Holocaust Denier Arrested in Attack on Elie Wiesel

World-famous author and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel was attacked by a Holocaust denier who had evidently been shadowing Wiesel for weeks before accosting him Feb. 1 in a hotel elevator in San Francisco, where Wiesel had just finished speaking at a peace conference.

According to police reports, Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J., dragged Wiesel, 78, from the elevator while demanding that Wiesel admit the Holocaust is a myth, and then fled when Wiesel cried for help.

Hunt later allegedly posted this account on several white supremacist and anti-Semitic websites: "After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel from the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him. I told him, 'Why don't you want people to know the truth?' His expression changed, and he began screaming."

Hunt allegedly added that his intention was to "bring Wiesel to my hotel room where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact his … Holocaust memoir … is almost entirely fictitious."

Wiesel survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, and has since written more than 40 books. He is best known for his memoir, Night, about his experiences at Auschwitz. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

Hunt was arrested Feb. 17 in New Jersey, and later extradited to San Francisco on charges of attempted kidnapping, battery, stalking, elder abuse, and commission of a hate crime. Hunt's lawyer asked that his client be granted bail so he could enter a psychiatric clinic, but a judge refused.

Twenty two-year-old Eric Hunt was charged with attacking 78-year-old Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel in a San Francisco hotel. Hunt was located after allegedly posting boasts about the attack on white supremacist websites.