At 84, Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, plans to write a book with Barack Obama

[bigtree]

Wiesel, who celebrated his 84th birthday on September 30, looks and sounds well and says he is up to his neck in work - despite the open-heart surgery he underwent a year ago . . .

He did, however, agree to disclose an interesting project that will resume after the presidential elections in the United States. "President Barack Obama and I decided to write a book together, a book of two friends," he says.

Wiesel became friends with Obama in 2009, a few months after the Democratic candidate was elected. Obama's staff invited Wiesel to join the president on a visit to the site of Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Wiesel had first arrived at the camp at the end of World War II, with his father and other prisoners, following a death march from Auschwitz. His mother and his younger sister were murdered there, while Wiesel and his father, who did forced labor there, survived; his father died at Buchenwald. Only Wiesel and two of his sisters were still alive at the liberation.

When Obama concluded his remarks at Buchenwald, he whispered to Wiesel, "The last word has to be yours here." Choking with tears, Wiesel made an impromptu speech in which he said to Obama, "Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you, because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place ... You are our last hope."

Since then, he adds, the two have become good friends and he is occasionally invited to dinner by the president: "We talk about philosophy, contemplation, thought, but never about politics. He is a thinking person, a person with depth and intellectual curiosity."


read more: http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/elie-wiesel-is-up-to-his-neck-in-work.premium-1.473974

President Obama's Remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Elie Wiesel (Tweeted, W/Pics)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002599659

[Horse with no Name]

1. I love this

and I hope that Mr. Wiesel is able to convey the fears that some of us have regarding OUR country. I can't wait to read the book.
Thanks for sharing.

[treestar]

2. That's going to be interesting

Really cool.

[snacker]

3. WOW...

I'm in tears reading this....absolutely beautiful! Thank you for sharing this.

[Quantess]

4. He spoke at our high school.

I read his book, too. Can't remember the name of it.

[justabob]

6. Night is the most famous one, I think

He has written others as well.

[We People]

13. Wish I could have been there to hear him!

I had to read "Night" for a class once, and it was powerfully moving.

I had no idea about an Obama & Wiesel friendship, but I do hope they'll be able to write that book together. It makes me admire and respect the two of them even more.

"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference" --Elie Wiesel

"Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands" --Barack Obama

[Quantess]

15. Yes, I think it was Night.

I visited Dachau, I think, back in 1997... it's the one near Munich / Munchen

[msanthrope]

5. I met Mr. Wiesel nearly 20 years ago. My eyes well up, even now, recalling

his talk at my college that day.

I was privileged to speak with him. Meeting him convinced me that there were no gods...there is only infinite hope that we will all realize that we are all in this together.

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. There's a quotation of his I have always related to...

To me, life isn't made up of years, it's made of moments.

[Sunlei]

8. "Mr. President, .....you are our last hope"

." Choking with tears, Wiesel made an impromptu speech in which he said to Obama, "Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you, because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place ... You are our last hope."

[marions ghost]

9. Beautiful

...a book of two friends...

[JuveDem]

10. We have the BEST president.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

11. I can't wait to read this book. n/t

[bigtree]

12. kick

[nolabear]

14. Oh damn. Makes me tear up. How can anyone not love these men and these ideals?