Statement by President Michael D. Higgins - Elie Wiesel
Date: Sat 2nd Jul, 2016 | 22:26
2 July 2016
"It is with great sadness that I have learnt of the passing of Elie Wiesel.
As a public intellectual and particularly through his writings he sought to ensure that the world would confront the horrors of the Holocaust. He saw education as a powerful tool for the vindication of the rights of those who are persecuted, oppressed or marginalised.
Much of this he sought to achieve through the work of the Elie Wiesel Foundation, in the course of which I had the privilege of meeting him.
Elie Wiesel always spoke eloquently and movingly of his own experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. His was a powerful voice but one that had to struggle for a hearing. His first book ‘And the World Remained Silent’ had to wait years for a publisher.
Voices like those of Elie Wiesel are important in a world that needs people who are willing to stand up for the right of the victim to speak, and to be heard.”