The U.S. Postal Service is set to honor Jewish writer, activist, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel with a ceremony to unveil a new stamp commemorating his life.
“Wiesel was a voice for victims and survivors of the Holocaust and fought for human rights at every opportunity,” the USPS stated. “His resilience and compassion, and his remarkable body of work, ensure that future generations will never forget one of the darkest chapters in human history.”
The first-day-of-issue event is scheduled for Sept. 17 at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York City. Admission is free, though attendees are encouraged to register online.
Pre-orders of the stamp, of which 8 million are being printed, are available at usps.com and will also be shipped out on Sept. 17.
Wiesel, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, will be the 18th person honored with a stamp as part of the USPS Distinguished American series, joining the likes of polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk, track star Wilma Rudolph and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe.
The two-ounce stamp, designed by Ethel Kessler, features a black-and-white photograph by Sergey Bermeniev of Wiesel in a suit and tie. The stamp is to be issued in sheets of 20 for $21.40.
Wiesel, who was raised among a Jewish Orthodox community in Sighet, Romania, wrote the best-selling book Night about his experiences in Auschwitz after their family was transported from their home to the Nazi German concentration camp, where his mother and younger sister were murdered. It was published in 1956 in Yiddish, translated into French in 1958 and English in 1960. The autobiographical account of his and his father’s survival in the camp, and their death march to Buchenwald in January 1945, where his father died before Wiesel was liberated in April, is considered a quintessential piece of Holocaust literature.
Wiesel later served as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, leading to the building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
“Soul on Fire,” a film about his life before and after the Holocaust, is being released on Sept. 5.
