Howard Reich Remembers Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel

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Photo credit: Pam Becker

After witnessing the worst atrocities that man can inflict on a fellow mortal, how do you move forward with a sense of hope? For revered Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, the answer was to unfailingly give voice to the horrors of war and the destruction that arises from indifference. Wiesel, who was sent to the death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a 15-year-old boy, went on to author more than 50 books, most of them nonfiction Holocaust literature, including his powerful memoir Night, which has sold millions of copies and been translated into 30 languages. For his lifetime of work fighting injustices, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and many other accolades.

In the final years of his life, Wiesel shared a series of intimate conversations (and a genuine friendship) with Chicago Tribune writer Howard Reich, himself the son of Holocaust survivors, and the details of their dialogue is eloquently captured in Reich’s new book The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel. Reich, who mostly writes about music for the Tribune, turns his eyes to history in a moving meditation on generational grief and trauma as he simultaneously explores his personal search for mercy and justice. The unprecedented access that Reich had to Wiesel results in much more than a transcribed interview; the two men’s deep conversations lay bare the horrors of the Holocaust and reveal the painful inheritance that propels today’s survivors to speak out against hatred, racism and genocide.

Reich will speak at the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, 6255 N Santa Monica Blvd., on Sunday, Aug. 11, at 2 p.m. in a free event co-sponsored by Boswell Book Co.