son of one of the world's most public holocaust survivors upholds father’s legacy
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elisha wiesel, son of holocaust survivor and nobel laureate elie wiesel and chair of the board at the elie wiesel foundation for humanity, will be at the montreal holocaust museum on sunday, where a documentary about his late father will be screened.
photo courtesy of elie wiesel foundation for humanity
when elie wiesel (1928-2016) decided, a decade after having survived the horrors of the holocaust, to write his testimony, “i wanted my language to be a monument to my people — especially those who died,” he says in a stirring new documentary.
elie wiesel: soul on fire will have its montreal première sunday at 5 p.m. at the montreal holocaust museum to mark international holocaust remembrance day, which is tuesday, jan. 27. the screening will be followed by a discussion with wiesel’s son, elisha wiesel.
elisha, 53, is upholding the legacies of his father and his mother, marion wiesel, also a holocaust survivor, through his work as chair of the board of the elie wiesel foundation for humanity, which they established. elisha and his wife, lynn bartner-wiesel, have two children and live in new york, where he is a hedge fund manager, social activist and philanthropist.
the 90-minute film was directed and written by oren rudavsky, with co-operation from elisha and marion (she died in february 2025), who granted access to recordings and personal archives, including private family footage.
the film, which incorporates hand-painted animation to powerful effect, addresses the personal story and legacy of one of the world’s most public holocaust survivors — and an author, humanitarian, educator and nobel peace prize laureate.
one of four siblings in a jewish family in sighet, romania, eliezer wiesel was 15 when he was deported with his parents and three sisters to auschwitz-birkenau in may 1944. his mother and younger sister tzipora were killed almost immediately, and he and his father were sent to the slave labour component of the camp. in early 1945, they were sent on a death march to the concentration camp of buchenwald, where his father died on jan. 28. the camp was liberated in april by american soldiers and wiesel was transported to france with other orphaned survivors.
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his sister hilda discovered him through a photograph in a french newspaper — this is addressed in the film, in which she features — and he eventually reunited with her and sister beatrice, who left europe after the war and settled in montreal. she died in 1974.
wiesel studied at the sorbonne and worked as a journalist in france.
“he overcame trauma by becoming a witness,” a family friend says in the film. night, his memoir of a young boy’s spiritual reaction to auschwitz, was published initially in yiddish in 1956 as an 846-page manuscript, and the world remained silent. it was abridged and translated into french and published in 1958 as la nuit and in english in 1960 as night.
“i wrote it for the other survivors, who found it difficult to speak and i wanted to tell them, ‘really … you must speak,'” wiesel says in the film. he went on to write dozens more books; night would sell more than six million copies in 30 languages, and it is still taught in classrooms.
wiesel moved to new york in 1956, where he became a writer, teacher and academic. he taught first at city college of new york, then in 1976 at boston university, where he was andrew w. mellon professor in the humanities.
a former student described what she had learned from wiesel: “your suffering is not what defines you, but it can inform you. it shapes you and then it is your job to make it the best tool you can.”
for him, trauma was something that led to moral action. throughout his life, he emphasized the duty to fight apathy, denouncing genocide and human rights violations in countries including rwanda, cambodia, the former yugoslavia and sudan.
“i have tried to fight those who would forget,” he said in his 1986 nobel prize acceptance speech. “because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices. … we must always take sides. neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.”
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what does elisha wiesel think his father would have said about the rise in antisemitism around the world and the drumbeat of holocaust deniers?
“my father clearly articulated that the antisemites will always hate, even if they mask that hate as anti-zionism — as though it were somehow separable from antisemitism,” he told the gazette.
“our job as jews is to keep embracing our jewish faith and heritage and our connection to our over seven million jewish brothers and sisters in israel.”
his father “never failed to stand up for israel, asserting that only israelis can best decide how to reach their goals of living in peace and security in an extremely hostile neighbourhood,” elisha said. “and lastly, he insisted that we never relinquish our desire to have a positive impact on the world as a whole. he strongly resisted isolationism as a principle.”
at a glance
elie wiesel: soul on fire will be screened at 5 p.m. on sunday, jan. 25 at the montreal holocaust museum, 5151 côte-ste-catherine rd. tickets cost $10 and reservations are required via jlive. the event is made possible by the dym family foundation. the montreal holocaust museum is offering free sunday admission from jan. 25 through june 30. elie wiesel: soul on fire will air on pbs on tuesday, jan. 27 at 9 p.m.
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