American Masters To Honor Elie Wiesel With New Documentary Premiering On PBS

American Masters will premiere Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire on Tuesday, January 27, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS. The documentary examines the life and legacy of Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize–winning author, educator, and humanitarian best known for his memoir Night.

Narrated in Wiesel’s own voice, the film traces his life from his childhood in Sighet, Romania, through his imprisonment at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, his liberation by American soldiers in 1945, and his eventual career as a writer, teacher, and global advocate for human rights. The broadcast coincides with Holocaust Remembrance Day and is part of The WNET Group’s Honoring Our Stories: Jewish Culture and Remembering the Holocaust initiative.

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire includes interviews with Wiesel and members of his family, as well as scholars, educators, and colleagues. Featured participants include Lawrence Langer, Ted Comet, Mark Podwal, Ariel Burger, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Ted Koppel, and Annette Insdorf. The film also incorporates archival footage, personal family materials, classroom scenes from Boston University, and contemporary middle school instruction in Newark.

Wiesel, who authored 57 books over his career, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his efforts to combat indifference in the face of injustice. His memoir Night, based on his experiences during the Holocaust, remains widely taught in schools around the world. In addition to his writing, Wiesel served as a professor at Boston University for more than three decades.

Filmmaker Oren Rudavsky said the project held personal significance. “My mother studied with Elie Wiesel in Boston and his books were in our home,” Rudavsky said. “In a world which is so profoundly divided, and where people have forgotten how to speak civilly to each other, Wiesel is a role model and a healer which we need TODAY more than ever.”

Born in 1928, Wiesel was deported with his family to Auschwitz in 1944 following Nazi occupation of Romania. His mother and younger sister were killed, and Wiesel later endured forced marches to Buchenwald, where his father died. After liberation, Wiesel relocated to France and later to the United States, where he became a prominent journalist, author, and public intellectual.

The film highlights key moments in Wiesel’s public life, including his nationally televised address to President Ronald Reagan in 1985 ahead of Reagan’s visit to a German cemetery at Bitburg, and his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. Wiesel died in 2016 at the age of 87.

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire is directed and written by Rudavsky and produced by Oren Rudavsky Productions and AMERICAN MASTERS Pictures. Producers include Tal Mandil, Oren Rudavsky, and Michael Chomet, with Annette Insdorf serving as co-producer. Osvaldo Golijov composed the original score. The documentary will be available to stream concurrently with its broadcast on PBS.org, the PBS app, and PBS Passport.

Now in its 39th season, AMERICAN MASTERS profiles influential cultural figures whose work has shaped the nation’s artistic and intellectual landscape. The series is produced by The WNET Group.