Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania on September 30, 1928. His family was Orthodox Jewish and his life was centered around family, religion, and devotion to God. Wiesel attended a Jewish school and was further educated about religion by a man named Moshe. In March 1944, Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, their businesses and homes were raided, and two ghettos were created in Sighet for the Jews to live in. Later in the same year, Wiesel, only 15 at the time, his father Shlomo, his mother Sarah, and his three sisters, Hilda, Bea, and Tsiporah, were all deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz.
While in the camp, he was separated from both his mother and his sisters. Upon entering the camp, Wiesel became identifiable by A-7713. Wiesel and his father survived through Auschwitz, Buna, and Gleiwitz concentration camps. He also survived through Buchenwald. However, Wiesel’s father ended up dying in Buchenwald due to exhaustion and starvation. On April 11th 1945, Wiesel was liberated from the concentration camp and shortly after he spent many days in a hospital due to intestinal problems caused by poisoning.
After leaving the hospital, he lived in many different French homes that were located by the Children's Rescue Mission. While in France, Wiesel connected with a man named Shushani. He gave Wiesel insight about Jewish culture and inspired him to question and think about the world around him. Three years later, he moved to Paris and started to study at Sorbonne. Shortly after starting his studies, he became a journalist for L'arche, a French newspaper. Wiesel became connected with Francois Mauriac, who later inspired him to write about life in the concentration camps. His first book, first known as, "And the World Was Silent", and later changed to, "Night", was published in 1958. His first writing project inspired him to publish over thirty books; his published books include "Dawn", "The Accident", "The Town Beyond the Wall", "The Gates of the Forest", and "Legends of Our Time".
Three years after publishing "Jews of Silence", Wiesel married Marion Erster Rose. Four years after marrying his wife, his son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, was born. Throughout Wiesel’s life, he began to question God. He continued to keep faith in God, though he was confused as to why God was so indifferent to Jewish suffering. Wiesel became very passionate about human suffering issues and he decided to take a strong stand during the South African apartheid in the 1970s. His work as a “messenger to mankind” and “a human being dedicated to humanity” led to Wiesel receiving a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Wiesel became a Judaic Studies Professor at the City University of New York in 1972. After six years, he left New York and became a Humanities Professor at Boston University. In 1978, Wiesel was appointed chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and he kept the position until 1986. As the chairman, he worked on planning the American memorial for Holocaust victims. During his time as the chairman, he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity was established in 1988 and worked on reducing hatred problems and ethnic conflicts.
Elie Wiesel’s stories and achievements are acknowledged by people worldwide and will continued to be known far after he is gone. Wiesel’s choice to write about his Holocaust stories has influenced millions of people in very emotional ways. Although Elie Wiesel will eventually pass away, his stories and memories of the Holocaust will remain primary sources of the tragic event that unjustly killed millions of Jews.
Sources:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/holo/eliebio.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Wiesel.html
https://www2.kent.edu/president/speakers/wiesel/biography.cfm