Invitation to Elie Wiesel for "The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: 50 Years Later" Panel Discussion at United Nations Headquarters

This is a formal invitation from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York to an event titled "Vaclav Havel: The Playwright as President" with a dialogue on "Continuing Leadership as World Citizens." The invitation, issued by the university's president, Frances Degen Horowitz, announces the distinguished speakers: Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic; William Jefferson Clinton, former President of the United States; and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate. The event was scheduled for Friday, September 20, 2002, at 5:00 p.m. in the Harold M. Proshansky Auditorium at The Graduate Center in New York City. The document provides the full address, RSVP details including a phone number and a deadline of September 1, and credits Rick Bak for design and Jason Fulford for photography.

This is a letter dated August 9, 2010, from John Silber, President Emeritus of Boston University, to "Elie." Silber shares an excerpt from a term paper written by his 13-year-old granddaughter, Olivia Mock, who is identified as one of Alexandra's children and a Protestant Christian. The excerpt describes Olivia's profound engagement with a Holocaust unit in class, emphasizing her realization that figures like Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel were real and that the events truly happened. She includes a powerful passage from her paper depicting the suffering of Jews in a truck during the Holocaust. Olivia expresses her desire to capture the Jewish experience during the persecutions and to spread a message of peace, hoping to humble others as she was humbled by learning about "Hitler's wrath."

This document is a program booklet for a two-part event held at Chapman University in November 2013, commemorating the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. The first part, "Perspectives on Kristallnacht 75 Years Later," features a symposium with Holocaust survivors and scholars sharing their experiences and research related to Kristallnacht and its broader context. Key contributors include Idele Steuer Stapholtz, Engelina Lowenberg Billauer, Curt Lowens, and Cantor Leopold Szneer, all Holocaust survivors and witnesses. Academic faculty from Chapman University and other institutions also present their perspectives. The second part is "An Interfaith Service of Remembrance for Kristallnacht" with guest speaker Richard Fybel. The program includes biographies of the speakers and historical information related to the Holocaust. It highlights the importance of remembrance and education regarding the events of Kristallnacht and its devastating impact.

In this interview with Der Spiegel, Elie Wiesel reflects on his experiences during the Holocaust and his views on post-war Germany and Israel. He expresses concern over Germany's initial forgetfulness of Kristallnacht during its 1990 unification celebrations but is pleased with the current sensitivity of German youth and Germany's consistent support for Israel. Wiesel discusses the concept of collective guilt, emphasizing individual responsibility over intergenerational blame. He recounts his early life in Sighet (then part of Hungary, now Romania), his deportation to Auschwitz in May 1944, and the separation from his family, detailing the inhumane conditions in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz-Buna. He shares his father's suffering and death in Buchenwald, and his own struggle with faith and humanity following the atrocities, stating that his passion for study helped him maintain sanity. Wiesel describes the death march to Gleiwitz, the liberation of Buchenwald, and his subsequent career as a writer and activist. He stresses his role as a witness to the Holocaust and the importance of testimonies in preserving its memory, while expressing skepticism about docudramas that might distort the truth of such sensitive events.

Paul Kurschner was born May 16, 1916 in Vienna, Austria into a wealthy, Reform Jewish family. As a boy, he experienced antisemitism and engaged in bloody fights at school. His family belonged to the OesterreichnerJudenCentralverein, an anti-Zionist group of Austrian Jews, but Paul broke away from that affiliation at age 13. He joined HaShomerHaTzair, KidutTsurim, Betar and GedutHaKhoyal. In 1936 he became the youngest member elected to the New Zionist Congress. In 1937, Paul joined the Austrian Army and in 1938, he became a German soldier. He then deserted and was hidden by gentile friends until he fled to Italy. There, he met hundreds of other young Zionists who traveled together to Greece. Aided by the mayor and priest in a fishing village, they soon sailed on the Artemisia to Palestine. Paul had been an atheist until the Israeli War of Independence. He then came to believe in a higher power and became a Conservative Jew. He left Israel in 1950 and settled in the United States, living in Philadelphia, where he joined B’nai Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun congregation. He married and had two children in Israel in 1942 and remarried in the United States in 1982. Ruth (Renee) K. Hartz.