SAN FRANCISCO -- Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel told a San Francisco jury Monday that he had "never felt such fear," when a New Jersey man accosted him in a San Francisco hotel last year, not since the nightmare of his childhood.

According to San Francisco prosecutors, Eric Hunt confronted Wiesel, then 78 years old, in an elevator at the Argent Hotel on the evening of Feb. 1, 2007, during a conference on conflict resolution at which Wiesel was speaking.

Hunt reportedly asked Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 and author of the acclaimed memoir "Night," for an interview and then allegedly tried to force him into Hunt's hotel room.

Wiesel, who was not physically injured in the attack, yelled for help and Hunt fled. Hunt was arrested in New Jersey about two weeks later, after allegedly bragging about the encounter on a Web site promulgating Holocaust denial.

Prosecutors have charged Hunt with several felonies, including attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery, elder abuse and stalking. Attached to the charges are special allegations of hate crimes.

Hunt has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His attorney John Runfola contends that Hunt suffers from an undiagnosed bipolar condition and was suffering "a psychotic break" at the time.

Hunt's trial began this morning in San Francisco Superior Court. Wiesel was the first to testify following opening statements by attorneys in the case.

Hunt, a tall, thin man with somewhat disheveled hair, was dressed in a gray suit and listened quietly to the day's proceedings, occasionally conferring with his attorneys.

According to Wiesel's testimony, that evening, as he headed back to his hotel room following the conference, he got into the elevator with Hunt and another man.

The other man left at the second floor, and once the two were alone in the elevator, Hunt moved closer and confronted him, Wiesel said.

"All of the sudden, he turned to me, he said, 'You come with me,'" he said. "I was...shocked. I said, 'What?'"

"He said, 'To my room,'" Wiesel testified. "And I said, 'No.'"

Hunt then repeated his demand, Wiesel said. The tone of his voice was "forceful but not threatening," he said.

Wiesel said Hunt then told him, "I want to interview you."

Wiesel offered to go down to the lobby for an interview, thinking Hunt may have been a journalist, but Hunt refused.

"And he grabbed me and pulled me out of the elevator," Wiesel said, where Hunt had booked a room on the sixth floor.

Wiesel said he repeatedly screamed for help, but no one came to his aid.

As the elevator was about to reopen on that floor, Hunt finally walked away "quietly," Wiesel said.

"There was such an air of total indifference, quasi-indifference, to what I was doing, or feeling, or saying," Wiesel said, adding that if only Hunt had said that he did not intend to hurt him, "we would not be here today."

"Had he changed his expression, or said a few words, maybe a (human) contact would have been established," said Wiesel, a professor and author who has for decades lectured on philosophy, religious thought, peace, conflict resolution and human rights.

"He simply said...something which puzzled me for days," Wiesel recounted. "He said, 'You are afraid of truth.' And then he left."

"It was a kind of impassive statement...that I was afraid of truth. And I had no idea what he was talking about."

However, Wiesel added, "I don't even want to compare him to any of those (Nazi) killers, who killed in cold blood, almost with indifference. I don't want to compare him to that."

Wiesel, who in addition to surviving Nazi death camps in Poland, though much of his family were killed, told jurors he decided to devote his life to "bear witness" to the tragedy, and later visited such war-torn regions as Bosnia, Cambodia and Israel as part of peace efforts.

"So I was in dangerous places, I never felt such fear," he said of the 2007 encounter.

Wiesel said that at the time, he had already read about the political kidnapping and death of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, and that may have had an impact on the fear he felt during the encounter with Hunt.

"But these are the words of today," he said. "The feeling is from then."

Assistant District Attorney Alan Kennedy referred to Wiesel today as "perhaps the most well-known Jewish person in the world today."

Kennedy told jurors that the reason behind Hunt's attack "was solely because of Mr. Wiesel's national heritage and his Jewish faith."

Hunt is believed to have followed Wiesel to Florida from his home in New Jersey before coming to San Francisco.

Runfola painted a picture of Hunt as a depressed, disturbed, lost young man who after the events of Sept. 11, became increasingly upset by world events, including the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and immersed himself in an online world of Holocaust denial.

"He didn't know what to do with his life," said Runfola. "He didn't know where he was going to fit in, in this world."

Hunt, who was born in San Francisco according to Runfola, is a "gentle, kinda frail guy," "a little awkward," and "didn't always fit in," he told jurors. "He was a sad kid."

As a high school student, Hunt played tennis and music, and was a feature editor for the school newspaper, Runfola said.

Burdened by "a severe biological illness," the breakup of his parents, and having to care for his ailing grandfather, Hunt attended various colleges and later, living in his mother's basement, became distant and spent most of his time at the computer.

Runfola said Hunt started to go to Web sites that denied the Holocaust and that he began to conceive of the events depicted in Wiesel's memoir "Night," "to be unimaginable," he said.

Hunt, who Runfola said has never been a member of any Nazi or right-wing organization, wanted to interview Wiesel "and find out what was really going on," he said.

So on New Year's Eve 2006, Runfola said, Hunt told his mother he was taking "a road trip," took his $10,000 inheritance from his grandmother and drove his car to Florida to meet Wiesel.

"This was his opportunity to be a great man, in his delusional mind," Runfola said. But Hunt was unable to gain access to Wiesel and followed him across the country to the San Francisco event, "sure that Israeli agents had been following him across the country," Runfola said.

"Eric had bought this fascist delusion about the Holocaust lock, stock and barrel...that all this garbage he had been reading was true," Runfola said.

"He was a lost young soul," Runfola said.

According to Runfola, Hunt believed that by confronting Wiesel, he was going to prevent World War III with Iran after proving that the Holocaust was a lie. He then expected to be elected president.

"But that was not happening," Runfola said. "There was no groundswell for Eric to become president of the United States."

Runfola said the encounter at the hotel was only "a slight touching" and that Wiesel's fear was "perhaps an understandable overreaction."

If Hunt is convicted of any of the charges during his jury trial, a second jury trial will take place to determine if he was insane when committing the crime, which could result in his commitment to a state mental health facility.

If convicted of all the charges and not found insane, he could face up to seven years and eight months in prison, according to Kennedy.

Wiesel, though he now retains security during his travels around the country and the world, said today that he carries with him only "a trace, but not more" of fear.

"I still trust 'the other,'" said Wiesel. "I do not see in the other an enemy."