Wiesel’s week

Metcalf Hall reached capacity Monday as an estimated 1,250 people crowded in to hear Boston University professor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel give what was billed as his last major lecture.
More than 600 additional attendees watched a simulcast in the BU School of Law auditorium, Tsai Auditorium and on the 3rd floor balcony of the George Sherman Union to listen to Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, discuss Kristallnacht, or ‘the Night of Broken Glass’ during which anti semitic mobs killed 92 Jews, destroyed hundreds of synagogues and ransacked Jewish homes and businesses in Germany.
Wiesel focused on the pitfalls and morality of revenge as associated with Kristallnacht, coming to the conclusion that only God is entitled to take revenge.
‘He said, ‘You can never do that, only I can do that,” Wiesel said. ‘Vengeance is only an option for God.’
Wiesel described historical and biblical events leading up to Krisallnacht, discussing Herschel Greenspan, the German Jew who killed a German diplomat in Paris because the Germans forced his entire community out of Germany without any of their belongings. Greenspan acted out of vengeance, thus providing an excuse for the Germans to displace and kill more Jews, Wiesel said.
‘They [the Germans] were looking for an excuse, and they made this man’s death into a reason for killing,’ he said. ‘Kristallnacht was an act of vengeance itself.’
Although Wiesel said he thought vengeance is pointless because it only leads to more vengeance, he said the opposite was true for anger, which can be channeled into something productive, like the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. Wiesel said his anger at the inequality in South Africa pushed him to make a trip halfway around the world to protest the apartheid.
‘The suffering of others compels us to respond,’ Wiesel said. ‘I do not believe in vengeance. I do believe in justice.’
BU President emeritus John Silber introduced Wiesel and described him as a ‘steadfast witness’ to the horrors of the time. The introduction contained warnings about the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel, and noted Wiesel’s attempt to organize diplomats at the United Nations to boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the General Assembly in September. Ahmadinejad has publicly denied that the Holocaust occurred.
Wiesel’s lecture came in the middle of a conference to celebrate his 80th birthday, which occurred on Sept. 30. The Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies had given away 6,000 tickets to the conference, Director Steven Katz said. Thickets were available upon email request.
The topic marked one of the rare occasions that Wiesel has mentioned the events of the Holocaust in a major lecture, Katz said.
College of Arts and Sciences freshman Chelsea Kantor said she signed up for tickets three weeks in advance to get seats in the main hall.
‘All of my grandparents were in the Holocaust, so it is a huge part of my life,’ Kantor said. ‘This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to see such a great man.’
College of Communication sophomore Noorin Bhanji, who sat on the main floor, enjoyed the lecture and its specific examples of vengeance throughout history to drive Weisel’s philosophical points home.
‘It made me wish I could have taken a class with him,’ she said.