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Wiesel survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald and Gleiwitz. After
the liberation of the camps in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage and in 1948 began to study in Paris
at the Sorbonne. He became involved in journalistic work with the French newspaper L'arche. He was acquainted with
Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac, who eventually influenced Wiesel to break his vowed silence and write of his experience in
the concentration camps, thus beginning a lifetime of service.
Wiesel has since published over thirty books, earned the Nobel Peace Prize,
been appointed to chair the President's Commission on the Holocaust, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement and
more. Due to a fateful car accident in New York in 1956, Wiesel spent a year confined to a wheelchair while recovering. It
was during this year that he made the decision to become a U.S. citizen and is still today an active figure within our society,
as well as fulfilling his role in Jewish politics around the world.
When I read the story of Elie Wiesel's life it made me relize what it felt
like for a child my age to go through a literal hell on earth. Hearing of how Elie had to watch friends die in front of his
face makes me understand why he is writing these books. He is trying to keep people remembering what pain he and millions
went through. He believes if he or anyone forgets or stops telling this horribe story then history will repeat itself.
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