Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, an advocate for victims of persecution around the globe, will be the featured speaker during Elon University’s Spring Convocation for Honors at 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 21 in the Koury Center on campus.
Wiesel will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree during the convocation, which recognizes academic achievement and philanthropy. Eugene Lang, whose philanthropic foundation supports Project Pericles, an initiative to promote a sense of civic responsibility among college students, will also receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Wiesel’s famous book, “La Nuit (Night),” is based on his struggle for survival at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Wiesel was 15 when he and his family were deported from their Romanian village to concentration camps in Poland, where his parents and younger sister died.
Since its publication in 1958, more than five million copies of “La Nuit” have been printed in 30 languages. The Holocaust, which Wiesel calls “history’s worst crime,” is featured in many of the more than 40 novels, essays and plays he has written.
Appointed by President Jimmy Carter, Wiesel chaired the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council from 1980-1986. He has championed the cause of the oppressed, including Soviet Jews, Nicaraguan Miskito Indians, the Kurds, Cambodia refugees, Argentina’s “disappeared,” and victims of famine in Africa.
Wiesel’s address will highlight the event, which honors Dean’s List and President’s List students, the faculty, graduate students, the Class of 2004 and members of the Elon Society, the premier annual giving group at Elon.
Tickets to the convocation are available on a limited basis and are $12 or free for those with valid Elon identification. Tickets may be purchased by calling the McCrary Theatre box office at (336) 278-5610. The box office is open from 12:30-5 p.m., Monday-Friday.
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