Elie Wiesel's Only Son Steps Up to His Father's Legacy
The Saturday Profile
By RICK LYMAN MAY 12, 2017
OSWIECIM, Poland — Back when all he wanted was to play baseball and tinker with his computer, Elisha Wiesel found himself touring Treblinka, evading KGB agents on the Moscow subway and watching his father accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I wanted a normal American childhood,” said Mr. Wiesel, 44, the affable and soft-spoken son of Elie Wiesel, the author, activist and Holocaust witness who died last year. But now, after years of avoiding the spotlight to focus on his family and a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he is chief information officer, the only child of the celebrated memoirist has decided it’s time to step forward and further his father’s work.
“I realize that my father’s death was a loss not just for me and my family, but for a lot of people,” Mr. Wiesel said. “When I was young, I’d think ‘Oh God, here comes another guy telling me how great my father was.’ Now, I’m trying to be more like my father was.”
Mr. Wiesel was led through the throngs at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, passing beneath the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes You Free) entrance gate to his marked spot at the front of the crowd.
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/europe/elie-wiesels-only-son-steps-up-to-his-fathers-legacy.html