Elie Wiesel Accepts Nobel for Survivors

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepted the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize today on behalf of those who lived through the Nazi genocide campaign of horror that killed millions of Jews.

“Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not,” said Wiesel, whose parents and sister died in the Nazi concentration camps.

“This honor belongs to all the survivors and their children, and through us, to the Jewish people, with whose destiny I have always identified,” he said.

The Romanian-born Jew--a naturalized American citizen--was the first writer to regularly use the term Holocaust to describe the Nazis’ systematic murder of 6 million Jews and other minorities.

Accompanied by Son

Wiesel’s son, Elie, 15, accompanied him on stage as he accepted the Nobel gold medal and diploma from Nobel Committee Chairman Egil Aarvik. After the presentation, the boy returned to his seat next to his mother, Marian, who had tears in her eyes.

Aarvik said the prize was in recognition of Wiesel’s “victory over the powers of death and degradation, and as a support to the rebellion of good against evil in the world.”

Wiesel--who was freed from the Buchenwald death camp in April, 1945, at age 16--put on a yarmulke and recited the Hebrew benediction, “Thank you, oh, Lord for giving us this day,” before beginning his acceptance speech.

Other Prizes Awarded

In Stockholm, meanwhile, the 1986 Nobel science and literature prizes were awarded today amid unprecedented security triggered by the slaying of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme nine months ago.

Two bomb-sniffing dogs searched Stockholm Concert Hall before the white-tie festivities, attended by 1,700 VIPs led by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, wearing a lilac gown and silver tiara.

About 150 policemen maintained security, erecting riot fences around Concert Hall, located 100 yards from the corner where Palme was gunned down by an unknown assassin Feb. 28.

In a ceremony punctuated by string music and trumpet fanfares, the king awarded the Nobel gold medals to the 10 winners.

Nigerian Honored

Wole Soyinka, 52, the Nigerian poet and playwright who is Africa’s first literature laureate, wore a sand-colored African tunic that stood out from the conservative attire of other winners.

In another Nobel first, African music was played at the solemn ceremony.

The medicine prize went jointly to American biochemist Stanley Cohen and Italian-American biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini for their work on cell growth.

American economist James McGill Buchanan became the 14th American to win the economics prize since 1969 for his theory of “public choice.”

The chemistry prize was shared by American Dudley Herschbach, Canadian John Polanyi and American Yuan Tseh-Lee for their work on gauging basic chemical reactions.

West German Ernst Ruska shared the physics award for microscope design with compatriot Gerd Binnig and Swiss Heinrich Rohrer.