Elie Wiesel gave his speech because it was a reason for him to come and visit his father's grave even though his father didn't have a grave. Elie Wiesel gave his speech because it was a reason for him to come and visit his father's grave even though his father didn't have a grave. Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE was a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.