Police reports of the incident say that an unidentified 20-year-old white assailant grabbed Wiesel and dragged him off of an elevator at San Francisco's Argent Hotel on February 1. The attacker fled after Wiesel screamed and managed to escape his would-be kidnapper. Wiesel was physically unhurt in the incident.
The Nobel Prize laureate was attending a conference at the hotel on conflict resolution.
The man who attacked Wiesel approached him in the elevator sometime after 6:00 p.m. and requested an interview regarding the Holocaust. Wiesel consented, but asked that the meeting be held in the hotel lobby. The attacker, however, insisted that the interview be held in a hotel room.
At that point, the young man grabbed Wiesel and dragged him out of the elevator on the sixth floor of the hotel. "Mr. Wiesel started screaming and was able to run away," San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens said. Wiesel made his way to the lobby and called police.
The assailant fled the scene and has not yet been identified.
Police investigators said that a posting six days later on an anti-Semitic website registered in Australia describes the assault on Elie Wiesel. The blogger, identified as "Eric Hunt," wrote in first person about the attempted kidnapping, saying:
"I had planned to bring Wiesel to my hotel room, where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact that his non-fiction Holocaust memoir, Night, is almost entirely fictitious. ...[I] planned on either getting Wiesel into my custody, with a cornered Wiesel finally forced to state the truth on videotape, getting arrested, or fleeing, and either way exposing... a genocidal liar."
The blogger boasted that he had been "trailing Wiesel for weeks."
An Anti-Defamation League spokesman said that police do not believe the attacker was from San Francisco and may have been from the US East Coast. ADL resources turned up no "Eric Hunt" in affiliation with known anti-Semitic organizations.
The police investigation continues, with official spokespersons declining further comment.
The Nobel Prize laureate was attending a conference at the hotel on conflict resolution.
The man who attacked Wiesel approached him in the elevator sometime after 6:00 p.m. and requested an interview regarding the Holocaust. Wiesel consented, but asked that the meeting be held in the hotel lobby. The attacker, however, insisted that the interview be held in a hotel room.
At that point, the young man grabbed Wiesel and dragged him out of the elevator on the sixth floor of the hotel. "Mr. Wiesel started screaming and was able to run away," San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens said. Wiesel made his way to the lobby and called police.
The assailant fled the scene and has not yet been identified.
Police investigators said that a posting six days later on an anti-Semitic website registered in Australia describes the assault on Elie Wiesel. The blogger, identified as "Eric Hunt," wrote in first person about the attempted kidnapping, saying:
"I had planned to bring Wiesel to my hotel room, where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact that his non-fiction Holocaust memoir, Night, is almost entirely fictitious. ...[I] planned on either getting Wiesel into my custody, with a cornered Wiesel finally forced to state the truth on videotape, getting arrested, or fleeing, and either way exposing... a genocidal liar."
The blogger boasted that he had been "trailing Wiesel for weeks."
An Anti-Defamation League spokesman said that police do not believe the attacker was from San Francisco and may have been from the US East Coast. ADL resources turned up no "Eric Hunt" in affiliation with known anti-Semitic organizations.
The police investigation continues, with official spokespersons declining further comment.