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Elie Wiesel was a great man as well as a humanitarian. His works told of the many harsh realities of Jewish life. Due to the way he was brought up in a strict family, where he was taught the importance of family ties, all those lessons helped him live through the concentration camps. All the lessons and experiences throughout his life contributed to his amazing writings. Elie Wiesel was born in the town of Sighet in northern Transylvania on September 30, 1928. His real name was Eliezer Wiesel.
His family spoke Yiddish at home; they read newspapers and conducted their grocery business in German. Elie had begun religious studies in classical Hebrew almost as soon as he could speak. Elie's life centered entirely on his religious studies. He loved the mystical tradition and folk tales of the Hassidic sect of Judaism, to which he and his family belonged. His father encouraged Elie to study the modern Hebrew language and to concentrate on his secular studies. The first years of World War II left Sighet untouched.
Although the village changed hands from different countries, the Wiesel family believed they were safe from the persecutions suffered by the Jews in Germany and Poland. The secure world of Wiesel's childhood ended abruptly with the arrival of the Nazis in Sighet in 1944. The Jewish people in the village were deported to concentration camps in Poland. The 15 -year-old boy was separated from his mother and sisters immediately when they arrived at Auschwitz. He never saw them again no matter how hard he tried. He managed to remain with his father for the next year as they were worked almost to death, starved, beaten, and shuttled from camp to camp on foot, or in open cattle cars, in falling snow, without food, proper shoes, or clothing.
In the last months of the war, Wiesel's father succumbed to dysentery, starvation, exhaustion and exposure. After the war, the teenaged Wiesel found asylum in France, where he learned for the first time that his two older sisters had survived the war. Wiesel began to study and mastered the French language and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, while supporting himself as a choirmaster and teacher of Hebrew. He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel.
Elie Wiesel was now into many troubles inside more than outside. His heart was hurting more than ever knowing that his mother and father had died and thinking the same for his sisters. He was truly scarred on the inside for life. A man with such pain could not live anymore, but this man kept his life going by keeping the good memories in his heart and that was what had kept Elie going on with his life. Around 1945, Elie moved to Paris, where he studied literature, philosophy, and psychology at the Sorbonne. With a strong desire to write, Elie worked as a journalist in Paris before coming to the United States in 1956.
He became an American citizen almost by accident. After coming to New York city on assignment, he was hit by a taxicab, and was put into a wheelchair for about a year or less. His good friend convinced Elie to apply for U. S. citizenship, and then Elie eventually decided to remain in America.
As many knew, Jewish people were high believers and mainly focused on religion. However, Elie Wiesel thought of God before, during, and after the Holocaust as both the protector and punisher of the Jews. Whatever had happened before he had the faith that it was for their good, or one of Gods greater plans, Elie accepted Gods will without questioning because he considered God as his master. Other people thought differently, such as the younger ones, they felt it would be better to die fighting than to go like lambs to the slaughter. It was not easy for Elie to doubt God, or he would not have held on to his faith with such tenacity.
But sooner or later, the seeming meaninglessness of the suffering his people endured had to burst into the consciousness of his seemingly indomitable Jewish faith. Looking around Wiesel found that people were losing their faith in God, but he would not let it go this far. God would have saved them by now. He was getting confused and many stories and words were running around in his mind.
Elie Wiesel went on during the Holocaust keeping hope and faith no matter how hard it was and keeping in mind that God one day would do him good. In a world of absurdity, we must invent reason, we must create beauty out of nothing less. And because there is murder in the world and we know how helpless our battle may appear, we have to fight murder and absurdity. (All Rivers Run to the Sea) (preface) He made some very strong words with deep thoughts to get people to think about racism and how cruel each individual could be. Near 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Elie Wiesel Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Then, in 1985, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom and, in 1986, the Noble Prize for Peace. The English translation of his memories appeared in 1995 as All Rivers Run to the Sea.
Since 1976, he has been an Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University. He makes his home in New York City with his wife and their son, Elisha. 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 that smoke. Never shall I forget those flames, which consumed my Faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. 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. (Night) Even though Wiesel's works met with Criticism in the begging they were ultimately very successful in the end. The major fact was that the holocaust was something that people did not want to hear about.
It was reported in an interview with Time magazine, The diary of Anne Frank was about as far as anyone ventured into the dark. Elie Wiesel's writings were all meant to educate others on the dilemmas around the world. Wiesel being the self-determined man that he was felt that only by knowledge we could prevent things from happening again. Bibliography: Cards, Hary James. Responses to Elie Wiesel. New York: Person Books, 1978.
Dove, Laura. Elie Wiesel. Memory Made Manifest. Angel Price. Mar. 1997. The U.
S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 1 June 1995. Jan. 12, 2000 Wiesel, Elie. All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994. Wiesel, Elie. From the Kingdom of Memory. New York: Summit books, 1990. Wiesel, Elie.
Night. New York: Bantam, 1960. The Nobel Prize Internet Archive. Alan Enterprizes. 1996. Jan. 12, 2000.
Elie (sea) Wiesel. In Writers Directory. 14 th ed. St James Press. 1999. Gale Group Jan. 12, 2000. Elie Wiesel. Ellis Island Medals of Honor. 1996.
New, Inc. 1996. Jan. 12, 2000. Elie Wiesel. The Hall of Public Service. Oct. 21, 1997. Amer.
Academy of Achievement. Jan. 12, 2000
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