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Elie Wiesel - Academy of Achievement
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Academy of Achievement</title> <!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v5.4 - https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ --> <meta name="description" content="Elie Wiesel was only 15 when German troops deported him and his family from their home in Romania to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father, mother, and younger sister all died at the hands of the Nazis. The young boy survived forced labor, forced marches, starvation, disease, beatings and torture to become a world-renowned writer, teacher and spokesman for the oppressed peoples of the earth. He is best known as the most eloquent witness to the great catastrophe to which he was the first to give the name "Holocaust." After the war, Elie Wiesel determined to relate his story to the world. His book Night is one of the classic accounts of the Holocaust. Following its publication, Elie Wiesel wrote more than 55 books, including novels, plays, books of essays, biblical commentary and works on Jewish folklore and mysticism. Throughout his career, he continued to speak out for victims of oppression all the world over."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elie-wiesel/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Elie Wiesel - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel was only 15 when German troops deported him and his family from their home in Romania to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father, mother, and younger sister all died at the hands of the Nazis.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The young boy survived forced labor, forced marches, starvation, disease, beatings and torture to become a world-renowned writer, teacher and spokesman for the oppressed peoples of the earth. He is best known as the most eloquent witness to the great catastrophe to which he was the first to give the name "Holocaust."</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">After the war, Elie Wiesel determined to relate his story to the world. His book <i>Night </i>is one of the classic accounts of the Holocaust. Following its publication, Elie Wiesel wrote more than 55 books, including novels, plays, books of essays, biblical commentary and works on Jewish folklore and mysticism. Throughout his career, he continued to speak out for victims of oppression all the world over.</span></p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elie-wiesel/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wiesel-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel was only 15 when German troops deported him and his family from their home in Romania to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father, mother, and younger sister all died at the hands of the Nazis.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The young boy survived forced labor, forced marches, starvation, disease, beatings and torture to become a world-renowned writer, teacher and spokesman for the oppressed peoples of the earth. He is best known as the most eloquent witness to the great catastrophe to which he was the first to give the name "Holocaust."</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">After the war, Elie Wiesel determined to relate his story to the world. His book <i>Night </i>is one of the classic accounts of the Holocaust. Following its publication, Elie Wiesel wrote more than 55 books, including novels, plays, books of essays, biblical commentary and works on Jewish folklore and mysticism. Throughout his career, he continued to speak out for victims of oppression all the world over.</span></p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Elie Wiesel - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wiesel-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Organization","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/achiever\/elie-wiesel\/","sameAs":[],"@id":"#organization","name":"Academy of Achievement","logo":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20181101000130\/http:\/\/162.243.3.155\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/academyofachievement.png"}</script> <!-- / Yoast SEO plugin. --> <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://s.w.org/"/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/web/20181101000130cs_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/dist/styles/main-5a94a61811.css"> </head> <body class="achiever-template-default single single-achiever postid-3272 elie-wiesel sidebar-primary"> <!--[if IE]> <div class="alert alert-warning"> You are using an <strong>outdated</strong> browser. 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/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wiesel-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wiesel-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Elie Wiesel</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Nobel Prize for Peace</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div> <!-- Nav tabs --> <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3272 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-activist careers-journalist"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix"> <!-- Tab panes --> <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel_WhatItTakes_256x256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/social-justice/id839300575?mt=13" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/new_social_JUSTICE_cover-MIKE-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/social-justice/id839300575?mt=13" target="_blank"> Download our free multi-touch iBook <i>Social Justice: Leadership Lessons</i> — for your Mac or iOS device on Apple's iTunes U </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0">The <i>Social Justice</i> iBook opens up the compelling, idealistic and selfless world of social justice, giving readers a better understanding of how empowering others, promoting equality and exposing injustice can change the very fabric of our society. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">Be sensitive. Insensitivity brings indifference and nothing is worse than indifference. Indifference makes that person dead before the person dies. Indifference means there is a kind of apathy that sets in and you no longer appreciate beauty, friendship, goodness, or anything.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Messenger to Mankind</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 30, 1928 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 2, 2016 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel was born in the small town of Sighet in Transylvania, where people of different languages and religions have lived side by side for centuries, sometimes peacefully, sometimes in bitter conflict. The region was long claimed by both Hungary and Romania. In the 20th century, it changed hands repeatedly, a hostage to the fortunes of war.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13658" style="width: 253px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13658 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13658 size-full lazyload" alt="Elie Wiesel, age 15, shortly before deportation. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" width="253" height="396" data-sizes="(max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010.jpg 253w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010-243x380.jpg 243w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Elie Wiesel, age 15, shortly before deportation. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel grew up in the close-knit Jewish community of Sighet. While the family spoke Yiddish at home, they read newspapers and conducted their grocery business in German, Hungarian or Romanian as the occasion demanded. Ukrainian, Russian and other languages were also widely spoken in the town. Elie began religious studies in classical Hebrew almost as soon as he could speak. The young boy’s life centered entirely on his religious studies. He loved the mystical tradition and folk tales of the Hassidic sect of Judaism, to which his mother’s family belonged. His father, though religious, encouraged the boy to study the modern Hebrew language and concentrate on his secular studies. The first years of World War II left Sighet relatively untouched. Although the village changed hands from Romania to Hungary, the Wiesel family believed they were safe from the persecutions suffered by Jews in Germany and Poland.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The secure world of Wiesel’s childhood ended abruptly with the arrival of the Nazis in Sighet in 1944. The Jewish inhabitants of the village were deported en masse to concentration camps in Poland. The 15-year-old boy was separated from his mother and sister immediately on arrival in Auschwitz. He never saw them again. He managed to remain with his father for the next year as they were worked almost to death, starved, beaten, and shuttled from camp to camp on foot, or in open cattle cars, in driving snow, without food, proper shoes, or clothing. In the last months of the war, Wiesel’s father succumbed to dysentery, starvation, exhaustion and exposure.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_14098" style="width: 2173px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-14098 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-14098 size-full lazyload" alt="Victims of the Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated by the American troops of the 80th Division. Amongst them is Elie Wiesel (7th from the left on the middle bunk next to the vertical post) who went on to become an internationally famous writer, academic & winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. (Photo by H Miller/Getty Images)" width="2173" height="1765" data-sizes="(max-width: 2173px) 100vw, 2173px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764.jpg 2173w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764-380x309.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764-760x617.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 16, 1945. Victims of the Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated by the American troops of the 80th Division. Amongst them is Elie Wiesel (7th from the left on the middle bunk next to the vertical post) who went on to become an internationally acclaimed writer and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace. (H Miller/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">After the war, the teenaged Wiesel found asylum in France, where he learned for the first time that his two older sisters had survived the war. Wiesel mastered the French language and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, while supporting himself as a choir master and teacher of Hebrew. He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13670" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13670 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13670 size-full lazyload" alt="Behind the once electrically secured barbed crematorium of Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. (Photo by Unkel / ullstein picture via Getty Images )" width="2280" height="1546" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323.jpg 2280w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323-380x258.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323-760x515.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Behind the once electrically-secured barbed crematorium of Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, where young Elie Wiesel was imprisoned by the Nazi regime. (Unkel/ullstein picture via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">For ten years, he observed a self-imposed vow of silence and wrote nothing about his wartime experience. In 1955, at the urging of the Catholic writer Francois Mauriac, he set down his memories in Yiddish, in a 900-page work entitled <i>Un die welt hot geshvign </i>(And the world kept silent). The book was first published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wiesel compressed the work into a 127-page French adaptation, <i>La Nuit </i>(Night), but several years passed before he was able to find a publisher for the French or English versions of the work. Even after Wiesel found publishers for the French and English translations, the book sold few copies.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13661" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13661 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13661 size-full lazyload" alt="President Carter observes a Day of Remembrance with Elie Wiesel at the U.S. Capitol. Memorial candles are lit to commemorate the 11 million who died in nazi concentration camps during World War II. (UPI/Corbis-Bettman)" width="2280" height="1512" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804.jpg 2280w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804-760x504.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">President Carter observes a Day of Remembrance with Elie Wiesel at the U.S. Capitol. Memorial candles are lit to commemorate the 11 million who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. (UPI/Corbis-Bettman)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">In 1956, while he was in New York reporting on the United Nations, Elie Wiesel was struck by a taxi cab. His injuries confined him to a wheelchair for almost a year. Unable to renew the French document which had allowed him to travel as a “stateless” person, Wiesel applied successfully for American citizenship. Once he recovered, he remained in New York and became a feature writer for the Yiddish-language newspaper, <i>The Jewish Daily Forward</i> (<i>Der forverts</i>). Wiesel continued to write books in French, including the semi-autobiographical novels <i>L’Aube </i>(Dawn), and <i>Le Jour </i>(translated as <i>The Accident</i>). In his novel <i>La Ville de la Chance </i>(translated as <i>The Town Beyond the Wall </i>), Wiesel imagined a return to his home town, a journey he did not undertake in life until after the book was published.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_13663" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13663 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13663 size-full lazyload" alt="President Bill Clinton and Elie Wiesel light a ceremonial torch at the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., April 22, 1993. (Diana Walker/ Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)" width="2280" height="1501" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10.jpg 2280w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10-760x500.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 22, 1993: President Bill Clinton lights the eternal flame at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with help from Council Chairman Harvey Meyerhoff and Founding Chairman Elie Wiesel. The eternal flame stands in memory of six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. (Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">As these and other books brought Wiesel to the attention of readers and critics, translations of <i>Night</i> found an audience at last, and Wiesel became an unofficial spokesman for the survivors of the Holocaust. At the same time, he took an increasing interest in the plight of persecuted Jews in the Soviet Union. He first traveled to the USSR in 1965 and reported on his travels in <i>The Jews of Silence</i>. His 1968 account of the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors appeared in English as <i>A Beggar in Jerusalem</i>. In time, Wiesel was able to use his fame to plead for justice for oppressed peoples in the Soviet Union, South Africa, Vietnam, Biafra and Bangladesh. In 1976, Elie Wiesel was named Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University. He also taught at the City University of New York and was a visiting scholar at Yale University. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Elie Wiesel Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Wiesel was a driving force behind the establishment of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. His words, “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness,” are engraved in stone at the entrance to the museum. In 1985 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, and in 1986, the Nobel Prize for Peace. “Wise men remember best,” Mr. Wiesel said in his Nobel lecture. “And yet, it is surely human to forget, even to want to forget…Only God and God alone can and must remember everything.” In 1992, </span>President George H.W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.</p> <figure id="attachment_13665" style="width: 1520px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13665 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13665 size-full lazyload" alt="Elie Wiesel with his wife Marion, at the opening of the Academie Universelle des Cultures in Paris, France, 1993. (© Pelletier Micheline/Corbis/Sygma)" width="1520" height="998" data-sizes="(max-width: 1520px) 100vw, 1520px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033.jpg 1520w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033-760x499.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Elie Wiesel with his wife, Marion, at the opening of the Academie Universelle des Cultures in Paris, France, 1993.</figcaption></figure><p>In the midst of his activities as a human rights activist, Wiesel continued his career as a literary artist. He wrote plays including <i>Zalmen or the Madness of God </i>and <i>The Trial of God (Le Proces de Shamgorod</i>). His other novels include <i>The Gates of the Forest, The Oath, The Testament,</i> and <i>The Fifth Son</i>. His essays and short stories have been collected in the volumes <i>Legends of Our Time, One Generation After</i>, and <i>A Jew Today</i>. The English translation of his memoirs was published in 1995 as <i>All Rivers Run to the Sea</i>. A second volume of memoirs, <i>And the Sea Is Never Full</i>, appeared in 2000.</p> <figure id="attachment_18770" style="width: 2202px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-18770 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-18770 size-full lazyload" alt="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. " width="2202" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2202px) 100vw, 2202px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293.jpg 2202w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293-380x262.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293-760x525.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the delegates spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as an author and witness — exposing injustice wherever it arises.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1">As his international fame grew, Wiesel spoke out on behalf of the victims of genocide and oppression all over the world, from Bosnia to Darfur. Although he became known to millions for his human rights activism, he by no means abandoned the art of fiction. His later novels included <i>A Mad Desire to Dance</i> (2009) and <i>The Sonderberg Case</i> (2010), a tale set in contemporary New York City, with a cast of characters including Holocaust survivors, Germans, American emigrants to Israel and New York literati. Elie Wiesel and his wife, Marion, made their home in New York City. His wife, the former Marion Erster Rose, was a Holocaust survivor; they married in 1969. Since Wiesel wrote his books in French, Marion Wiesel often collaborated with him on their English translations. He died at home in Manhattan, at the age of 87.</span></p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1996 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.activist">Activist</a></div> <div><a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.journalist">Journalist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 30, 1928 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> July 2, 2016 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel was only 15 when German troops deported him and his family from their home in Romania to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His father, mother, and younger sister all died at the hands of the Nazis.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The young boy survived forced labor, forced marches, starvation, disease, beatings and torture to become a world-renowned writer, teacher and spokesman for the oppressed peoples of the earth. He is best known as the most eloquent witness to the great catastrophe to which he was the first to give the name “Holocaust.”</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s2">After the war, Elie Wiesel determined to relate his story to the world. His book <i>Night </i>is one of the classic accounts of the Holocaust. Following its publication, Elie Wiesel wrote more than 55 books, including novels, plays, books of essays, biblical commentary and works on Jewish folklore and mysticism. Throughout his career, he continued to speak out for victims of oppression all the world over.</span></p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/2iopo3z2x7M?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=1489&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_01_59_10.Still024-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_01_59_10.Still024-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Messenger to Mankind</h2> <div class="sans-2">Sun Valley, Idaho</div> <div class="sans-2">June 29, 1996</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>It’s hard for any of us to imagine what you experienced, as an adolescent, in the concentration camps. How did that affect and change what you did with your life?</b></span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Elie Wiesel: It affected me a lot. I cannot talk about myself. I like to talk about other people, not about myself, but I’ll try to answer you.</span></p> </div> <!-- end interview copy --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview video --> <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Bwq2yU5Lmo?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_18_01_08.Still022-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_18_01_08.Still022-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure> <!-- interview video copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Of course, it had an overwhelming effect.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>After the war — I was 15 when I entered the camp, I was 16 when I left it, and all of a sudden you become an orphan and you have no one.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I had a little sister and I knew, with my mother the first night, that they were swept away by fire.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My older sisters I discovered by accident after the war in Paris, where I was in an orphanage.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But to be an orphan — you can become an orphan at 50, you are still an orphan. Very often I think of my father and my mother.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>At any important moment in my life, they are there, thinking, “What an injustice.” To date, I haven’t written much about that period.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Of my 40 books, maybe four or five deal with that period because I know that there are no words for it, so all I can try to do is to communicate the incommunicability of the event.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Furthermore, I know that even if I found the words, you wouldn’t understand.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It is not because I cannot explain that you won’t understand, it is because you won’t understand that I can’t explain.</p> </div> </div> <!-- end interview video copy --> <!-- end interview video --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_13657" style="width: 396px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13657 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13657 size-full lazyload" alt="Elie Wiesel as a child, with his mother and sisters. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" width="396" height="263" data-sizes="(max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009.jpg 396w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009-380x252.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Elie Wiesel as a child, with his mother and sisters. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>The idea of the writer’s mission, to be a witness, to be a messenger, was that part of your intention as a writer?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: I wasn’t that ambitious really. I wanted to write. I wrote my first book in Yiddish. In 1956, it came out in Buenos Aires, and then in French in 1958, and in New York in 1960.</p></body></html> </div> <!-- end interview copy --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview video --> <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/xkOMgKannU4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_02_19_06.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_02_19_06.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure> <!-- interview video copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">I wrote it, not for myself really. I wrote it for the other survivors who found it difficult to speak. And I wanted really to tell them, “Look, you must speak.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>As poorly as we can express our feelings, our memories, but we must try.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>We are not guaranteeing success, but we must guarantee effort.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I wrote it for them, because the survivors are a kind of most endangered species.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Every day, every day there are funerals.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And I felt that there for a while they were so neglected, so abandoned, almost humiliated by society after the war. When I became Chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust in 1978, I wanted really to glorify the survivors.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There wasn’t a committee that I didn’t appoint a survivor, because I felt they deserve it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The same reason I wrote is really for that mission.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s always afterwards that, in a way, your friends or your readers convince you that you went beyond that, that you are a messenger, and so forth. I didn’t use those words, I used the words simply, “Look, we have to tell the story as best as we can.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And we know that we won’t succeed.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I know I won’t succeed.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I know I haven’t succeeded.</p> </div> </div> <!-- end interview video copy --> <!-- end interview video --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview video --> <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/FG7nxnqMV-I?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_01_09_04.Still017-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_01_09_04.Still017-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure> <!-- interview video copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Take the word “holocaust.” I am among the first — if not the first — to use it in that context.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>By accident.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was working on an essay, a biblical commentary, and I wrote about the sacrifice, the binding of Isaac, by his father Abraham.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In the Bible, there is a word in Hebrew, <em>ola</em>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which means burned offering.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I felt that’s good.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That’s “holocaust.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That’s good because it’s fire and father and son.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Meaning the son who almost died, but in our case it was the father who died, not the son.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The word had so many implications that I felt it was good. Then it became accepted, and everybody used it and then I stopped using it because it was abused.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Everything was a holocaust all of a sudden.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I heard myself on television once, a sportscaster on television speaking of the defeat of a sports team and he said, “Was that a holocaust!”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My God!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Everything became a holocaust. In Bosnia, I remember, they spoke about a holocaust.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I went to Bosnia to see.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I felt, if it is, I must move heaven and earth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Even if it isn’t, I must move heaven and earth to prevent it, but at least not to use the word.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Well, all of this really is not very easy, but why should it be?</p> </div> </div> <!-- end interview video copy --> <!-- end interview video --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_13660" style="width: 657px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13660 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13660 size-full lazyload" alt="ElieWiesel speaks at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. (© Diana Walker/TIME Inc.)" width="657" height="439" data-sizes="(max-width: 657px) 100vw, 657px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small.jpg 657w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small-380x254.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Elie Wiesel speaks at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. (© Diana Walker/TIME Inc.)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>After the war, you did not speak — you were not a witness — for ten years.</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: I was. You know…</p></body></html> </div> <!-- end interview copy --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview video --> <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/hmReA6NNjaI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_06_33_10.Still023-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_06_33_10.Still023-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure> <!-- interview video copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">You can be a silent witness, which means silence itself can become a way of communication. There is so much in silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There is an archeology of silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There is a geography of silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There is a theology of silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There is a history of silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Silence is universal and you can work within it, within its own parameters and its own context, and make that silence into a testimony.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Job was silent after he lost his children and everything, his fortune and his health. Job, for seven days and seven nights he was silent, and his three friends who came to visit him were also silent.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That must have been a powerful silence, a brilliant silence.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>You see, silence itself can be testimony and I was waiting for ten years, really, but it wasn’t the intention.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>My intention simply was to be sure that the words I would use are the proper words.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was afraid of language.</p> </div> </div> <!-- end interview video copy --> <!-- end interview video --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>What persuaded you to break that silence?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Oh, I knew ten years later I would do something. I had to tell the story. I was a young journalist in Paris. I wanted to meet the Prime Minister of France for my paper. He was, then, a Jew called Mendès-France. But he didn’t offer to see me. I had heard that the French author François Mauriac — a very great Catholic writer and Nobel Prize winner, a member of the Academy — was his guru. Mauriac was his teacher. So I would go to Mauriac, the writer, and I would ask him to introduce me to Mendès-France.</p> <figure id="attachment_13659" style="width: 800px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13659 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-Fran%C3%A7ois-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13659 size-full lazyload" alt="François Mauriac, the 1952 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreward to Wiesel's book <i>Night</i>. (Corbis-Bettman)" width="800" height="800" data-sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" data-srcset="/web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature.jpg 800w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20181101000130im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">François Mauriac, the 1952 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreward to Wiesel’s book <i>Night</i>. (Corbis-Bettman)</figcaption></figure></body></html> </div> <!-- end interview copy --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview video --> <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181101000130if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/DqFNEU1sRbg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=144&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_07_04_29.Still020-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wiesel-elie-1996-MasterEdit.00_07_04_29.Still020-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure> <!-- interview video copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p><span style="font-size: 1rem;">When I came to Mauriac, he accepted to see me. The problem was that he was in love with Jesus. He was the most decent person I ever met in that field — as a writer, as a Catholic writer. Honest, sense of integrity, and he was in love with Jesus. He spoke only of Jesus. Whatever I would ask — Jesus. Finally, I said, “What about Mendès-France?” He said that Mendès-France, like Jesus, was suffering. That’s not what I wanted to hear. I wanted, at one point, to speak about Mendès-France, and I would say to Mauriac, can you introduce me? When he said Jesus again I couldn’t take it, and for the only time in my life I was discourteous, which I regret to this day. I said, “Mr. Mauriac” — we called him </span><em style="font-size: 1rem;">Maître —</em><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> “ten years or so ago, I have seen children, hundreds of Jewish children, who suffered more than Jesus did on his cross and we do not speak about it.” I felt all of a sudden so embarrassed. I closed my notebook and went to the elevator. He ran after me. He pulled me back; he sat down in his chair, and I in mine, and he began weeping. I have rarely seen an old man weep like that, and I felt like such an idiot. I felt like a criminal. This man didn’t deserve that. He was really a pure man, a member of the Resistance. I didn’t know what to do. We stayed there like that, he weeping and I closed in my own remorse. And then, at the end, without saying anything, he simply said, “You know, maybe you should talk about it.” He took me to the elevator and embraced me. And that year, the tenth year, I began writing my narrative. After it was translated from Yiddish into French, I sent it to him. We were very, very close friends until his death. That made me not publish, but write.</span></p> </div> </div> <!-- end interview video copy --> <!-- end interview video --> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview"> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <!-- check if we should display this row --> <!-- interview copy --> <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>The book <em>Night </em>was not easily published, was it?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Neither in France nor here, in spite of Mauriac. He was the most famous author in Europe, and he brought it personally from publisher to publisher. They didn’t want it. It was too morbid, they said. “Nobody wants to hear these stories.” Finally, a small publisher (who, by the way, was also Beckett’s publisher, which means he had courage) published it.</p> <p>So we brought it to an American publisher. It went from publisher to publisher to publisher. All of them refused it. They gave the same reasons, until a small publisher picked it up. From 1960 to 1963, three years, it didn’t sell 1500 copies. Nobody wanted to read it. It doesn’t matter. I am not here to sell, I’m here to write.</p> <p><strong>Childhood is a recurring theme in your writing. Could you tell us about yours?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: My childhood was really a childhood blessed with love and hope and faith and prayer. I come from a very religious home and in my little town I was not the only one who prayed and was loved. There were people who were poorer than us, yet in my town, we were considered to be not a wealthy family, but well-to-do, which means we weren’t hungry. There were people who were.</p> <p>I spent most of my time talking to God more than to people. He was my partner, my friend, my teacher, my King, my sovereign, and I was so crazily religious that nothing else mattered.</p> <p>Oh, from time-to-time we had anti-Semitic outbursts. Twice a year, Christmas and Easter, we were afraid to go out because those nights we used to be beaten up by hoodlums. It didn’t matter that much. In a way, I was almost used to that. I saw it as part of nature. It’s cold in the winter, it’s hot in the summer and at Easter and Christmas you are being beaten up by a few anti-Semitic hoodlums.</p> <p>Now, it is still the child in me that asks the questions. It is still the child in me that I am trying to entertain or to reach with my stories, which are his stories.</p> <p><strong>What people were important to you? Who influenced you? Who inspired you?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Well, naturally, my grandfather. He was a Hasid, meaning a member of the Hasidic community, and I loved him, I adored him. So thanks to him, I became a Hasid too. And my mother — who actually continued his tradition — she’s the one who brought me to Hasidic Masters. And all the stories I tell now — I’ve written so many books with Hasidic tales — these are not mine, these are theirs, my mother’s and my grandfather’s. My father taught me how to reason, how to reach my mind. My soul belonged to my grandfather and my mother. They enriched me, of course. They influenced me profoundly, to this day. When I write, I have the feeling, literally, physically, that one of them is behind my back, looking over my shoulder and reading what I’m writing. I’m terribly afraid of their judgment. After the war — I wrote about it in my autobiography so I want to come back to that subject — I had a teacher in France who was totally crazy. He spoke 30 languages, literally 30 languages. One day he learned that I knew Hungarian, and he didn’t. He felt so bad that he learned Hungarian in two weeks. In two weeks he knew more about Hungarian literature than I did. Then I had, in New York, a very great teacher, a very great Master. His name was Saul Lieberman, a Talmudic Scholar. I’ve studied Talmud all my life. I still do, even now, every day. For 17 years we were friends, as only a real teacher and a good student can be.</p> <p><strong>As a boy, what books most influenced you, were most important to you?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Religious books, of course. At home we didn’t study the prophets that much. We studied the five books of Moses — the Pentateuch — and then, again, Talmud and Hasidic stories. They, of course, had a lasting influence on me. Secular literature? We had to go to school, so we went to school too, but the main impact I received was from my religious schools as a child.</p> <p>After the war, I began reading, of course. I went to the Sorbonne. I began reading literature, Dostoyevsky and Thomas Mann, the usual, Kafka. I remember the awakening that occurred in me when I read, for the first time, Franz Kafka. Literally, I remember it. I remember it was in the evening when I began reading. I spent the entire night reading and, in the morning, I heard the garbage collector around five o’clock. Usually, I was annoyed at the garbage collector. It’s a very ugly noise that they make, ugly sounds. That morning I was happy. I wanted to run out and embrace them, all these garbage collectors, because they taught me that there was another world than the world of Kafka, which is absurd and desperate, and despairing.</p> <p>I read a lot. I teach my students, not creative writing, but creative reading and it is still from my childhood. You take a text, you explore it, you enter it with all your heart and all your mind. And then you find clues that were left for you, really foredestined to be received by you from centuries ago. Generation after generation there were people who left clues, and you are there to collect them and, at one point, you understand something that you hadn’t understood before. That is a reward, and as a teacher I do the same thing. When I realize there is a student there, in the corner, who understands, there is a flicker in the eye. That is the greatest reward that a teacher can receive.</p> <p><strong>When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: I’m not sure I am, actually. I have written 40 books, it must mean I’m a writer. When you have to write “profession,” I’m not going to write “writer.” After all, “Profession?” “Writer?” A profession is to be a human being, maybe. That’s a very noble profession. Or teacher, the noblest of all professions. I write. As a child, really, at age ten, eleven, or twelve, I was writing already. I wanted to become a writer, and I even wrote a book of commentaries on the Bible. It’s so bad. I found it after the war. It’s so horrible; I’m embarrassed even to admit that I had written it.</p> <p>My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a teacher, but a teacher of Talmud. And here I am. I’m a writer, for want of a better word, and I’m a teacher. I don’t teach the same things. I don’t write about the same things — although I do write commentaries on the Bible, and on the Prophets, and the Talmud, and Hasidic Masters. But still, I am a writer and a teacher.</p> <p><strong>What lessons can we draw for young people for all of this? How do you maintain faith in the face of the circumstances that you’ve endured in your lifetime? How do you keep hope and optimism alive? How do you keep going?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Well, I could answer you by saying, “What is the alternative?” But it’s not enough. In truth, I have learned something. The enemy wanted to be the one who speaks, and I felt, I still feel, we must see to it that the victim should be the one who speaks and is heard. Therefore, all my adult life, since I began my life as an author, or as a teacher, I always try to listen to the victim. In other words, if I remain silent, I may help my own soul but, because I do not help other people, I poison my soul. Silence never helps the victim. It only helps the victimizer. Faith? I think of the killer and I lose all faith. But then I think of the victim and I am inundated with compassion.</p> <p><strong>Is it possible for you to say what advice you might offer to young people today who are starting out on whatever course they may follow?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Sensitivity. Be sensitive in every way possible about everything in life. Be sensitive. Insensitivity brings indifference and nothing is worse than indifference. Indifference makes that person dead before the person dies. Indifference means there is a kind of apathy that sets in and you no longer appreciate beauty, friendship, goodness, or anything. So, therefore, do not be insensitive. Be sensitive, only sensitive. Of course it hurts. Sensitivity is painful. So what? Think of those that you have to be sensitive to. Their pain is greater than yours.</p> <p><strong>When you talk about victims and injustice, you are speaking about something that is universal. It is with us as much today as it was during the war years.</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Absolutely. Sensitivity is inclusive, not exclusive. If you are sensitive, you are sensitive to everything. You cannot say I am only sensitive to this person but not to others. That is not only counterproductive, it’s self-defeating. It’s not only because of religion, or because of social problems, or of medical problems, that you must be sensitive. There is nothing more exciting for a person than to be a sensitive person. Because then you listen, and you go out and you hear the birds chirping and it’s great. You see a person in the street, you do not know his face and you think, “Who knows what secret that person carries?” Which means you learn and you learn and you learn and you become enriched to a point that afterwards it overflows.</p> <p><strong>What personal characteristics are most important for young people to have in mind as they look toward their futures and their careers?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: What I say, of course, applies to all since I don’t know the individual component of that group you are trying to refer to. I would say, favor the question, always question. Do not accept answers as definitive. Answers change. Questions don’t. Always question those who are certain of what they are saying. Always favor the person who is tolerant enough to understand that there are no absolute answers, but there are absolute questions.</p> <p><strong>If you were going to recommend books…</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Don’t ask. I wouldn’t recommend mine because it would be vanity. Were I to recommend others, those I’m not recommending would be angry. I would certainly say to read the classics. I like to re-read the classics. The Bible, naturally, then the religious texts, the Hindu texts. The Upanishads and the Vedas are great, great books. Then go to the Greeks. And <em>The Song of Gilgamesh, </em>These are extraordinary books, even to this day. Read and read and read, but mainly read those who have survived the centuries.</p> <p><strong>What would you say the American Dream means to you?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Equality in diversity. That no group should be superior in the American society than another. Second, generosity. The person who is fortunate —thanks to his or her talent or heritage, to have more than others — that person should know that he or she owes something to others who are less fortunate. Third, that every minute can be the beginning or the end of an adventure.</p> <p><strong>As we approach the 21st century, what do you see as the greatest challenges in front of us?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: Fanaticism. If there is one word that comprises all of these threats, it is fanaticism. For some strange reason, it is growing everywhere, in every religion: in Islam, in Christianity, in Judaism. Why now? Haven’t we seen really fanaticism is dangerous as an idea, because it carries poison? Furthermore, in politics, imagine a fanatic with power. May I go one step further? Imagine a fanatic with nuclear power. Do you have any doubt that if Idi Amin, in Uganda 20 years ago, before he was thrown out, that would have used a weapon if he had one? Or a Khadafi now, in Libya? It is dangerous. A fanatic therefore, must be unmasked first, and then disarmed.</p> <p><strong>Is there anything that you have thought about doing that you haven’t been able to do yet?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: I may seem silly or childish to you, but if could bring back one child, I would give up anything I have. Just one child. If I could now — which is more possible — to free one prisoner, I would give a lot. If I could give a feeling of solidarity to a person who is abandoned, I would still give a lot. So you see, I would like to do things that I cannot do. All I have is a few words, and I will give these words. That’s what I am trying to do.</p> <p><strong>What is your hope for this generation that follows us?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: I would not want my past to become their future.</p> <p><strong>You have seen and experienced many atrocities throughout your life’s experiences. How can someone live a good life after experiencing tragedy and suffering?</strong></p> <p>Elie Wiesel: In spite of what I have seen in my life, observed of the Jews, I agree with Albert Camus, whose work I always love to read and teach. At the end of his novel, <em>The Plague, </em>which is a desperate and despairing novel, he says, more or less, “There is more to celebrate than to denigrate in man.”</p> <p><strong>Thank you. Thank you so much.</strong></p> </div> <!-- end interview copy --> </aside> <!-- end js-full-interview --> <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper"> <!-- photos --> <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Elie Wiesel Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>26 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5057034220532" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(1.5057034220532 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-007-father.jpg" data-image-caption="Shlomo Wiesel, father of Elie. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Shlomo Wiesel, father of Elie. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-007-father-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-007-father.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4558823529412" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(1.4558823529412 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-008-grandfather.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel's maternal grandfather, Dodye Feig. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel's maternal grandfather, Dodye Feig. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-008-grandfather-261x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-008-grandfather.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66414141414141" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66414141414141 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel as a child, with his mother and sisters. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel, as a child with his mother and sisters. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-009.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5652173913043" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(1.5652173913043 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel, age 15, shortly before deportation. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel, age 15, shortly before deportation. (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010-243x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-010.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="François Mauriac, the 1952 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreward to Wiesel's book Night. (Corbis-Bettman)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - François Mauriac, the 1952 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreward to Wiesel's book Night. (Corbis-Bettman)"> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(1 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature.jpg" data-image-caption="François Mauriac, the 1952 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He encouraged Elie Wiesel to write about his experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust, and wrote the foreward to Wiesel's book <i>Night</i>. (Corbis-Bettman)" data-image-copyright="wie0-015-wiesel-François Mauriac, 1952 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-015-wiesel-François-Mauriac-1952-winner-of-the-Nobel-Prize-for-Literature-760x760.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66818873668189" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66818873668189 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel speaks at the dedication of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. (© Diana Walker/TIME Inc.)" data-image-copyright="wie0-019-wiesel-small" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-019-wiesel-small.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66315789473684 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804.jpg" data-image-caption="President Carter observes a Day of Remembrance with Elie Wiesel at the U.S. Capitol. Memorial candles are lit to commemorate the 11 million who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. (UPI/Corbis-Bettman)" data-image-copyright="US Government Officials at Holocaust Memorial Ceremony" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-wiesel-U1963804-760x504.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68157894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.68157894736842 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-031-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Abdullah-Corbis-42-15120210.jpg" data-image-caption="King Abdullah II of Jordan meets with Elie Wiesel in Washington D.C. to announce the first Petra Conference of Nobel laureates. The conference brought together Nobel honorees in Peace, Economics, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine to explore ways to confront global challenges. The conference was held in Petra, Jordan in May 2005. (© JEFF CHRISTENSEN/Reuters/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="King Abdullah of Jordon meets with Elie Wiesel in Washington D.C." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-031-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Abdullah-Corbis-42-15120210-380x259.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-031-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Abdullah-Corbis-42-15120210-760x518.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.65789473684211 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10.jpg" data-image-caption="President Bill Clinton and Elie Wiesel light a ceremonial torch at the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., April 22, 1993. (Diana Walker/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel;William J. Clinton" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-033-wiesel-OF012915Wiesel-Elie-Getty-50477747_10-760x500.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council member and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Elie Wiesel presents the Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to Shimon Peres at 2003 International Achievement Summit ceremony in Washington, D.C." data-image-copyright="2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1150-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66184210526316 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-034-wiesel-42-15853357.jpg" data-image-caption="Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, seen here at a European Union seminar in Brussels, Belgium, 2004. (© EC/BELGA/epa/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-034-wiesel-42-15853357-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-034-wiesel-42-15853357-760x503.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.65657894736842 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel with his wife, Marion, at the opening of the Academie Universelle des Cultures in Paris, France, 1993. (© Pelletier Micheline/Corbis/Sygma)" data-image-copyright="OPENING OF THE 'ACADEMIE UNIVERSELLE DES CULTURES'" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-035-wiesel-0000282771-033-760x499.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67236842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.67236842105263 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-037-wiesel-OF012915.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel speaks at a New York press conference in 1986, after learning that he would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. (© Owen Franken/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="Wiesel at Nobel Peace Prize Press Conference" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-037-wiesel-OF012915-380x256.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-037-wiesel-OF012915-760x511.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel presents the Golden Plate Award to Shimon Peres at the 2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="2003 Banquet of the Golden Plate, Shimon Peres, Elie Wiesel" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2003academy1151-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.317157712305" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(1.317157712305 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-050-wiesel.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-050-wiesel-289x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-050-wiesel-577x760.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.69342105263158 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-051-wieselimg445.jpg" data-image-caption="Elie Wiesel (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-image-copyright="Elie Wiesel (Courtesy of Elie Wiesel)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-051-wieselimg445-380x264.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-051-wieselimg445-760x527.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67763157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.67763157894737 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323.jpg" data-image-caption="Behind the once electrically-secured barbed crematorium of Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, where young Elie Wiesel was imprisoned by the Nazi regime. (Photo by Unkel/ullstein picture via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="KZ Buchenwald / Krematorium / bei Weimar" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323-380x258.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-052-wiesel-GettyImages-543828323-760x515.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.81184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.81184210526316 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764.jpg" data-image-caption="Victims of the Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated by the American troops of the 80th Division. Amongst them is Elie Wiesel (7th from the left on the middle bunk next to the vertical post) who went on to become an internationally famous writer, academic and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. (Photo by H Miller/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Buchenwald" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764-380x309.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wie0-021-2280GettyImages-2659764-760x617.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_momaday_Academy2005_0591.jpg" data-image-caption="Academy members: Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize recipient." data-image-copyright="wordpress_momaday_Academy2005_0591" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_momaday_Academy2005_0591-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_momaday_Academy2005_0591-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_pelosi_wiesels_academy_1018.jpg" data-image-caption="Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi with Elie Wiesel and his wife, Marion, on the Speaker's balcony at the Capitol during the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wordpress_pelosi_wiesels_academy_1018" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_pelosi_wiesels_academy_1018-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_pelosi_wiesels_academy_1018-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1279.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1279" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1279-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1279-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1280.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1280" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1280-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1280-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1283.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1283" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1283-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1283-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.69078947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.69078947368421 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1293" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293-380x262.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1293-760x525.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.92105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.92105263157895 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1300.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1300" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1300-380x350.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1300-760x700.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - "> <!-- style="padding-bottom: calc(0.66710526315789 * 380px);" --> <!-- <a href="" class=""> --> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1282.jpg" data-image-caption="A deeply moving appearance by Elie Wiesel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, during a symposium session at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. Speaking in hushed tones, Wiesel held the audience spellbound as he described how the murder of his family, and his own experience in the concentration camps of World War II, inspired him to travel the world as a journalist, author and witness, exposing injustice wherever it arises. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-academy_1282" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1282-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-academy_1282-760x507.jpg"></div> <!-- </a> --> </figure> <!-- end photos --> <!-- videos --> <!-- end videos --> </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" 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Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181101000130/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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