Elie Wiesel Remembered by Barack Obama, George Clooney and More

The Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate died Saturday at age of 87

Barack Obama Elie Wiesel
White House

Hollywood and the world’s leaders have come out to pay tribute to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who died Saturday at the age of 87.

“Elie Wiesel was a great moral voice of our time and a conscience for our world,” said President Barack Obama on Twitter. “He was also a dear friend. We will miss him deeply.”

The sentiments were echoed by other high-profile individuals from the world of politics, literature and entertainment.

Actor-director George Clooney offered his own testimonial in a statement: “Unless you’re 88 years old most of us have not lived in a world without Elie Wiesel. We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations. Now he’s gone. It’s hard to fathom. So I guess it’s up to us now. To fight for the disenfranchised. To speak truth to power and to never forget how cruel man can be to man. In memory of Elie it’s the least we can do. Rest in peace my friend. You brought us this far. We’ll take it from here.”

“Thank you Elie Wiesel,” said Tony-winning “Hamilton” composer-star Lin-Manuel Miranda. “The world is profoundly better because you were here.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Wiesel “gave expression to the victory of the human spirit over cruelty and evil, through his extraordinary personality and his fascinating books.”

The Romanian-born Wiesel wrote dozens of books, including the 1955 best-seller “Night” chronicling his experience as a teenage boy at Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II.

In both his written words and in charismatic speeches he delivered worldwide, Wiesel has acted as a moral conscience for decades about the scope and horror of the German efforts to eradicate Jews like himself, and became an outspoken voice on human rights.

Below is a sampling of reactions to the passing of Elie Wiesel:

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