Letter from Eli to Elie regarding Holocaust research and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

This document is an invitation to the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award Dinner, scheduled for Tuesday, January 9, 2001. The dinner honors Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. H.E. Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, is listed as the Honorary Chairman, with The Honorable and Mrs. Frank G. Wisner as Co-Chairmen. A comprehensive list of Dinner Committee members is also provided. The bottom section includes a response form, which has been handwritten to indicate that Marion and Elie Wiesel regret that they are unable to attend, providing their address (200 East 64, New York, NY 10021) and daytime phone number.

This letter, dated August 16, 2007, is from President George W. Bush to Elie Wiesel. President Bush thanks Wiesel for joining him for lunch at the White House and expresses gratitude for Wiesel's dedication to educating others about the Holocaust and promoting human rights worldwide. He also thanks Wiesel for inscribed copies of his books and sends best wishes from himself and Laura Bush to Elie and Marion Wiesel.

Jack Arnel (previously YashaAronovitz) was born on May 23, 1929 in Vilna, Poland (now Vilna, Lithuania) to a well-to-do Jewish family. His father owned a furrier factory and his mother was a custom tailor. He shares his childhood memories of his war-time experiences. He describes their pre-war life, having a maid, and a governess and spending summers in the country. Jack was a member of Betar. Jack briefly describes how their lives changed under the Soviet Occupation in 1939. Jack describes that in 1941, when the Germans occupied the area,his family was moved into the Vilna Ghetto and from there to a sub-camp for furriers (who were privileged prisoners called Keilis). There they made fur vests for German soldiers. Jack describes the family’s deportation in 1944 and the fear that they were being sent to their death since they were headed toward Ponary2, but eventually passed it. The women were forced off the trains in Stutthof and the men were sent to LagerKreisLandsberg, a sub-camp of Dachau. Jack was forced to work building underground facilities to manufacture weaponry for the German armies and describes Dachau in detail: beatings, starvation, killings and brutal labor. Later he and his father fled from a transport during an American air-raid and found an advancing American Army unit. They were cared for at St. Ottilien Hospital, an American camp set up in a church in Germany. His mother and sister, Sonia, survived as well and were liberated by the Russians. Jack describes how they were all reunited in Munich. They remained in a Displaced Persons Camp for four years and arrived in the United States in July 1949.

Frederick A. Walters was a Jewish soldier who served in the 474th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army. He knew about the existence of concentration camps from the Stars and Stripes and Armed Forces Radio Network but did not think he would ever witness them. He entered Buchenwald in April 1945 and describes his shock seeing the corpses and the appalling conditions of approximately 150 surviving prisoners. The regiment was not responsible for the care of the survivors but gave them army rations until food and medical care arrived. He recalls a man giving prisoners money who he believes may have been Edward R. Morrow. He describes the shock of his regiment in witnessing the realities of the camp and states that they had refused to believe published and broadcasted reports. No official or unofficial meetings were held to discuss reactions and no regimental history documents the experience. Weimar townspeople denied knowledge of camp activities. Later shipped to Norway to deal with surrender of German army units, Mr. Walters found that German soldiers denied knowledge of the camps and did not believe his eyewitness testimony. He found the same disbelief in the U.S. upon his return and states appreciation for this opportunity to bear witness for the first time since the war.

This multi-page list, dated May 15, 1991, provides an inventory of archival materials by or related to Elie Wiesel. It details various documents such as memorial messages, book blurbs, articles, original French manuscripts, speeches, reviews, and interview transcripts, frequently noting Wiesel's handwritten corrections and publication venues like Radio-France, New York Times, Boston University, and Liberation. The content covers a broad spectrum of topics including literary works, political commentary on figures like President Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, historical events related to the Holocaust, Anne Frank, Nuremberg Code, and the Barbie Trial, as well as religious and philosophical discussions. The list specifies dates for individual entries, including his Nobel Prize acceptance lectures in Oslo and an address in the Reichstag in Berlin. Many entries highlight that the original document or its translation contains Wiesel's handwritten edits or that they are original French contributions.