Holocaust survivor, activist and writer Elie Wiesel, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for becoming the lifelong voice of millions of Holocaust victims, died on Saturday. He was 87. Wiesel was a philosopher, speaker, playwright and professor who also campaigned for the tyrannized and forgotten around the world. He died at his home in New York City, The New York Times reported. The Romanian-born Wiesel lived by the credo expressed in "Night," his landmark story of the Holocaust: "To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." In awarding the Peace Prize in 1986, the Nobel Committee praised him as a "messenger to mankind" and "one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world." A statement from World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder referred to Wiesel as "the most articulate witness to history's greatest crime. Without Elie Wiesel in the world, it is up to every one of us now to stand up to the deniers. With his passing, we will all have to work a little harder because we will no longer have Elie to remind us of what happens when the world is silent and indifferent to evil. It is now our job, and that of our children and grandchildren, to pick up the baton and to relay Elie's message of hope and peace to the world." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Wiesel as a ray of light, and said his extraordinary personality and unforgettable books demonstrated the triumph of the human spirit over the most unimaginable evil. "The State of Israel and the Jewish people express sorrow over the death of Elie Wiesel," Netanyahu said. "Elie, a master of words, gave expression to the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil with his unusual personality and captivating stories. In the darkness of the Holocaust when our brothers and sisters perished -- the six million -- Elie Wiesel served as a ray of light and an example of humanity that believes in the goodness of man. Elie's prolific creations do not just reflect the Holocaust but also the hope and optimism against the darkness of Auschwitz. Jerusalem -- the eternal capital of Israel -- represented to him our ability to rise from the bottom and reach new heights." President Reuven Rivlin also addressed Wiesel's death, saying, "Tonight we bid farewell to a hero of the Jewish People, and a giant of all humanity. Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, embodied the determination of the human spirit to overcome the darkest of evils and survive against all the odds. His life was dedicated to the fight against all hatred, and for the sake of man as created in the image of God -- he was a guide for us all. One of the Jewish people's greatest sons, who touched the hearts of so many and helped us believe in forgiveness, in life and in the eternal bond of the Jewish people. May his memory be a blessing, everlastingly engraved in the heart of the nation." Wiesel did not waver in his campaign never to let the world forget the horrors of the Holocaust. While at the White House in 1985 to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, he even rebuked U.S. President Ronald Reagan for planning to lay a wreath at a German cemetery where some of Hitler's notorious Waffen SS troops were buried. "Don't go to Bitburg," Wiesel said. "That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS." Wiesel became close to U.S. President Barack Obama, but the friendship did not deter him from criticizing U.S. policy on Israel. He spoke out in favor of Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and pushed the United States and other world powers to take a harder stance against Iran over its nuclear program. Obama remembered him as "one of the great moral voices of our time, and in many ways, the conscience of the world." Wiesel had raised his voice, not just against anti-Semitism, but against hatred, bigotry and intolerance in all forms, Obama said in a statement. "His life, and the power of his example, urges us to be better. In the face of evil, we must summon our capacity for good. In the face of hate, we must love," Obama said. "Elie was not just the world's most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial. After we walked together among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald where he was held as a teenager and where his father perished, Elie spoke words I've never forgotten -- 'Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.' Upholding that sacred duty was the purpose of Elie's life." Wiesel attended the joint session of the U.S. Congress in 2015 when Netanyahu spoke on the dangers of Iran's nuclear program. Wiesel and his foundation both were victims of the wide-ranging Ponzi scheme run by New York financier Bernie Madoff, with Wiesel and his wife losing their life's savings and the foundation losing $15.2 million. Wiesel was a hollow-eyed 16-year-old when he emerged from the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. He had been orphaned by the Nazis, and their identification number, A-7713, was tattooed on his arm as a physical manifestation of his broken faith and the nightmares that would haunt him throughout his life. He grew up in an ultra-Orthodox household, and his family spoke mainly Yiddish at home. His father encouraged him to study Hebrew and a range of other subjects, while his mother encouraged him to study the Torah. Wiesel and his family had first been taken by the Nazis from the village of Sighetu Marmatiei in the Transylvania region of Romania to Auschwitz, where his mother and one of his sisters died. Wiesel and his father, Shlomo, ended up in Buchenwald, where Shlomo died. In "Night," Wiesel wrote of his shame at lying silently in his bunk while his father was beaten nearby. After the war Wiesel made his way to France, studied at the Sorbonne and by 19 had become a journalist. He pondered suicide and never wrote of or discussed his Holocaust experience until 10 years after the war as part of a vow to himself. He was 27 years old in 1955 when "Night" was published in Yiddish, and Wiesel would later rewrite it for a world audience. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed," Wiesel wrote. "Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live." Asked by an interviewer in 2000 why he did not go insane, Wiesel said, "To this day that is a mystery to me." By 2008, "Night" had sold an estimated 10 million copies, according to The New York Times, including 3 million after talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey made it a spotlight selection for her book club in 2006. In 1985 Wiesel helped break ground in Washington for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the following year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In typical fashion, he dedicated the prize to all those who survived the Nazi horror, calling them "an example to humankind how not to succumb to despair." Wiesel, who became a U.S. citizen in 1963, was slight in stature but a compelling figure when he spoke. With a chiseled profile, burning eyes and a shock of gray hair, he could silence a crowd by merely standing up. He was often described as somber. An old friend, Chicago professor Irving Abrahamson, once said of him: "I've never seen Elie give a belly laugh. He'll chuckle, he'll smile, there'll be a twinkle in his eye. But never a laugh from within." A few years after winning the peace prize, he set up the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which, in addition to Israeli and Jewish causes, campaigned for Miskito Indians in Nicaragua, Cambodian refugees, victims of South African apartheid and of famine and genocide in Africa. Wiesel wrote more than 50 books -- novels, non-fiction, memoirs, and many with a Holocaust theme -- and held a long-running professorship at Boston University. In one of his later books, "Open Heart," he used his 2011 quintuple-bypass surgery as impetus for reflection on his life. "I have already been the beneficiary of so many miracles, which I know I owe to my ancestors," he wrote. "All I have achieved has been and continues to be dedicated to their murdered dreams -- and hopes." He collected scores of awards and honors, including an honorary knighthood in Britain. Obama presented him the National Humanities Medal in 2009. "Wiesel left his mark on humanity through preserving and upholding the legacy of the Holocaust and delivering a message of peace and respect between people worldwide," said former President Shimon Peres. "He endured the most serious atrocities of mankind -- survived them and dedicated his life to conveying the message of 'Never Again.' I had the honor and privilege to personally thank him for his numerous years of work and for saving the world from apathy when I gave him the Presidential Medal on behalf of the State of Israel. May his memory be a blessing to us all." Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel in 2007 by a 22-year-old Holocaust denier, but he was not injured. He and wife Marion married in 1969 and their son, Elisha, was born in 1972. Wiesel will be buried in a private ceremony on Sunday.
