A room inside the Westmoreland Club in Wilkes-Barre was packed wall to wall with students from nine area high schools Tuesday night.
All the students were there for one man, Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, professor and author who survived the Holocaust as a young boy.
Students at the event received the opportunity to talk with Wiesel about his experiences at Auschwitz.
A senior from GAR High School asked what was worse, the experience in the camps or the recovery afterward.
"The experience, of course," said Wiesel. "At least afterwards I had control. In the camps, I had no control. Time was not mine. Nothing was mine. Everything came from the enemy. Even the language came from the enemy. I had to understand that language."
"It was unbelievable. I'll never forget it. My grandkids will hear about it, their kids will hear about it and it's something I'll treasure for ever," said Lance Machovec, a senior from Dallas High School.
Wiesel was in Wilkes-Barre as the guest speaker for Wilkes University's Outstanding Leaders Forum.
Before the lecture, these students learned about the events that started Wiesel on his path to fight for human rights and peace around the world.
Deported from his home in Sighet, Transylvania, Romania, Wiesel was 15 years old when his devout Jewish family was sent to the concentration camps.
Auschwitz claimed the lives of his mother and younger sister; his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in 1945.
When asked by a student when his career plans had been before the Holocaust, Wiesel said his parents wanted him to study the violin and he had been taking lessons as a young child.
"I continue to love music today. I cannot work or think without music. But my inspiration was really to become a teacher. I probably would have become a teacher in the small village," said Wiesel, who has been a professor for more than 40 years and currently teaches at Boston University.
Wiesel earned worldwide fame with his memoir of the Holocaust, titled "Night", a book that many of the students here said they read.
"It's haunting. It really is, the experience that he went through, it's hard to put it into words. You can't describe it," said Julie Saunders, a senior at Nanticoke Area High School.
Wiesel continues to campaign on current issues, including Darfur and the wars in the Middle East.
When a student asked him about President Obama also being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel said after seeing the racial divide in America when he first arrived in the 1950s, he believed the prize was intended for the American people.
All the students were there for one man, Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, professor and author who survived the Holocaust as a young boy.
Students at the event received the opportunity to talk with Wiesel about his experiences at Auschwitz.
A senior from GAR High School asked what was worse, the experience in the camps or the recovery afterward.
"The experience, of course," said Wiesel. "At least afterwards I had control. In the camps, I had no control. Time was not mine. Nothing was mine. Everything came from the enemy. Even the language came from the enemy. I had to understand that language."
"It was unbelievable. I'll never forget it. My grandkids will hear about it, their kids will hear about it and it's something I'll treasure for ever," said Lance Machovec, a senior from Dallas High School.
Wiesel was in Wilkes-Barre as the guest speaker for Wilkes University's Outstanding Leaders Forum.
Before the lecture, these students learned about the events that started Wiesel on his path to fight for human rights and peace around the world.
Deported from his home in Sighet, Transylvania, Romania, Wiesel was 15 years old when his devout Jewish family was sent to the concentration camps.
Auschwitz claimed the lives of his mother and younger sister; his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in 1945.
When asked by a student when his career plans had been before the Holocaust, Wiesel said his parents wanted him to study the violin and he had been taking lessons as a young child.
"I continue to love music today. I cannot work or think without music. But my inspiration was really to become a teacher. I probably would have become a teacher in the small village," said Wiesel, who has been a professor for more than 40 years and currently teaches at Boston University.
Wiesel earned worldwide fame with his memoir of the Holocaust, titled "Night", a book that many of the students here said they read.
"It's haunting. It really is, the experience that he went through, it's hard to put it into words. You can't describe it," said Julie Saunders, a senior at Nanticoke Area High School.
Wiesel continues to campaign on current issues, including Darfur and the wars in the Middle East.
When a student asked him about President Obama also being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel said after seeing the racial divide in America when he first arrived in the 1950s, he believed the prize was intended for the American people.
