Letter from William J. Clinton to Elie Wiesel regarding an honorary degree and lecture

The document is a New Year's greeting card from King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan for the year 2007-2008. The front cover features Arabic calligraphy by the artist Hassan Massoudy with an Islamic prayer for peace: "Oh God, you are peace and from you is peace, so greet us, our Lord, with peace." The inside of the card contains a family photograph of King Abdullah, Queen Rania, and their four children: Crown Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem. Alongside the photo is a bilingual greeting in Arabic and English: "Wishing you a blessed New Year filled with love and peace." The card is signed by both King Abdullah and Queen Rania. The back indicates it is from "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" for "2007-2008".

This document is a faxed invitation from the Office of Protocol, US Mission to the UN, sent on February 11, 2000. It is an invitation from Richard C. Holbrooke and Kati Marton Holbrooke, representatives of the United States of America to the United Nations, to Mr. Eli Wiesel and Mrs. Marion Wiesel. The invitation is for a dinner honoring President Nelson Mandela and Ms. Graca Machel, scheduled for Saturday, February 26, 2000, at 7:00 p.m. at The Waldorf Astoria Towers, located at 100 East 50th Street, Suite 42A. Handwritten notes on the document indicate that the invitation was "Accepted" on February 14, 2000, but the "Dinner Cancelled" on February 18, 2000.

Manya Perel, nee Frydman, was born 1924 in Radom, Poland, youngest of 10 children in a traditional Jewish family. Her father had a bakery. She describes her education and Jewish life in Radom, Polish antisemitism, Przytyk pogrom in 1936, and continues with post-September 1939 German invasion. She mentions persecutions, deportation of younger males to Belzec labor camp, 1941, establishment of ghetto in Radom, collaboration of Volksdeutsche and Ukrainians in brutalities, and some help by Jew‌ish police.

She details the August 1942 “resettlement” of Radom Jews to Treblinka gas chambers, with younger, able-bodied persons retained for forced labor in factories near Radom. She describes her efforts to hide her five-year-old niece in the barracks of a Majdanek sub-camp.

She was transferred to Majdanek, then to Plaszow and to Auschwitz. She describes conditions in these camps and the even harsher conditions in Gundelsdorf, Oberfranken, Germany, where slave laborers were taken as Russian Army approached. She experienced near starvation early 1945 during flight with guards to Camps Ravensbrück and Rechlin. She nearly died of typhus after liberation. After she recov‌ered she made her way back to Radom to search for family and found continued antisemitism there. She remembers German promise of safe exit to Radom Jews with foreign passports in exchange for prisoners of war and how they were executed instead.

She went to Stuttgart with the help of UNRRA and the Joint Distribution Committee. After three years of rehabilitation, she emigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1948 and moved to Philadelphia in 1958.

Rebecca writes to her sister-in-law Maria, joking with her about phrenology and discussing the new building of the Orphan Society, developments with David Seixas, and Henry Clay as presidential candidate.

Willie Nowak was born August 1, 1908 in Berlin, to a family of libera1 Austrian Jews. His father owned a tobacco factory in Berlin. After attending a Realgymnasium in Berlin, Willie sold pharmaceuticals in Brunn, Czechoslovakia, 1935-37. On his return to Berlin, he found he had lost his German citizenship. During Kristallnacht in 1938, he witnessed the burning of the Fasanenstrasse Synagogue where he had celebrated his bar mitzvah. He emigrated to Shanghai in 1938 with his fiancée and the two children of his first marriage. He describes in detail the refugee camp in the Japanese district, the support from the Joint Distribution Committee and the Russian Jewish community for a hospital, kosher soup kitchen and the services of a rabbi. Willie worked as a musician in bars and night clubs and was also in charge of Jewish guards in the refugee camp. He describes interactions between Chinese and Japanese individuals and himself. His wife, Elsa, worked in an underwear factory owned by Austrian Jews who sold to Japanese buyers. The Nowak family emigrated to the United States in January 1948 on a collective affidavit for Shanghai refugees.

This document is the program for the 2010 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize Award Ceremony, held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010, at Tishman Auditorium, The New School, New York, NY. The ceremony honored Elie Wiesel as the recipient of the prize. The program includes a welcome by Katrina Lantos Swett, video presentations, and musical performances by the Terezín Music Foundation, Charity Sunshine, and Levi Tillemann-Dick. Governor Bill Richardson presented the award, which Elie Wiesel accepted. The program provides biographies of Elie Wiesel and Tom Lantos, details the mission of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and acknowledges various contributors, including founding humanitarians and those involved in video and photographic content. It also lists the Board of Trustees of the Lantos Foundation.