Letter from Bill Clinton to Elie Wiesel regarding Kosovo refugees and humanitarian efforts

This email, sent by Laetitia Kouassi from the United Nations' Messengers of Peace Programme on January 31, 2014, is addressed to Adrienne Mansard. Kouassi requests Mansard to convey an attached letter from Under-Secretary-General Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal to Professor Wiesel. The attached letter concerns Wiesel's focus area as a "Messenger of Peace" and includes relevant terms of reference and communications guidance. The email also lists Maher Nasser, Jeffrey Brez, Julia Hagl, and Kumiko Sugiyama in the CC field, indicating they are also informed of this communication.

Myra Davis, nee Miki Heller, was born July 12, 1936 in Kovno, Lithuania, the only child in an affluent Jewish family. Her parents were Franz and Fanny Heller. After the Russian invasion in 1940, her family was forced to move from their large home to much smaller quarters. In 1940, they immigrated to Japan with transit visas and visas for Curacao, which were not used. Instead, they went to Shanghai, in 1941, after a year in Kobe, Japan, where Myra attended a French Catholic school. In the French quarter of Shanghai, they lived comfortably until the Japanese occupation forced them into the Hongkew Ghetto. Her father, despondent about their impoverishment, committed suicide. When the war ended, her mother worked for the American Army and met a Jewish colonel, David Bare (phonetic), whom she married in 1947. The family lived in Beijing, China, Linz, Austria and South Carolina, United States. Myra became a translator for the American government, married Arnold Davis and they live with their two children in Boca Raton, Florida. Recorded at the Rickshaw Reunion - a meeting in October 1999 at the Holiday Inn in Philadelphia of refugees who found refuge in Shanghai during World War II.

A letter dated December 2014 from Glenda Burkhart and Scott Pelley, Co-Chairs of the Overseers of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), to Professor Elie Wiesel. They express deep gratitude for his significant contributions as a member of the IRC's Overseers. The letter emphasizes that his commitment and generosity support the IRC's mission to aid uprooted families and lead humanitarian efforts in difficult situations. They thank him for his leadership and partnership during 2014 and extend holiday wishes to him and his family. The letter is on official IRC letterhead, which lists the organization's leadership, Board of Directors, and Members of the Overseers.

Lisa Tyre was born February 1, 1929 in Vienna, Austria into an assimilated Jewish family. Her father, an attorney, served in the Austrian army in World War I. The family experienced no antisemitism until March 1938. Lisa describes the escalating effects of anti-Jewish measures and activities on her parents and herself and witnessed two instances of brutality against Jews. In the summer of 1938 her father was interrogated and beaten by the GESTAPO. A client, who was a Nazi officer, arranged for his safe return and also helped the family to obtain exit visas. The family left for England in September 1938 – helped by the Sassoon family – and moved to Christ Church, New Zealand six months later. The family went to the United States in November 1946, under the Czech quota and stayed for two weeks in the Congress House a shelter for refugees run by the American Jewish Congress. Lisa describes the difficult emigration process, and her family’s life and adjustment problems in England, New Zealand and the United States. Lisa attributes her rejection of Judaism and her distrust of organized religion to some of her experiences in New Zealand and the Congress House, and her bitterness to the loss of over 50 relatives during the Holocaust. Interviewee: Tyre, Lisa Glaser Date: February 24, 1981

This two-page letter from David Brooks Andrews to Elie Wiesel, dated May 10, 1993, addresses two main points. First, Andrews thanks Wiesel for a statement provided several months prior for a profile of Liv Ullmann in Felix, a publication of the European Film Academy. He informs Wiesel that he received a call from New Moon, a Jewish publication in London, requesting a review of 'Sofie,' a film based on a Jewish story, and that Liv Ullmann gave him another interview. Andrews proposes to conclude his review/interview with a summary of Wiesel's quote about Ullmann as an 'intellectual refugee' who serves as a 'bridge between the world and its Jewish neighbors' through 'Sofie,' and asks for Wiesel's feedback on this summary. Second, Andrews thanks Wiesel for his 'stiff rebuke' to President Clinton regarding Bosnia during his speech at the dedication of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, expressing hope that something meaningful will be done to halt 'ethnic cleansing.' He also includes a practical note about faxing him.