GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES ! DESIGNER EYEWEAR SALE! DETROIT • VViesel In Ann Arbor Stresses Humanity MELANIE KOFF Special to The Jewish News. N COMPARE AT $167 SALE $99 DERvirs o COMPARE AT $260 MOVADa SALE '179 COMPARE AT $140 GEOFFREY BEENE SALE $79 WEST BLOOMFIELD 626-9590 6667 Orchard Lake Road OPTOMETRY Bring in Your Prescription & Save! SOUTHFIELD 647-9790 30800 Southfield Road Bring in Your Prescription & Save! Above prices and discount offers good at West Bloomfield and Southfield stores only. Limited time offer. EXAMINATIONS AVAILABLE! WALK -INS WELCOME! NIBBLES & NUTS Interiors by Ruth Schwartz A.S.I.D.-I.F.D.A. design ideas to suit your lifestyle We Wish Everyone LShanah Mira Tikatevu Gift Baskets & Trays Our Specialty 737-8088 33020 NORTHWESTERN • W. BLOOMFIELD Outside Of Michigan mc 1-800-752-2133 1 Kosher & Sugarfree Available 20 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1990 Load & Nationwide Delivery I FURNISHINGS • CONSULTATION • FINE ARTS 30 years experience Please call 352-2264 obel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel wears many hats. He is philosopher, author, jour- nalist, storyteller, human rights defender. Mr. Wiesel demonstrated each of these qualities Tues- day evening as he received the first Wallenberg Medal and delivered a lecture in his name at the University . of Michigan Hill Auditorium U-M President James Duderstadt presented the award in honor of Raoul Wallenberg, a U-M graduate who saved the lives of thousands of Jews in Hungary toward the end of World War II. Mr. Wallenberg disappeared shortly after being taken in- to Soviet custody when Hungary was liberated in 1945. The Soviet government claims he died in 1947, but many people believe he may still be alive in a Soviet prison. In August, the Soviet Union agreed for the first time to open Mt Wallenberg's file to an international commission. Mr. Wiesel said he was honored to receive the award, but most pleased about hav- ing the opportunity to speak about Mr. Wallenberg. "Mr. Wallenberg showed us that it is possible to be humane in an inhumane society. It is easy to say `What could I do?' If Mr. Wallenberg had asked the same question, thousands of Jews would not have been saved!' Mr. Wiesel addressed the mystery surrounding Mr. Wallenberg's disappearance. "We still don't know what happened. For so many years there was silence about him. Very few people, except those whom he personally saved, mentioned him. "Why the silence? I think I know why. People were em- barrassed. He taught a lesson that it is wrong to say no one had the capacity to resist evil. If one man alone could achieve this extraordinary measure of rescue, why didn't more follow or precede him?" Mr. Wiesel told many emo- tionally charged stories dur- ing the evening. At one point, he spoke about a discussion he had had with generals who liberated concentration camps. He had asked them if instead of strictly following military orders, they chose to Elie Wiesel: Teaching non-hatred. move more quickly to liberate the concentration camps. "No one did," he said. "Not even 24 hours sooner?' Added Mr. Wiesel, "The Jews were killed not just because of killers but because of indifference to the killers." He said the non-Jews who did help, the righteous gen- tiles, have been revered by Jews. But Mr. Wiesel noted "there were -very few." He told the story of a Berlin woman who saved a Jewish family. When journalists ask- ed her why she put her life and her family in jeopardy, she was at a loss for words. Finally, she asnwered, "You want to know why I did it? Simply because of self- respect!' Said Mr. Wiesel, "If I ever meet this woman, I am going to hug her. I confess that dur- ing those years, there were very few people in the oc- cupied territories for whom I have respect. Of course, Raoul Wallenberg is one?' Mr. Wiesel was taken from his home in Sighet, Romania, at the age of 15 and transported to Auschwitz in 1944. He lost both his parents and a younger sister during the Holocaust. For ten years after he was liberated, Mr. Wiesel remained silent about his experiences in the concen- tration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. In 1960, he published his memoir, Night. He has now written 32 books which have been widely translated and have won numerous international awards. Mr. Wiesel is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston Continued on Page 22