Oprah Winfrey and Elie Wiesel travel to Auschwitz. —George Burns ©2006 Harpo Productions, Inc

Elie Wiesel and Oprah Winfrey at Auschwitz
Speak About the Relevance of the Holocaust Today

“A memorial unresponsive to the future would violate the memory of the past.”
—Elie Wiesel, First Council Chair, September 1979

“I feel a sense of communion with the spirits of those who died and those who survived to bear witness. I have never felt more human.”
—Oprah Winfrey, Auschwitz, January 2006

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, champion of human rights and advocate for awareness of past and potential acts of genocide, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. On the atrocities in Sudan, Wiesel asked in July 2004 “How can a citizen of a free country not pay attention? How can anyone, anywhere not feel outraged? How can a person, whether religious or secular, not be moved by compassion? And above all, how can anyone who remembers remain silent?” He continues to speak out. In April 2006, Wiesel urged a rally of tens of thousands on the National Mall to call for an end to genocide in Darfur: “Silence helps the killer, never his victims.”

Wiesel also served as chair of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and was a guiding force in the establishment of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In his best-known work, Night, Elie Wiesel describes his experiences and emotions at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust: the roundup of his family and neighbors in the Romanian town of Sighet; deportation by cattle car to the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau; the division of his family forever during the selection process; the mental and physical anguish he and his fellow prisoners experienced as they were stripped of their humanity; and the death march from Auschwitz-Birkenau to the concentration camp at Buchenwald.

World War II Timeline and Elie Wiesel’s Life

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Elie Wiesel was the first chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

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MORE FOR READERS

• USHMM Library Bibliography
  
• Oprah’s Book Club
  
• Eyewitness Auschwitz
  
• Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp
  
• At the Mind’s Limits
  
• People in Auschwitz
  
• The Bombing of Auschwitz
  
• Triumph of Hope
  

EXPLORE & DISCUSS THE RELEVANCE TODAY

• Elie Wiesel Biography
  
• Auschwitz
  
• Liberation of Auschwitz
  
• 2004 Remarks on Darfur on the Atrocities in Sudan
  
• A Changed World: The Continuing Impact of the Holocaust
  
• Preventing Genocide Blog
  
• iNSiGHTS Online Discussions about Contemporary Issues
  

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

I’m Sara Bloomfield, USHMM Director. I was asked by Oprah Winfrey to serve as a judge for Oprah’s National High School Essay Contest. I read entries from students across the country who read Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, Night, and submitted an essay answering the question:

How is the Holocaust Relevant Today?

See how readers responded to this question.

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Elie Wiesel with his wife and son during the Faith in Humankind conference, held before the opening of the USHMM, on September 18-19, 1984, in Washington, D.C. —USHMM
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“We, the Survivors of the Holocaust, know the consequences of silence, and this time we must all speak up for those suffering in Darfur.” —Elie Wiesel and Nesse Godin rally for Darfur, April 30, 2006

Listen to Elie Wiesel on Voices on Genocide Prevention, an interview program via podcast with Jerry Fowler.
Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel discusses the importance of remembering and bearing witness. [19:22]
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Jerry Fowler interviews USHMM Director Sara Bloomfield.
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