First Person Singular - Elie Wiesel
This thoughtful PBS special examines the life and work of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, perhaps best known for his compelling memoir,Night, in which he describes his survival in the Auschwitz concentration camp of Nazi Germany. While an hour cannot do justice to an entire life--to say nothing of a life as tumultuous as Wiesel's--interviews with Wiesel and readings from his works trace the path from his terrifying childhood to his days as a journalist in Paris, the establishment of Israel, and his later years in America, including his troubled thoughts on the current conflict between Israel and Palestine and the September 11 assaults on the World Trade Center. Weisel describes the central concern of his work as memory--ensuring that the horrors of the past are not forgotten, but honored and held up as a warning to the future. Narrated by William Hurt.--Bret Fetzer