The acceptance speech for the award of the peace prize was given by the late Elie Wiesel.
On December 10, 1986 the winner of the peace prize was announced.
It is with a deep sense of humility that I accept the honor you have bestowed upon me.I know that your choice doesn't matter to me.This scares and pleases me.
I wonder if I have the right to represent the many who have perished.Do I have the right to accept this honor on their behalf?I don't.That wouldn't be right.No one can interpret the dreams and visions of the dead.
I believe that this honor belongs to all the survivors and their children, and through us, to the Jewish people with whom I have always identified.
I remember it happened yesterday or a long time ago.The kingdom of night was discovered by a young boy.I remember his anguish and his confusion.It all happened so fast.There is a ghetto.The deportation took place.The cattle car is sealed.The history of our people and the future of mankind were supposed to be sacrificed on the altar.
I remember that he asked his father if this was true.Who would allow such crimes to happen?How could the world not speak?
The boy is asking me to tell him.What have you done with my future?What have you accomplished in your life?
I tell him that I've tried.I have tried to keep memory alive by fighting those who would forget.We are guilty if we forget.
I told him how naive we were and that the world did not know about it.I swore never to be silent when human beings suffer and humiliation.We have to always take sides.Neutrality helps the oppressor.Silence encourages the tormentor.Sometimes we have to interfere.When human lives are in danger, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.The center of the universe must be where men and women are not allowed to be because of their race, religion, or political views.
Since I am a Jew, my first response is to Jewish fears, Jewish needs, and Jewish crises.I am a member of a generation that experienced abandonment and solitude.I don't want to make Jewish priorities my own, but there are other things that are more important to me.I think that apartheid is as bad as anti-Semitism.To me, the isolation of Sakharov is as bad as that of Biegun.Lech Walesa's right to dissent is denied.Nelson Mandela has been in prison for a long time.
There is a lot of injustice and suffering that is crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, racism, political persecution, writers and poets, prisoners in many lands governed by the Left and the Right.Human rights are being violated all over the world.More people are not free.I am sensitive to the plight of the Palestinians, but I don't like their methods.The answer is not violence or terrorism.Something must be done about their suffering.I have faith in the Jewish people and I trust Israel.There will be peace in and around the Holy Land if Israel is given a chance.
I have faith.Faith in the creation of God.No action would be possible without it.The most dangerous danger of all is indifference.Isn't this the meaning of Alfred Nobel's legacy?Is his fear of war a shield against war?
There is a lot that can be done.A difference of life and death can be made by one person.Our freedom will not be true if one dissident is in prison.Our lives will be filled with shame and anguish if one child is hungry.All of these victims need to know that they are not alone, that we will lend them ours when their voices are stifled, and that the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.
I told the young Jewish boy what I had done with his years.It is in his name that I speak to you.One who has emerged from the kingdom of night is the most capable of gratitude.Every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering, and not to share them would mean to betray them.All those who need us desperately now own our lives.
Thank you, Chairman.Thank you to the members of the committee.Our survival has meaning for mankind thanks to the people of Norway.
From Les Prix Nobel.The editor of the prize was from the Nobel Foundation.