Transcript
RADU IOANID: Elie was an American patriot. He loved America, he thought that Americas is the country which restored his dignity. Let us remember that in France, he was a refugee, and he never had French citizenship. He became in the United States a US citizen. He always carried a black US diplomatic passport. You could feel that he is very proud of it.
ELISHA WIESEL: I remember every July 4th growing up, we would sit there and read the Declaration of Independence on the back page of the New York Times together. And he could never stop commenting on what an incredible document it was, about what an incredible country this was, how lucky and privileged we were to be here. He loved this country. When we would fly back from international travel and come in through JFK, the Customs officer would say, "Welcome home." And my father would be visibly moved each time, the thought that he had a home and he was being welcomed back to it.
Elie Wiesel was a patriotic American, deeply grateful for the freedoms and values of his adopted country. Wiesel was born in what was then and is today Romania. During World War II, Romania was forced to cede part of its territory, including Wiesel’s hometown, Sighet, to Hungary. In 1940, Wiesel and his family became residents of Hungary.
After being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp by US troops in April 1945, Wiesel traveled to France with other young survivors. He lived there for a decade but never obtained French citizenship. In 1956, Wiesel moved to New York as a foreign correspondent. He became a US citizen in 1963.