Elie Wiesel

          Eliezer Wiesel born on September30, 1928. In the town of Sight, Northern Transylvania. Close to the Ukrainian border. Elie was the second to youngest and the only son of Shlomo and Sarah Wiesel. He learned or studied, Hebrew for his father and studied Jewish text for his mother.

          Elie was 15 in 1944.His family and the Nazi’s took other Jewish families in town to concentration camps in Poland. His father and he were sent to Auschwitz, where they became separated from his younger sister and his mother. They later found out that they had been cremated in the ovens at Auschwitz.

          Once they were in a line and a man came up to them. He asked how old they were. They said 15 and 50. He said no your 18 and 40. That was the last that they ever saw him. They got to the front of the line, a man asked them, “how old are you”. Elie said, “18” the man said go to the left line. Elie was worried he would never see his father. Every ounce of him was  focused on his father. The man then asked his father how old he was. His father (Shlomo) replied 40 and then the man then said go to the left line. When Elie saw that his father was coming over, he could not help but laughing and smiling. His father did the same thing. Until a man came over and said, “what are you so happy about?”  Your headed strate for the ovens to be cremated”. In that instant they both looked to see which line they were in. they were in the crematory line and there was nothing that they could do. But little did they know. They were not going to the furious or the crematory. They were pulled out and put to work.

          A few days later (after being at Auschwitz) his father died. From dysentery, starvation, exposure, and exhaustion. Every thing important to him was destroyed. His family, his god, and his religion were gone along with the Jews. 

          Elie was liberated on April 11,1945, by the United States 3rd Army. They were from Buchenwald. After forced labor, forced marches, starvation, diseases, beatings, and torture. He was at Auschwitz where he stayed until January 1945. Then he went to Buchenwald in a forced death march. On April 11, 1945, his mother (Sarah) , his father Shlomo, and one of his sisters died. As for him and his other two sisters they were reunited after the war.

           After that he spent a few years in an orphanage. In 1948 he began to study in Paris at Sorbonne. After he got out he worked for a newspaper called “ Larche”. In 1956 Elie came to the United Stated of America. He became an American citizen almost by accident. He was in New York, on an assignment. Shortly after he was hit by a taxicab. Forced into a wheelchair for a year. A friend convinced him to apply for U.S. citizen ship. He eventually ended up staying. He met with François Mayriac who got him to tell his story from when he was in the camps. This was the beginning of a lifetime service.

          Elie published his first book in 1956. It was called “ And the World Has Remained Silent”. That was the very first of a series that Elie would write about his experience at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Elie was thought to be the first to describe what had happened at the “ holocaust.” In those times no one wanted to no about the holocaust. The Diary of Anne Frank was about all people wanted to knon about. That’s when Elie started to lead a life of representing a lit of Jewish children. He grew up in Romania (what is now part of Romania) a lot of his world revolved around family, religion, his community, and God.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN LIFE

In 1969 Wiesel married Marion rose. In 1972 Elisha (his son) was born. In 1978 appointed chairmen of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. 1985 awarded the Congressional gold medal of Achievements by Ronald Regan. 1986 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel has since published over 30 books.