The HolocaustStarring: Elie Wiesel

By: Steven Pfaff

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In The Beginning

Time Frame Elie Wiesel was born 9-30-1928 Family lived in Sighet, Transylvania

Very close knit family in Jewish Community

World Events Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 World War II began in September of 1938

Before the “horror”

Elie was close to his parents and three sisters

Before age 15, he was involved in religious studies

Elie had a strong sense of humanism

The “Horror” Began

Elie and his family were sent to a concentration camp in Poland

The “Horror” Began

He never saw his mother and younger again

The “Horror” Began

When his father died in a concentration camp, Elie was with him

His father died of dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion

Elie is on the 2nd row in the picture, 7th from the left

The Results of the “Horror”

By the end of the war in May of 1945, 2 out of every 3 Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany

Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II

The “Survivor”

World War II ended in Europe with unconditional surrender of German armed forces in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945

Elie Wiesel survived Elie was later reunited with his two older

sisters, Hilda and Bea

And Then What?

Elie mastered the French language and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, while supporting himself as a choir master and teacher of Hebrew

He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel

And Then What?

For ten years, he observed a self-imposed vow of silence and wrote nothing about his wartime experience

In 1955, at the urging of the Catholic writer Francois Mauriac, he set down his memories in Yiddish, in a 900-page work entitled Un die welt hot geshvign (And the world kept silent)

Why Elie came to America

In 1956, while he was in New York covering the United Nations, Elie was struck by a taxi cab. His injuries confined him to a wheelchair for almost a year.

Unable to renew the French document which had allowed him to travel as a "stateless" person, Elie applied successfully for American citizenship.

Once he recovered, he remained in New York and became a feature writer for the Yiddish-language newspaper.

The Rest of the Story

Wiesel’s efforts to defend human rights earned him: Presidential Medal of Freedom The U.S. Congressional Gold Medal The Medal of Liberty Award The rank of Grand-Croix in the French

Legion of Honor

The End of the Story

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him Chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council

In 1986, Elie won the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism

Wiesel is now a Boston University Professor

Biblography

Text and audio of Elie Wiesel's famous speech on "The Perils of Indifference"

Wiesel, Elie. All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs. New York: Knopf, 1995.

Wiesel, Elie. And the Sea is Never Full: Memoirs 1969-. New York: Schocken, 1999.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0bio-1

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wiesel.htm