Elie Wiesel: New Documents

By Carlo Mattogno

After the publication of my article Elie Wiesel: “The Most Authoritative Living Witness” of The Shoah?[1] I learned about a Hungarian website on which Miklòs Grüner has compiled a substantial documentation regarding this subject.[2] Grüner has, for years, made highly commendable efforts to ascertain Elie Wiesel’s personality, but his work has been passed by for too long.

I will not go into Grüner’s denouncements of identity theft on the part of the Nobel laureate, levelled against various authorities and will limit myself to the corresponding documents.

1)  A letter dated 15 May 2002, addressed to Grüner by the Buchenwald Gedenkstätte (memorial) contains the following information:

Lazar Wiesel, born on 4 September 1913 at Maromarossziget, arrived at Buchenwald with a transport from Auschwitz (Buchenwald archives, microfilm Auschwitz, p. 41). On this page 41, under entry number 2438, you will find the data on Lazar Wiesel: Buchenwald number 123565, born on 4 September 1913, Auschwitz number A-7713. These data are confirmed by the numerical file card at the camp office [Schreibstube].[3] Lazar Wiesel appears on the American questionnaire (NARA Washington, RG 242, microfilm 60) with the number 123165 and a different date of birth (4 October 1928); he went to Paris on 16 July 1945 with a convoy of surviving children (Buchenwald archives, 56-6-12, p. 9). Here, however, there is a disagreement with respect to the numerical file card. The Schreibstube file card numbered 123165 was made out for a Slovenian Jewish detainee, Pavel Kun, who died at Buchenwald on 8 March 1945.

2)  A detainee registration card, probably stemming from the Buchenwald memorial archives, has the following data:

“123565

Wiesel Lazar          Polit.
Geb. 4.9.13 Maromarossiget          Ungar
Schlosserlehrling            Jude
26. Januar 1945”

This means that Lazar Wiesel, born at Maromarossiget on 4 September 1913, an apprentice locksmith, political detainee and Hungarian Jew, was registered at Buchenwald on 26 January 1945 and assigned the ID number 123565.

3)  A Buchenwald “Record of changes” on the subject of Abraham Viezel:

“Datenbank:     Veränderungsmeldungen Buchenwald
Datensatz:     9315
Häftlingsnr.:     123488 [A 7712]
Name:       Viezel, Abraham
geboren:       10.10.00
Nationalität:
Kategorie:       polit. Jude
Einlieferung:
gestorben:       02.02.45
in:          Block 57
Meldung vom:        03.02.45”

Hence, Abraham Viezel, born 10 October 1900, a Jewish political detainee, with the ID numbers A-7712 for Auschwitz and 123448 for Buchenwald, died on 2 February 1945 at Block 57, according to the camp record of 3 February.
Concerning this detainee, we also have the document shown below; the date of birth and the ID number are exactly the same, “5514” is the registration number for his death.

DOCUMENT 1: Death certificate of Abram Viezel (Click to enlarge)

4)  A birth certificate of the Romanian “Central national record office” dated 27 November 1996 for Lazar Vizel, born at Sighet on 6 October 1928 to Solomon Vizel and Sura Feig.

5)  A questionnaire of the American military government in Germany for the Buchenwald camp concerning Lázár Wiesel, born 4 October 1928, ID Number 123165.

This document is furnished here as a more easily legible copy, including the reverse page.[4]

DOCUMENT 2: Buchenwald questionnaire for Lázár Wiesel dated 22 April 1945 – front (Click to enlarge)

DOCUMENT 3: Buchenwald questionnaire for Lázár Wiesel dated 22 April 1945 – back (Click to enlarge)

6)  A letter from the director of the Auschwitz Museum, Kazimierz Smoleń, to Mrs. Eva Kor, founder of CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors), dated 15 March 1987, where it is said, under point 2:

“In the concentration camp of Auschwitz a Mr. Lazar Weisel was given A-7713. He was born 4/9/13. He was a Jew from Hungary, born at Marmarossiget. This particular prisoner arrived in Auschwitz 5/24/44. He was there til [sic] the end of 1944 in KL Auschwitz III called Monowitz. Towards the end of the evacuation he was transferred to KL Buchenwald. He was registered there on the day of 1/26/45”

7)  A letter from the Auschwitz Museum to Miklós Grüner dated 7 July 2003 which states that detainee ID A-7713 appears in a list of the SS Hygiene Institute dated 7 December 1944-Monowitz and giving the following data:

A-11104 Grüner Miklos, Hungarian Jew, born on 6 April 28 at Nyiregyhaza

A-7712 Viesel Abram, born on 10 October 1900 at Marmarosz

A-7713 Wiesel Lazar, born on 4 September 1913 in Marmarossziget, Schlosser (locksmith)

8)  A portion of the minutes dated 8 July 2008[5] of the trial of the State of Califrnia vs. Eric Hunt[6], at which Elie Wiesel made the following statements under oath:

A. French Lanueit, L-A-N-U-E-I-T, and in English Night.

Q. And was Night your first book published in English?

A. Yes.

Q. First book published anywhere, correct?

A. First book published anywhere.

[…]

Q. And is this book Night that you wrote a true account of your experience during World War II?

A. It is a true account. Every word in it is true.

[…]

Q. And what was your – what day were you born in Sighet, Romania?

A. September 30th, 1928.

[…]

Q. And what [number] was tattooed on your left arm?

A. My number was A7713. My father’s number was 7712.

In short:

• The Auschwitz ID number A-7713 was assigned on 24 May 1944 to Lazar Wiesel, born on 4 September 1913 at Maromarossziget, who was later registered at Buchenwald under the ID number 123165;
• The Auschwitz ID number A-7712 was assigned on 24 May 1944 to Abraham Viezel, born on 10 October 1900 at Maromarossziget, registered at Buchenwald on 26 January 1945 under the ID number 123488, who died in this camp on 2 February.
• Elie Wiesel has stated under oath that, at Auschwitz, he was assigned the ID number A-7713 and his father the ID number A-7712.

This statement is obviously false.

There is still the problem of the questionnaire filled out at Buchenwald by Lázár Wiesel on 22 April 1945. This detainee was born at Màromarossziget on 4 October 1928, he was a student, was arrested on 16 April 1944 and interned at Auschwitz and Monowitz. According to the Buchenwald Gedenkstätte, he was sent to Paris on 16 July 1945 with a convoy of surviving children and is registered on the respective list. Is this Lázár Wiesel the writer Elie Wiesel?

We see right away that the dates of birth are not identical: Lázár was born on 4 October 1928, Elie on 30 September of the same year. The birth certificate presented by Miklos Grüner for Lazar Vizel shows yet another date: 6 October 1928. As Lázár Wiesel, by his own hand, signed the questionnaire mentioned above – using the last name “Wiezel” – we may exclude an error as far as the date of his birth is concerned.

The second important point is that the Auschwitz ID number of Lázár Wiesel is not known, but it could not have been A-7713 in any case, because at the Auschwitz Museum there is only one ID number A-7713 in the men’s series, assigned to Lazar Wiesel, born on 4 September 1913. What is more, on the transport manifest for the transport from Auschwtz to Buchenwald there is only one Lazar Wiesel, the one born on 4 September 1913 and having the Auschwitz ID number A-7713. Where did Lázár Wiesel come from? And what connection is there between Lazar Wiesel and Lázár Wiesel or Lazar Vizel who have such similar record data (except for the dates of birth).

At the moment, we cannot answer these questions.

The third point is the fact that the date for the arrest of Lázár Wiesel – 16 April 1944 – does not agree with that of Elie Wiesel’s: after 27 May 1944, as we have seen in the preceding article.

The fourth point is that Lázár Wiesel, in the questionnaire mentioned above, declared that he spent “4 weeks” at Auschwitz, another 8 months at Monowitz and 3 months at Buchenwald, whereas Elie Wiesel’s stay at Auschwitz lasted 3 weeks.

The fifth point is the Buchenwald ID number – if Elie Wiesel is indeed Lázár Wiesel, why did he not mention the ID number 123165?

Even the name is significant. It is true that Lazar is a diminutive of Eliezer, but this name in Yiddish sounds like אליעזר (Eliezer), while Lazar is לייזער (Leizer) or לאזער (Lozer). Why did the alleged Elie Wiesel at Buchenwald sign his name as Lázár? And why did he never indicate his ID number for this camp?

Actually, the question is even more complicated than that, because we have yet a third detainee, assuming that Lázár Wiesel and Lazar Vizel are the same person.

Hence, the table I presented in the previous article now looks like this:

Lázár Wiesel’s Buchenwald ID number fits into the series of numbers assigned on 26 January 1945 to the convoy of 3,927 detainees arriving from Auschwitz: 120348 – 124274. It does not follow, however, that Lázár Wiesel was included in this list.

In the Buchenwald questionnaire, answering the question “Give names and addresses, if known, of three reliable persons living in the locality where you intend to go, who can vouch for you” Lázár Wiesel wrote: “Ur [Mr.] Ferenc Stark, Ferenc Pollak, Sámuel Jakobovits”. This latter person was also at Buchenwald; he had arrived there from Auschwitz in the convoy of 26 January 1945. His file card shown below indicates that, at Auschwitz, his number had been A-5763, whereas his Buchenwald registration number was 121761; he was born on 2 October 1926 at Marmarossziget, his mother’s maiden name was Pollak who was probably related to the inmate Ferenc Pollak mentioned by Lázár Wiesel.

DOCUMENT 4: Buchenwald file card of Samuel Jakobovits (Click to enlarge)

That Lázár and Sámuel knew each other is confirmed by the questionnaire reproduced below which they filled out at Buchenwald on 22 April 1945. The one bearing the name of “Jakobovits Sámuel”, lists on the reverse side, as references, the names of Hersch Fischmann, Antal Meisner and, specifically, Lázár Wiesel. The front page also gives the date of Sámuel’s arrest – 16 April 1944, the same date as Lázár Wiesel’s. At Auschwitz, Sámuel received number A-5763, assigned on 24 May 1944: on that day, 2,000 Hungarian Jews were registered under the file numbers A-5729 through 7728. Hence, both Abram Wiesel (A-7712) and Lazar Wiesel (A-7713), born on 4 September 1913, were part of this transport, but also Lázár Wiesel, born on 4 October 1928, who stayed at Auschwtz for 4 weeks. But, as we have already seen, the Auschwitz Museum knows nothing of this Lázár Wiesel.

DOCUMENT 5: Buchenwald questionnaire of Sámuel Jakobovits dated 22 April 1945 – Front (Click to enlarge)

DOCUMENT 6: Buchenwald questionnaire of Sámuel Jakobovits dated 22 April 1945 – Back (Click to enlarge)

In conclusion, we can say that Elie Wiesel can be neither Lazar Wiesel, nor Lázár Wiesel, nor Lazar Vizel and that the ID number A-7713 was not assigned to him but to Lazar Wiesel, while ID A-7712 was not assigned to his father but to Abram (or Abraham) Viesel (or Wiesel).

The charge of identity theft raised against Elie Wiesel by Miklos Grüner does not concern Lazar Wiesel only, but Lázár Wiesel as well: from the former, he took the Auschwitz ID number (A-7713), from the latter the stay at Buchenwald and the later transfer to Paris.

As far as his book, La Nuit, is concerned, what is the value of his sworn statement that “it is a true account. Every word in it is true” in the face of the analysis I presented in the previous article?

In this respect, it is interesting to note that the book in question does not contain any mention of the alleged “gas chambers” of Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel is perhaps the only self-styled Auschwitz witness not to speak of “gas chambers”, something quite surprising to say the least, which can – and must – be explained only by himself.

Finally, let us go back to the Buchenwald photograph on which Elie Wiesel is said to appear. At the Buchenwald Gedenkstätte this picture is exhibited with the caption:

“Häftlinge in Baracke 56 des Kleinen Lagers. | Foto Harry Miller, 16. April 1945 / National Archives, Washington”,

“Detainees in barrack 56 of the small camp. Photograph by Harry Miller, 16 April 1945. National Archives, Washington”[7]

The date of 16 April 1945 is thus confirmed officially. In his book, Elie Wiesel writes:

“On April tenth, there were still about twenty thousand of us in the camp, including several hundred children. […].

Three days after the liberation of Buchenwald I became very ill with food poisoning. I was transferred to the hospital and spent two weeks between life and death.”[8]

The camp was liberated on 11 April 1945. Three days later, on 14 April, Elie Wiesel fell ill and was taken to the camp hospital where he stayed “between life and death” for two weeks, i.e. until 28 April.

But then how could he have been, on 16 April, in barrack 56 which was obviously a normal housing barrack? And how could he have signed, on 22 April, as Lázár Wiesel, the questionnaire mentioned above?

Carlo Mattogno, 9 March 2010

[1] http://www.revblog.codoh.com/2010/02/elie-wiesel-the-most-authoritative-living-witness-of-the-shoah/
[2] The title of the article translates roughly as “A self-styled Elie Wiesel comes to Hungary with a false identity”, in: http://kuruc.info/r/6/51815/
[3] Document 2 published in the first article.
[4] NARA, A 3355, RG 242.
[5] Superior Court of California. County of San Francisco. Before the Honorable Robert Donder, Judge Presiding, Department Number 23. People of the State of California, Plaintiff, vs. Eric Hunt, Defendant. Testimony of Elie Wiesel, July 8, 2008, p. 7 and 13.

[6] Eric Hunt was accused of having aggressed Elie Wiesel but asserted to have shot elsewhere to obtain an interview concerning his stay at Auschwitz: http://erichunt.net/category/the-liar-elie-wiesel/
[7] http://www.buchenwald.de/index.php?p=168
[8] Elie Wiesel, Night, Penguin Books, New York 1981, p. 125f.