PBS’s American Masters Spotlights Elie Wiesel’s Legacy in 'Soul on Fire,' Co-produced by Professor Annette Insdorf

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire, a documentary co-produced by Professor Annette Insdorf, is now streaming nationwide on PBS as part of its acclaimed American Masters series. 

The documentary traces the life and work of Elie Wiesel—Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the author of the searing memoir Night (Hill & Wang, 1960)—through archival footage, personal testimony and the narration of his own voice. 

A selection of the prestigious 2025 Telluride Film Festival, the documentary won awards including the Yad Vashem Award at DocAviv, the Torchbearer Prize at the Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Best Documentary at the Rochester Jewish Film Festival. Its PBS premiere was an "American Masters" presentation on Jan. 27 as part of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

The film is an intimate portrait that traces Wiesel’s journey from an idyllic childhood in Romania with his three sisters to the way his life irrevocably changed with the German Occupation that deported him and his family to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His mother and younger sister were killed almost immediately, while Wiesel and his father were eventually forced to march to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. After the death of his father, Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald and subsequently transported to France with other orphaned survivors known as the Buchenwald Boys. His sister Hilda discovered him through a photograph in a French newspaper and Wiesel was able to reunite with her and his other sister Beatrice.

When Wiesel began his journalism career in Paris, he reported on political and foreign affairs but was initially hesitant to recount his own experiences as a Holocaust survivor. It wasn’t until he began writing the book Night—that he was able to speak candidly about the horrors he and millions of people endured during the Holocaust. It is this memoir that is used as the main guiding thread for the documentary. 

The director, Oren Rudavsky, was brought onto the project by Insdorf, who shared a special connection with Wiesel.

"I was a close friend of Elie Wiesel for decades," Insdorf said. "When his wife Marion and son Elisha were approached by a few different filmmakers who wanted to make a documentary about Elie Wiesel, they asked me to evaluate the pitches and to ultimately recommend a filmmaker. I approached Oren Rudavsky, sensing he had the right sensibility, and I made the introduction. Even before that, I interviewed Marion Wiesel back in 2020, and Soul on Fire incorporates a bit of it. I was then involved in the entire production for a few years."

Rudavsky also accessed Wiesel’s personal archives including never-before-heard interviews, and incorporated Joel Orloff’s evocative hand-painted animations to lend a texture of gentle intimacy to the film that brings forth the compassion Wiesel advocated for during his entire life. Wiesel died in 2016 at the age of 87 in New York City and is remembered as one of the most prominent Jewish writers, activists, and educators of the last 60 years.

The full PBS episode can be seen here.