Wiesel receives Kraków honorary doctorate

The award was given by the John Paul II Papal University in Kraków.

Jewish writer and political activist Elie Wiesel has received an honorary doctorate from the John Paul II Papal University in Kraków in recognition of his academic achievements and activities to safeguard peace and defend human dignity.

The ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Park East Synagogue in New York. In a citation, Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek stressed Elie Wiesel’s role of a witness of the Holocaust, recalling his remarks in a press interview three decades ago: “Why do I write? In order to save the victims from oblivion. To help the dead conquer death”.

Bishop Pieronek said that Elie Wiesel stood out against the policy of apartheid in South Africa, the massacres in Bosnia, and crimes in North Korea, the persecution of non-Arab minorities in Sudan and of Turkish Kurds, the cruelties of the Soviet regime and the murders of Tibetans in communist China. He also supported Poland’s Solidarity movement.

The ceremony in New York was attended by Father Wojciech Zyzak, the Chancellor of the Papal University in Kraków.

Born in 1928, Elie Wiesel is a survivor of Auschwitz and other Nazi German death camps. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. (mk/rg)