‘Our Hero And Role Model’

Generations of Detroiters mourn Elie Wiesel.

David Sachs | Senior Copy Editor

R

ene Lichtman, 78, of West
Bloomfield survived the Holocaust
as a hidden child in France. He
is a founder and vice president of the
World Federation
of Jewish Child
Survivors of the
Holocaust and
Descendants.
“Elie spoke at
our conferences,”
said Lichtman.
“He was a concen-
tration camp sur-
vivor as a young
person. Our group
were also child
Rene Lichtman
survivors — and
we and Elie could
empathize with each other. He was a lead-
ing voice and role model for us.
“I was extremely impressed that Elie
was able to talk about oppression, intoler-
ance, genocide and indifference — to uni-
versalize it and apply it to the slaughter in
Bosnia and Rwanda, which is very impor-

tant. He applied the term ‘never again’ to
others, not just Jews.
“Elie said he liked to raise questions as
a teacher, and he wondered if people real-
ly learned the lessons of the Holocaust,”
said Lichtman. “I would agree with that.
“He was a moral conscience in terms
of the right thing to do — that we should
not be bystanders to hatred.
“Elie said, ‘Indifference was the great-
est evil.’ I use this quote when I speak to
groups at the Holocaust Memorial Center
in Farmington Hills and at other places.
“The warning about indifference is an
easy thing for people to grasp. It’s both
universal and a Jewish concept,” said
Lichtman.

LATER GENERATIONS
Dr. Charles Silow of Huntington Woods,
founder and president of CHAIM,
the Children of Holocaust-Survivors
Association In Michigan, said, “Elie was
very inspirational to us second-generation
survivors.
“We felt very close to him. He spoke
from the soul, from the heart, talking
about the Holocaust in ways no one dared

Elie Wiesel in Detroit with CHAIM members about 20 years ago

talk about it. His honesty, his
courage, the pain of what he
experienced, the pain that
our parents experienced —
he was able to talk about in
such an eloquent way. He
changed everything. He made
us aware.
“He’s our hero,” said Silow.
“In fact, every time he came
to Detroit, he made an effort
to meet with CHAIM. We
would sit down, for a half-
hour or an hour; sometimes
Elie Wiesel and Dr. Charles Silow
we would take him to the
airport. It was such a pleasure
to talk to someone who was
not be indifferent. He gave us a challenge
so special.
to remember it and never to forget — and
“He was an amazing man who was a
to make the world a better place. We take
conscience for mankind. He said the world that challenge very seriously,” said Silow.
has to be a better place — that we can’t
“He will be missed — but his words will
allow hatred, and we have to speak out and always live on.”

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Elie Wiesel: A Beacon Of Light

Ronald S. Lauder | Times of Israel

E

It has now been almost
30 years since Elie Wiesel
was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Peace. What the
Nobel Committee had to
say about him then still
holds true today:
“Elie Wiesel has emerged
as one of the most impor-
tant spiritual leaders and
guides in an age when
violence, repression and
racism continue to charac-
terize the world. Wiesel is
a messenger to mankind;
his message is one of peace,
atonement and human

WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS

lie Wiesel was more than a revered
writer. He was also a teacher for
many of us. He taught us about the
horrors of Auschwitz. He taught us about
Judaism, about Israel and about not being
silent in the face of injustice.
Elie once remarked: “This is what we
must do: not to sleep well when people
suffer anywhere in the world, not to sleep
well when someone is persecuted, not to
sleep well when people are hungry all over
here or there, not to sleep well when there Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress,
with Elie Wiesel in 2012
are people sick and nobody is there to
help them, not to sleep well when anyone
Elie was at home everywhere, in
somewhere needs you.”
the
Old World and the New World, in
He never slept. And he woke others
dignity.
Yiddish,
Hungarian, French, English and
when he saw injustice. Himself a survivor
“His belief that the forces fighting evil in
of the Nazi genocide, he knew what he was Hebrew. He was at ease with world lead-
the world can be victorious is a hard-won
ers, and many U.S. presidents and world
talking about when he raised the plight
belief. His message is based on his own per-
statesmen sought his counsel.
of persecuted people in Rwanda, or the
sonal experience of total humiliation and of
Although he was always a soft-spoken
former Yugoslavia or in other parts of the
the utter contempt for humanity shown in
man, his message was clear and straight-
world.
Hitler’s death camps. The message is in the
forward. Elie was also a vocal advocate for form of a testimony, repeated and deepened
Through his many books and articles,
Israel. And when he spoke, he had some-
he brought the Holocaust into public con-
through the works of a great author.”
thing to say, and people listened to him.
sciousness like no other writer.
Today, Jews and non-Jews around the

world mourn a man who was undoubt-
edly one of the great Jewish teachers and
thinkers of the past 100 years. His passing
leaves a void that will be impossible to fill.
At the same time, his writings will live on.
Our hearts go out to Elie’s wife, Marion,
herself a survivor of the Holocaust and
a great campaigner for justice, and their
son, Elisha. Together, they set up the Elie
Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which
does such a fantastic job in fighting indif-
ference and injustice.
We have lost the most articulate witness
to history’s greatest crime. Without Elie
Wiesel in the world, it is up to every one
of us now to stand up to the deniers. With
his passing, we will all have to work a little
harder because we will no longer have Elie
to remind us of what happens when the
world is silent and indifferent to evil.
It is now our job, and that of our chil-
dren and grandchildren, to pick up the
baton and to relay Elie’s message of hope
and peace to the world.

*

Ronald S. Lauder is president of the World Jewish
Congress.

July 7 • 2016

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