I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1938, in Romania. It was at the age of 15 in 1944, when Nazi Germany forced him and his family to Auschwitz. Upon their arrival, Nazi soldiers began to separate families and inhumanely decided who deserved to live. Unfortunately, his mother and younger sister didn’t survive. He was separated from his two older sisters and left with his dad in the camp.
In Auschwitz, him and his father were forced to endure cruel labor and harsh conditions where a total of about one million people died. In 1945, SS soldiers forced them to march to another concentration camp known as Buchenwald. Elie’s dad was killed three months prior to the camp being liberated by U.S troops.
Elie after the camps moved to France, where he began to pursue his interest in journalism. After some encouragement from a colleague, Ellie published And the World Would Remain Silent in 1956, but it is more widely know by the translated version in English as Night in 1960.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed….Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.”
― Elie Wiesel, Night
His memoir depicted the horrific story of his experience in the Holocaust, and later became a bestseller. Ellie Wiesel is said to be one of the most famous Holocaust survivors, as he grew in fame through his literature and activism.
In 1955, Elie moved to New York and became a U.S citizen, where he met his wife, Marion Rose, another Holocaust survivor. He continued to accomplish and achieve magnificent things, such as winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
His life was no doubt heavily impacted by the cruel reign of Hitler, but Wiesel showed no hesitation in his movement to inspire people close and far. He has compared himself as a,”messenger of the dead among the living” wanting to shed light on his experience so that the past won’t be repeated. It’s his and his wife’s experience that led them to create The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The foundation was established to fight indifference, intolerance, and injustice. He was an activist who promoted acceptance and equality.
Inside World War II 