during
\nthe war are not impossible, but there are small chances for them to occur
\nagain. Let us not forget that we have had 70 years of peace on the European
\ncontinent, even if some countries have had civil wars or conflicts.<\/p>\n
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We asked Alexandru Florian about the personal
\nmeeting he had with Elie Wiesel in 2004: <\/p>\n
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I met him at the 2003-2004 meeting of the
\nInternational Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania. He was the
\nhead of the commission, I was a member. I listened to his speech in Bucharest
\nat the conclusion of the meeting, when he handed the report to then president
\nIon Iliescu. On that occasion, I had the opportunity to meet Elie Wiesel and
\nexchange a few words with him. Now that he is no longer with us, I remember
\nfondly how impressed I was by the balance, the warmth, the humanity that
\nemanated from him. At the same time, I was impressed by the determination with
\nwhich he acted to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust and to prevent
\nmurderous politicians such as those from WWII from taking power anywhere in the
\nworld.<\/p>\n
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\nThe world is worse off without
\nElie Wiesel, but hopefully the future will not repeat the mistakes of the past,
\nin part thanks to him. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elie Wiesel was one of the most vocal activists for keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":129644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[30540,29344],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-129643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-elie-wiesel","tag-holocaust"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n