Elie Wiesel Way (Manhattan)
Present name:None
Location:At the southwest corner of 84th Street and Central Park West
Honoree: Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) was born in Sighet, Transylvania. At the age of 15, he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perished. Two older sisters survived. He and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945. After the war, he studied in Paris and later became a journalist. During an interview with French writer, Francois Mauriac, he was persuaded to write about his experiences in the death camps. His memoir, Night (La Nuit), has since been translated into more than thirty languages. He received more than 100 honorary degrees from institutions of higher learning and was a devoted supporter of Israel. He also defended the cause of Soviet Jews, Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Argentina's Desaparecidos, Cambodian refugees, the Kurds, victims of famine and genocide in Africa, victims of apartheid in South Africa, and victims of war in the former Yugoslavia. He and his wife Marion were especially devoted to the cause of Ethiopian-born Israeli youth and founded the Beit Tzipora Centers to support such youth. Elie Wiesel was the author of more than sixty books of fiction and non-fiction, and for his literary and human rights activities, he received numerous awards. In 1986, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and established The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. (Rosenthal and Levine)
LL:2017/45