The purpose of this paper is to discuss Elie Wiesel's reasons for becoming an international activist and how his role as one made him a hero.
Abstract.
Elie Wiesel began pursuing a role as an international activist after he realized that he had a duty to justify his experiences as a survivor. After becoming an activist, Wiesel used his role to take part in different human rights endeavors and to prevent future genocides from occurring. Elie Wiesel spent almost a year and a half in concentration camps and was finally liberated in 1945. His career as an activist began after he moved to America in 1955. He aided Cambodian Refugees in 1981 and got involved with the Kissinger commission in 1984. In 1985, Wiesel helped ratify the Genocide Treaty and his efforts were recognized with a gold medal from the white house in the same year. Elie Wiesel went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, and he became regarded as a "messenger to mankind" because of his heroic actions. (145).
Elie Wiesel - Linking Memory to Morality.
After enduring suffering and humiliation as a victim of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel took a vow of silence. Unable to find words to justify his experiences, Wiesel decided that it would be best to leave them in the past. Eventually, he realized that his duty as a survivor was to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, and he became an international activist. Wiesel's desire to pursue a role as an activist stemmed from his feeling of obligation to educate the world on the atrocities committed in the Holocaust, and his use of the position to prevent future genocides and take part in numerous human rights endeavors caused him to be regarded as a hero. In 1945, Elie Wiesel and his family were taken from their home in Sighet, Hungary and transported to Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp (Kanfer). After losing three of his family members and spending almost a year in three different concentration camps, Wiesel was liberated and transferred to a French orphanage.