Elie Wiesel returns Hungarian government award over officials attending Nazi sympathizer ceremony
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, is in attendance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on April 23, 2012 in Washington, DC. / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
(AP) NEW YORK - Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel says he's "repudiating" a Hungarian government award he received in 2004 because top officials in Budapest attended a ceremony for a Nazi sympathizer.
That memorial rite weeks ago was offensive to the 83-year-old Holocaust survivor, whose parents were sent to their deaths at Auschwitz by wartime Hungarian officials.
In New York, Wiesel told The Associated Press in an interview that it was just "too close to home."
He wrote a letter this month to the speaker of the Hungarian parliament, Laszlo Kover, rejecting the award granted in 2004 by Hungary's president.
Wiesel says it's "outrageous" the parliament speaker participated in the May 27 ceremony honoring wartime parliament member Jozsef Nyiro. Wiesel calls him "a fascist ideologue."
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3 Comments Add a Comment
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- Specifically what was the award and was their any money associated with it either directly or indirectly? If so, will this also be returned? I guess he has so many awards over his lifetime that returning one isn't that significant.
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- It is significant. When you have a public forum, you have a duty to say what you think is right. He is fulfilling that duty.
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- Wow, I can't believe people. Why would you ever say something such as this over a holocaust survivor returning an award to someone who is supporting the very group who murdered his family. I certainly would do the same thing. Take a look at the mirror. This man is an incredible writer, winner of the congressional medal of honor, nobel peace prize and much much more. I think he's already proven himself to enough people.
