Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Honored

Elie Wiesel, author, teacher, Holocaust survivor, captivated a full-house audience at Patrick Gym on April 25. He spoke about prevailing after the Holocaust and reaching out to victims of violence and war everywhere. (Photo: Bill DiLillo)

Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, living witness to the Holocaust and author of the award-winning memoir Night, addressed on overflow audience on April 25 in Patrick Gymnasium. Wiesel was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the university during a ceremony accompanying his talk. President Daniel Mark Fogel expressed how "humbled and deeply privileged" the university was to honor yet another "great champion of peace." Wiesel, winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, joined previous UVM honorees, Peace Nobelists Bishop Desmond Tutu and alumna Jody Williams.

Wiesel's visit was conceived by UVM senior Meredith Burak. Inspired by a course on the Holocaust taught by religion professor Richard Sugarman, Burak became a campus student leader on genocide issues. She started a UVM chapter of the national group Students Take Action Now: Darfur (STAND) and has traveled to Switzerland and East Africa as a member of that organization to learn more about the genocide happening in Sudan. With the help of UVM Hillel, Burak organized Wiesel's April visit as the culminating event of the group's annual Holocaust Remembrance Week.

"By keeping attention focused on one of the worst chapters in human history, Dr. Wiesel has made a profound contribution to humanity's future," said President Fogel. Wiesel said it best in his Nobel speech, also quoted by Fogel in his welcome: "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." And, in his address to the UVM community he said: "He or she who listens to a witness becomes a witness."