Survivor, Holocaust educator and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel has died aged 87.
Wiesel, who was incarcerated in Auschwitz as a teenager, was best known for teaching the world about the Holocaust.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday called Wiesel “a ray of light” in the “darkness” of the Holocaust and said the state of Israel and the Jewish world were “shedding bitter tears” over his passing.
“I am grateful for the privilege of knowing Elie and of learning so much from him,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.
President Reuven Rivlin said Wiesel was a “hero of the Jewish people, and a giant of all humanity.”
Mr Rivlin called him “one of the Jewish people’s greatest sons, who touched the hearts of so many, and helped us to believe in forgiveness, in life, and in the eternal bond of the Jewish people. May his memory be a blessing, everlastingly engraved in the heart of the nation.”
Wiesel’s son, Elisha, said his father “raised his voice to presidents and prime ministers when he felt issues on the world stage demanded action.
“But those who knew him in private life had the pleasure of experiencing a gentle and devout man who was always interested in others, and whose quiet voice moved them to better themselves.”
Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the Romanian town of Sighet. In 1940, Hungary annexed the town and its Jews were forced into ghettos.
In May 1944, the Nazis deported the Jewish community of Sighet to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The teenage Wiesel was sent with his father to the Buna Werke labor camp, a sub-camp of Auschwitz III-Monowitz, where they were forced to work for eight months before being transferred to a series of other concentration camps towards the end of the war.
Wiesel’s father, mother Sarah and younger sister Tzipora perished.
In 1948, the 20-year-old Wiesel studied literature, philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne, but never completed his course. Around the same time, he became a professional journalist, writing for both French and Israeli publications.
Wiesel went on to write 57 books, including “Night,” a memoir published in 1955 in which he recounted the deaths of his father, mother and sister.
As well as his son Elisha, Wiesel leaves behind his wife, Marion, who also survived the Holocaust.
US President Barack Obama called Wiesel “a great moral voice of our time and a conscience for our world. He was also a dear friend. We will miss him deeply.”
His Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that Wiesel had “spent his life in service to humanity, keeping the memory of the Holocaust's horror alive.
“It is for us all to carry this torch.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said “after surviving the depths of inhumanity, Elie Wiesel spent his life ensuring the world understood what happened during the Holocaust, and vowed: ‘Never Again’.”
Citing Wiesel’s quote: “Whoever hears from a witness, becomes a witness,” she added that “we honour his memory by ensuring that future generations become the witness and carry his legacy.
“We have lost a giant amongst men - he will never be forgotten.”
Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said his organisation “mourns together with the whole world the passing of Elie Wiesel.
“He was a dear personal friend, involved for years in the Freedom For Soviet Jewry struggle.
“For more than a generation he was the most important spokesperson for all the survivors and victims of the Holocaust, awakening the conscience of the world to past and present moral deficiencies. May his memory be a blessing."
Sir Mick Davis, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, said that Wiesel “dedicated every waking moment to Holocaust commemoration and to preserving the memory of those darkest of times for future generations.
“As burdened as he was with his own suffering and that of all of the victims of the Shoah, he was living proof of the capacity of the human spirit to heal and overcome evil.
“He constantly reminded us that the ‘opposite of love is not hate but indifference,’ and challenged all of humanity to be accountable for their fellow man and to defend the weak and the oppressed.
“Elie called for us never to stand idly by in the face of injustice, for ‘neutrality helps the oppressor’ and ‘silence encourages the tormentor.’”
Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies said: “Elie Wiesel was a powerful witness to the Shoah. More than that, he was a towering voice of humanity, a visionary and a fighter for justice.
“Suffering, he once observed, ‘gives man no privileges; it all depends on what he does with it. If he uses his suffering against man, he betrays it; if he uses it to fight evil and humanize destiny, then he elevates it and elevates himself.’
“Elie Wiesel’s life exemplified that cry for humanity against suffering. We mourn his loss.”
