Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the author, academic and human rights campaigner, is to be presented with an honorary knighthood by the British Government next month for his services to Holocaust education in the UK.
Professor Wiesel will be presented with the award by Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket at a special ceremony on November 30, at the Foreign Office in London.
Following the award, Prof. Wiesel, who is the vice chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, as well as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, will be guest of honour at a special dinner hosted by Yad Vashem UK.
On learning of the award, Elie Wiesel said: "I am grateful for the honor and hope it will help us serve the noble and urgent cause of remembrance."
After surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, Prof. Wiesel has dedicated his life to ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust is never forgotten. He is the author of 36 educational works dealing with Judaism, the Holocaust and the fight against racism.
In 1986 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1985 and established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in 1987. Its mission is to advance the cause of human rights and peace throughout the world by creating a new forum for the discussion of urgent ethical issues confronting humankind.
Possibly one of the greatest post-Holocaust writers, Prof. Wiesel has given the world an insight into the horrors of the Nazi regime. His more than forty-five books have won numerous awards. His first book, written in 1958, the internationally acclaimed La Nuit (Night), details his own experience in the death camps and has become arguably the most powerful piece of Holocaust literature ever published and is used as an educational tool in schools across the UK.
After the war, he settled in France and studied at the Sorbonne. He wrote for French and Israeli newspapers and began his work as a writer. In 1956 he moved to the US and was naturalized in 1963. He taught at City College, New York and later became Professor of Humanities at Boston University.
Jeffrey Pinnick, chairman of Yad Vashem UK, said: "Elie Wiesel's life has been dedicated to keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive and we are thrilled that the British Government has recognised his unique and far reaching contribution in the UK.
"No other individual has played such an influential role in ensuring that the next generation can learn from the lessons of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem UK feels privileged to work alongside such an inspirational and exceptional individual," he added.
The Yad Vashem UK Foundation's mission is to ensure that the tragedy of the Holocaust is never forgotten, honor the memory of those who perished and to impart the legacy of the Holocaust to shape a more humane future.
The foundation is involved in remembrance and in the field of informal education. It organises day visits to Auschwitz and works closely with educators at Jewish schools and youth movements across the UK.
It has just launched its "Guardian of the Memory" campaign, which seeks to enlist the support of every Jewish person in the UK, as well as other faiths, to become a "Guardian" of a victim of the Holocaust to ensure that each victim will never be forgotten.
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