Elie Wiesel

Born 98 years ago today, Elie Wiesel grew up in Sighet in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. In March 1944, Germany invaded Hungary and Sighet was brought into the war. On May 15, deportations to camps began. Elie, his parents, and his sisters were deported to Auschwitz. In January 1945, Elie and his father were part of a death march to Buchenwald, where his father died en route. 16-year old Elie was liberated from the camp in 1945 by advancing Allied troops and joined a transport of 1,000 child survivors to France. Elie was reunited with two of his sisters in a French orphanage. Unfortunately, the rest of the Wiesel family did not survive the Holocaust. By the age of 19, Elie had settled in France and studied at the Sorbonne. He worked as a journalist for French and Israeli newspapers, while also teaching Hebrew and working as a choirmaster. For the ten years, Wiesel refused to write or discuss his experiences during the war or in the camps. After a meeting with Francois Mauriac the two became close friends and he began to reconsider not discussing his experiences. Wiesel first wrote a 900-page memoir in Yiddish. He then rewrote a shortened version of the manuscript in French, “La Nuit”, in 1955. As its profile rose, “La Nuit” was eventually translated into 30 languages and ten million copies were sold in the United States alone. Wiesel went to the United States in 1956 and became naturalized in 1963. He went on to get married and have a child while continuing to write books, all of which reflect on World War II and his experiences. Wiesel was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work speaking out against violence. He also received many other prizes and honors for his work, including the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. On the morning of July 2, 2016, Wiesel passed away at the age of 87 at his home in Manhattan.