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Nobel Peace Prize winner and author Elie Wiesel passes away

By Cheryl Wassenaar

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 28: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Author Elie Wiesel attends the 'Genesis Generation Challenge' at Bloomberg Philanthropies on April 28, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 28: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Author Elie Wiesel attends the 'Genesis Generation Challenge' at Bloomberg Philanthropies on April 28, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images) /
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Elie Wiesel passed away today at the age of 87.

Author, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor, and activist Elie Wiesel died Saturday, July 2. The news was confirmed by Yad Vashem, a Holocaust research center, on Twitter:

As a teenager, he survived the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps; his experiences there led him to write his best-known work, Night, which was originally published in 1958 and in French as La Nuit. An English version followed in 1960.

However, he did not stop writing with Night. His foundation’s list of his books includes plays like The Trial of God and novels like Dawn and Day among his works.

In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his message of acceptance and his work primarily as an author. In its press release announcing his selection, the Committee said, “The Norwegian Nobel Committee believes that Elie Wiesel, with his message and through his practical work in the cause of peace, is a convincing spokesman for the view of mankind and for the unlimited humanitarianism which are at all times necessary for a lasting and just peace.”

Soon after, Wiesel and his wife, Marion (who also re-translated Night into English in 2006), founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, dedicated to combating injustice and promoting acceptance all around the world.

Wiesel also served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, a position he had held since 1976. He was part of both the religion and philosophy departments there.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he summarized his mission thusly, phrased as a response to the boy he was when he was sent to the concentration camps: “That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.”

In a statement, President Barack Obama called Wiesel “one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world.”

Elie Wiesel was 87 years old. Details on the cause of his death are not yet known. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

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