“We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else.”

Romanian-born American writer, professor, and political activist

Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, and political activist. He was also a Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, known for his witness to the destruction of European Jewry and for writing about memory, suffering, and moral responsibility. He wrote 57 books, mostly in French and English, including Night, drawn from his experience as a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Holocaust. His work combines testimony with reflection, and his public life centered on remembrance, human rights, and the ethical demands of history.