by Elie Wiesel
I thank you.
*Delivered on December 11, 1986, in Oslo, Norway.
Acknowledgments
Several of the essays collected here have appeared separately in other publications: “Why I Write,” The New York Times, April 14, 1985 (originally published in Confronting the Holocaust: The Impact of Elie Wiesel, edited by Alvin Rosenfeld and Irving Greenberg, Indiana University Press, 1978), translated by Rosette C. Lamont; “To Believe or Not to Believe,” The Jerusalem Post, September 15, 1985, translated from the French by Judy Cooper Weill; “Inside a Library,” and “The Stranger in the Bible,” published as a pamphlet by the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, 1980; “A Celebration of Friendship,” Through the Sound of Many Voices: Essays in Honor of W. Gunther Plaut, Lester and Orpen Denny’s Publishers, Toronto, 1982; “Peretz Markish,” The Jewish Frontier, August–September 1981; “Pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Night,” The New York Times, November 4, 1979; “Pilgrimage to Sighet,” The New York Times, October 14, 1984; “Kaddish in Cambodia,” The Jewish Chronicle, April 18, 1980; “Making the Ghosts Speak,” The Christian Century, May 27, 1981; “Passover,” New York Newsday, April 8, 1984; “Trivializing Memory,” The New York Times, June 11, 1989; “Testimony at The Barbie Trial,” New York Newsday, June 28, 1987; “What Really Makes Us Free?” Parade Magazine, December 27, 1987; “Are We Afraid of Peace?” Parade Magazine, March 19, 1989.
About the Author
ELIE WIESEL received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 1986. His Nobel citation reads: “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind. His message is one of peace and atonement and human dignity. The message is in the form of a testimony, repeated and deepened through the works of a great author.” He is Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the author of more than thirty books. Mr. Wiesel lives in New York City with his family.