Brazil regrets death of Nobel Peace Prize Elie Wiesel

Brazil's Foreign Ministry issued a note Sunday (Jul. 3) regretting the death of Elie Wiesel, the humanist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1986. “A Holocaust survivor, Wiesel, in newspaper articles, books, and public statements, sought to make sure the world would never forget that infamous genocide, so that no such tragedy would ever happen again,” the statement said.

Wiesel died Saturday (2) in the United States, aged 87 years old. “As it expresses its condolences to Elie Wiesel's family, Brazil reiterates its commitment to honoring the Holocaust victims and always working to advance human rights, diversity, human dignity, and peace,” the Brazilian government said.

Born in Romania in 1928, Wiesel was the author of 57 books and a human rights activist known worldwide for promoting education and the memory of the Holocaust. His memoir, Night, was based on his experiences as a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp, and is regarded as one of the most important accounts of the Holocaust.

In 1986, as he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts fighting against racism and violence, he was described as a “messenger of peace”, and his work was regarded as a powerful message of “peace and human dignity.”

The Holocaust is the name given to the persecution of Jewish people by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and the mass extermination of 6 million of them during World War II.

*With information from ANSA news agency.

Translated by Mayra Borges