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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsElie Wiesel to write book with Barack Obama
The Nobel Prizewinning author and Holocaust survivor talks about his friendship with the presidentBY PRACHI GUPTA
In an interview published today with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who just turned 84, reveals that [President Barack] Obama and I decided to write a book together, a book of two friends. Haaretz describes their friendship:
Wiesel became friends with Obama in 2009, a few months after the Democratic candidate was elected. Obamas staff invited Wiesel to join the president on a visit to the site of Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Wiesel had first arrived at the camp at the end of World War II, with his father and other prisoners, following a death march from Auschwitz. His mother and his younger sister were murdered there, while Wiesel and his father, who did forced labor there, survived; his father died at Buchenwald. Only Wiesel and two of his sisters were still alive at the liberation.
When Obama concluded his remarks at Buchenwald, he whispered to Wiesel, The last word has to be yours here. Choking with tears, Wiesel made an impromptu speech in which he said to Obama, Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you, because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place You are our last hope.
Since then, he adds, the two have become good friends, and he is occasionally invited to dinner by the president: We talk about philosophy, contemplation, thought, but never about politics. He is a thinking person, a person with depth and intellectual curiosity.
When Obama concluded his remarks at Buchenwald, he whispered to Wiesel, The last word has to be yours here. Choking with tears, Wiesel made an impromptu speech in which he said to Obama, Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you, because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place You are our last hope.
Since then, he adds, the two have become good friends, and he is occasionally invited to dinner by the president: We talk about philosophy, contemplation, thought, but never about politics. He is a thinking person, a person with depth and intellectual curiosity.
h/t Al-Monitor
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http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/elie_wiesel_to_write_book_with_barack_obama/
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Elie Wiesel to write book with Barack Obama (Original Post)
DonViejo
Nov 2012
OP
gateley
(62,683 posts)1. This gives me chills -- in a good way.
babylonsister
(171,090 posts)5. I got 'em, too, gateley. nt
Dalai_1
(1,301 posts)2. Great Post! Thank you K&R
Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)3. Too bad this come out out sooner...
Wiesel's is an amazing story of triumph over tragedy.
Ohio Joe
(21,761 posts)4. That will be a book I buy
Whenever Elie Wiesel writes something I find it worth reading.