Well, naturally, my grandfather. He was a Hasid, meaning a member of the Hasidic community, and I loved him, I adored him. So thanks to him, I became a Hasid too. And my mother — who actually continued his tradition — she’s the one who brought me to Hasidic Masters. And all the stories I tell now — I’ve written so many books with Hasidic tales — these are not mine, these are theirs, my mother’s and my grandfather’s. My father taught me how to reason, how to reach my mind. My soul belonged to my grandfather and my mother. They enriched me, of course. They influenced me profoundly, to this day. When I write, I have the feeling, literally, physically, that one of them is behind my back, looking over my shoulder and reading what I’m writing. I’m terribly afraid of their judgment.
Managed profile
Not claimed by Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
EW
Elie Wiesel
Writer and human rights advocate; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1986
United States · 1928–2016
Politics and public life
About
Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor and political activist who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a teenager. He wrote fifty-seven books, including the memoir Night, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
5 answers
I remember the awakening that occurred in me when I read, for the first time, Franz Kafka. ... That morning I was happy. I wanted to run out and embrace them, all these garbage collectors, because they taught me that there was another world than the world of Kafka, which is absurd and desperate, and despairing.
Every quotation above is reproduced from the source shown beside it and has not been edited. Elie Wiesel did not write these answers for FLAPSS. Request a correction or removal.