Wiesel Testifies Against Man Accused of Hotel Battery

SAN FRANCISCO — Holocaust survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel told jurors today that he was shocked to learn the man accused of accosting him was linked to a movement that denies millions of Jews were killed during World War II.

Mr. Wiesel testified for a second day at the trial of Eric Hunt, 24, who is accused of dragging the 79-year-old Nobel laureate off an elevator at San Francisco's Argent Hotel in February 2007.

Mr. Hunt, of Vernon, N.J., has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of attempted kidnapping, elder abuse, false imprisonment, battery, stalking, and hate crimes. Mr. Hunt's attorney has described his client as mentally ill and not anti-Semitic.

Mr. Wiesel testified today at San Francisco Superior Court that he did not understand why Mr. Hunt confronted him until a colleague showed him an online document allegedly written by Mr. Hunt.

At the prosecutor's request, Mr. Wiesel read aloud from the document, which said Mr. Hunt planned to force the "pope of the Holocaust religion" to admit that his memoir "Night" was "entirely fictitious." The best-selling book details Mr. Wiesel's experiences in Nazi concentration camps.

"I confess that reading this document shook me up much more than the action itself," Wiesel said. "All of a sudden I understood the incident. I understood ... Mr. Hunt's motivation. Until then I was in the dark. I couldn't understand what he wanted."

Mr. Hunt's attorney, John Runfola, said his client was suffering from mental illness when he wrote the document.

Over the first two days of the trial, Mr. Wiesel has described the encounter with Mr. Hunt as a harrowing experience that began in an elevator at the hotel where he was attending a peace conference.

Mr. Hunt demanded that Mr. Wiesel come to his hotel room for an interview; when he refused, Mr. Hunt grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the elevator onto the sixth floor, Mr. Wiesel said.

Mr. Wiesel testified that he feared he was going to be kidnapped and screamed for help for about three minutes while Mr. Hunt stood there "expressionless." Finally, Mr. Hunt said, "You are afraid of the truth," and walked away, according to Mr. Wiesel.

During cross-examination, Mr. Wiesel said Mr. Hunt had not threatened him or said anything hateful or anti-Semitic during the confrontation. Asked whether he had suffered any permanent injuries, he said he had not.

"Personally, it hurt me. It aroused a certain fear in me that I thought was gone," Mr. Wiesel said. "But it was beyond me. (Mr. Hunt's) text was against the Jewish people. It was an attack on the honor of an entire people. That's why it upset me so deeply."

Mr. Wiesel, whose parents and younger sister died in Nazi death camps, has written more than 40 books about the Holocaust, Judaism and other topics. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.