The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) — Association of Antifascists remembers Elie Wiesel

3. Juli 2016

We have to say a last far-well to Elie Wiesel, who died in the first days of July 2016 at the age of 87 years. He was an international well-known survivor of the CC Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Born in Sighet in Transylvania, he was deported 1944 with his family to the extermination camp Auschwitz, where most of its members were killed. He himself left with an evacuation transport to Buchenwald, where he experienced one hand the hell of «Little Camp», on the other hand the organized resistance of prisoners and the liberation on April 11, 1945. Although he was not a part of the resistance organization, he never forgot this solidary performance of his comrades.

As rapporteur of the United Nations and later as a professor of literature, philosophy and Judaism his central concern was to do everything that these crimes against humanity will not be forgotten and racism and antisemitism will never allowed to recover its strength. For this commitment, 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Several times he took the floor to speak to the world community to defend humanism and to preserve memories. June 2009, he accompanied US-President Barack Obama together with the President of the International Committee Buchenwald Dora Bertrand Herz during his visit in the memorial Buchenwald.

Until his last days, Elie Wiesel was active in the historical educational work and in the preservation of the memories of the victims of racist extermination policy. An important voice of the survivors, a voice of humanism and anti-racist movement has ceased with his death. We will never forget him.

Vilmos Hanti, President, Dr. Ulrich Schneider, General Secretary