Elie Wiesel: Controversy of Suffering

Introduction

Famed writer, Elie Wiesel died on July 2nd, 2016, after struggling with a long illness. His death has prompted an outpouring of emotion from the global public, both positive and negative. While the majority of people lauded him as an amazing survivor of the Holocaust, writer, human rights activist, and human being, other accused him of advancing prejudice, and lying about being at Auschwitz. Ultimately there is no way to prove that Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust and liberated at Buchenwald, and some of his behavior does reveal lingering prejudice which insights confusion. However, one thing is clear Elie Wiesel was a fantastic writer, and the message of his books are inspiring, raw, and speak to the survivor in all of us. 

No Matter What

Wiesel’s landmark publication, Night, tells the story of his alleged time in the concentration camp Auschwitz during WWII. It is a brutal work, which focuses on the predominant question Wiesel explored through all his writing: How could God let this happen? [and] How could human beings do this to one another? In this way Wiesel was a philosopher of suffering, and his writings point to rejecting despair, and embracing a positive outlook on life no matter what circumstances or history present. Speaking of this difficult balance to the New York Times in 1981, Wiesel asserts;

I am pessimistic because I don’t trust history. But at the same time, I am optimistic. Out of despair, one creates. What else can one do? There is no good reason to go on living, but you must go on living. There is no good reason to bring a child into this world but you must have children to give the world a new innocence, a new reason to aspire towards innocence. As Camus said, in a world of unhappiness, you must create happiness. (Kuruvilla)

Whether or not Wiesel was the man he said he was these words ring from truth. No matter to what degree the man overcame his own predilections towards prejudice, he aimed for a perspective free of the gradations of hate. 

When History is Assumed Fact

The heated and difficult debate surrounding whether or not Wiesel was truly a Holocaust survivor often pivots around his induction tattoo, which has never been caught on photograph and which when asked Wiesel refused to show, commenting, “I don’t need that to remember, I think about my past every day…I still have it on my arm – A-7713. At that time, we were numbers. No names, no identity,” (Bos). With such a delicate situation as the suffering of the Holocaust, it was hard to press the issue with the diminutive man of apparent compassion. However, an 83-year old survivor spent decades researching if Wiesel was the man he claimed to be, and came to believe that he was not, that he had stolen the identity of a real survivor (Bos). However, in the search for truth;

Elie Wiesel, who lives in the United States, is a very hard man to get. The whole world is protecting him, from [U.S. President] Barack Obama to [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel. They are all scared the truth will come out, because of prestige and money. I am also pressuring the German [parliament] Bundestag to show me archives about Wiesel's past. (Bos)

Wiesel has become symbolized, and the symbol he represents is more valuable than the truth for many. However, it is key to realize Night was published 10 years after the end of WWII, and during that time Wiesel had plenty of time to research atrocities and prepare his fictionalized account. It may have been that he felt extreme solidarity with his Jewish community, and whether or not he was a survivor he knew the story would be more powerful from the pen of a victim. 

This case of stolen identity came to a head when Holocaust survivor Nikolaus Gruner read Night, and saw that it was the embellished account of the man he had suffered through the Holocaust with, Lazar Wiesel, who after liberation Gruner never saw again. Gruner points out “The first names ‘Elie’ and ‘Lázár’ are similar to the Hebrew name, Eleazar. Grüner suggests that Wiesel has committed deception by pretending to be his friend and former fellow prisoner” (Bos).

In 1986 a Swedish newspaper arranged for him to meet what he thought would be his old friend. Instead it was Elie Wiesel, who Grüner claims he never saw before. ‘Wiesel refused to show me his tattoo. It was a very short meeting.’ (Bos)

However, nothing came of this because an older man who has a traumatized past can always be discredited on memory issues. However, Gruner has written a book compiling his research into the fabrication of Wiesel’s life, called Stolen Identity A-7713. The facts from this survivors experience and his research is there for anyone to analyze. 

Wiesel’s Public Addressing Prejudice

The other side of the quality debate on the life of Elie Wiesel as a man or a propaganda stunt is his public persona on issues of prejudice. This has taken on the form of the accusation “While Wiesel leveraged his literary talents to win sympathy for Jewish victims of genocide, he sought to limit the narratives of other groups subjected to industrial-level extermination” (Blumenthal). The only thing which could verify or detract from this accusations is the facts of the choices of the man himself;

As a member of the advisory council of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992, he lobbied against recognizing LGBTQ and Roma victims of the Holocaust. A decade earlier, when the Israeli Foreign Ministry demanded Wiesel exclude Armenian scholars from a conference on genocide fearing damage to the country’s relations with Turkey, he resigned from his position as chair rather than defend the scholars. It was not until 2008 that Wiesel called the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide. (Blumenthal)

These choices do not bode well for the authenticity of the man, even if he was attempting to overcome his own limitations of compassion. Critics have observed that his motivation in representing the Holocaust (whether he was there or not) may have been corrupted as, “Wiesel seemed to view these other victimized groups as competitors in an oppression Olympics, fretting that widespread recognition of the atrocities they suffered would sap his own moral power” (Blumenthal). While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called Wiesel as a ‘master of words’, which will not be denied, it is important to objectively view if his literary words matched his actions, and in many recorded instances they did not. 

The motivations for the man to do this must have been complex, but if he did lie about being in the concentration camp, and steal an inmates identity he surely would have believed he would have done much more harm to the Jewish community by confessing this embarrassing truth rather than expending the effort to keep up the monstrous lie. If his entire public persona was based on a lie this would have created a near intolerable psychological build up, as every moment of every day he would be pretending to be something he was not, giving speeches on it, receiving medals for it, and being a representative for an atrocity. If he was lying about his past, the following quote may be allegorical;

I know and I speak from experience, that even in the midst of darkness, it is possible to create light and share warmth with one another; that even on the edge of the abyss, it is possible to dream exalted dreams of compassion; that it is possible to be free and strengthen the ideals of freedom, even within prison walls; that even in exile, friendship becomes an anchor. (Kuruvilla)

Thus symbolized he may have been able to psychologically disassociate himself from the lie, convincing himself that he was who the public believed himself to be. This person had to live up to the values represented in his literary works, which are quite brilliant and bright. No matter what the “truth” was by the majority Wiesel is remembered as;

‘(He) gave expression through his exceptional personality, and fascinating books about the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil. In the darkness of the Holocaust in which our brothers and sisters -- 6 million -- were murdered, Elie Wiesel was a ray of light and greatness of humanity who believed in the good in man,’ Netanyahu said. (Almasy and Sanchez)

After all, when you look at what Wiesel did with his time he mostly wrote, taught, and lectured. He was handsomely paid for all of this, sometimes receiving over $20,000 for a half hour talk. The awards he was given are impressive, but the question remains besides writing moving books and teaching and talking about them what did he do to advance human rights? These medals and awards include:

• Nobel Peace Prize

• Congressional Gold Medal

• Presidential Medal of Freedom

• National Humanities Medal

• Medal of Liberty. (The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity)

President Barak Obama, who also received a Nobel Peace Prize his first term (for what) fully embraced Wiesel as symbol of peace. Obama may believe that symbols are just as valuable as the real thing, and he praised Wiesel, “He raised his voice, not just against anti-Semitism, but against hatred, bigotry, and intolerance in all its forms…He implored each of us…to do the same, to see ourselves in each other and to make real that pledge of ‘never again’” (Khan). This is a pledge which has been made many times over the years, but it has not been kept. Instances of genocide, mass murder, and systemic prejudice continue to rage throughout the world which begs to raise the question if the symbol of peace is being used to obscure the route to the actuality of it?

Conclusion

There is no doubt Elie Wiesel is a very talented writer, but the question of whether or not he was the man he claimed to be behind those books remains unresolved. The question if the value of the man is diminished by the lie if that were the case is a question each person must ask in their hearts. Ultimately, this is the question if the symbol of a thing is just as valuable as the thing itself. Wiesel’s contribution is emotive, powerful, and the role of his legacy remains to be seen.

Works Cited

Almasy, Steve, and Ray Sanchez. “Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, dead at 87.” CNN, 3 July 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/02/world/elie-wiesel-dies/

Blumenthal, Max. “Elie Wiesel’s two sides: The Holocaust survivor gave voice to Jewish victims while ignoring others’ suffering.” Alternet, 6 July 2016.

Bos, Stefan, J. “’Nobel Prize Winner Wiesel Lied About Holocaust Past’, Survivor Claims (Special Feature).” Bosnewslife.com, 24 Nov. 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.bosnewslife.com/19094-nobel-prize-winner-wiesel-lied-about-holocaust-past-survivor-claims

Grave-Lazi, Lidar. “Anti-Israel activists attempt to vilify Elie Wiesel after his death.” Jpost.com, 3 July 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Anti-Israel-activists-attempt-to-vilify-Elie-Wiesel-after-his-death-459394

Khan, Joseph, P. “Elie Wiesel, witness to unthinking horror; at 87.” Boston Globe, 2 July 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2016/07/02/wiesel/DH1AmOf3ZtHx5pEWlj4FRM/story.html

Kuruvilla, Carol. “11 Elie Wiesel Quotes That Will Forever Shed Light In The Darkness.” The Huffington Post, 5 July 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/11-elie-wiesel-quotes-that-will-forever-shed-light-in-the-darkness_us_577bd5eee4b09b4c43c11f82

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. “Remember.” The Elie Wiesel Foundation.org, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/eliewiesel.aspx