OXFORD – Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel shares his message of hope through dark and seemingly hopeless circumstances next week at the University of Mississippi during the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Spring Convocation.

Monday’s event, free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Gertrude C. Ford Center, with a reception afterward in the Ford Center. Tickets are required and are limited to two per person.

They are available from the Ole Miss Box Office at (662) 915-7411 or www.ole miss.edu/depts/tickets/order.htm.

Wiesel’s personal experience of the Holocaust has led him to work on behalf of oppressed people around the world. He has written more than 50 books, including “Night,” his memoir. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, and other honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of Liberty Award.

“We want our honors students to hear one of the most prominent and compassionate voices of hope in the world,” said Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, dean of the Honors College. “Our SMBHC students need to listen to Elie Wiesel’s message and to understand the implications of hope that have been tested.”

Wiesel was born in Romania. When he was 15, he and his family were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis. His mother and younger sister perished, and his two older sisters survived. He and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where Wiesel’s father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945.

Wiesel and his wife, Marion, established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity to fight indifference, intolerance and injustice. His latest book, "A Mad Desire to Dance," is to be released in February.