Liam Gibbs

Miss Bonsmann
Honors English 10
1-27-16
The Years of Elie Wiesel
One of the most horrific events of our world history is a mass Genocide known as the
holocaust. To live this tragic event you had to be a person of strength and hope. That is exactly
what Elie Wiesel was and is today. He was raised into a Jewish family in the 1930s and 40s.
However, Wiesel did not know that the small fact that he was Jewish could drastically change his
childhood and transform his life. Those days of the Holocaust will haunt him every day, however
it gave him a voice in the world. Elie Wiesel used his Holocaust experience to give himself a
voice in the world and express his views through his works such as his most famous book Night.
Elie Wiesels life story shaped who he was and made him the man that he is today.
Elie Wiesel was born in Europe in 1928: Wiesel who grew up with 3 sisters and pursued
religious studies (Biography.com). Wiesel was born into a practicing Jewish family his
parents were Shlomo Wiesel and Sarah Feig. They ran a grocery store and were very active in the
community. He lived most of his life in Sighet, Transylvania, until one day in 1942 the German
army came and took control of Sighet. The Germans set up the ghetto, which is where the kept
the Jews before they were transported to a concentration camp. However, Wiesel and his family
did not know they would be transported to the awful concentration camps. They were trying to
look on the bright side of the situation. They were happy that they lived in an all Jewish town
even though it was under the terrible harsh rules and conditions of ghetto. They had a curfew and

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harsh punishments. However, Wiesel did not realize this was only the beginning of it all. After
his early life came the most stressful years of his life; the Holocaust (Wiesel).
Soon after the Germans set up the ghetto they eventually had to move the Jews location.
Wiesel and many more Jews boarded a train boxcar. There were eighty people to one car leaving
no room to sit or lay down, they had to stand for the entire journey of about two days. Eventually
Wiesel and his family arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was 15 years old at the time
and the guards split up the men and the women. This was the last time Wiesel ever saw his
mother and three sisters again. Then, the guards split up the men into two groups. Wiesel was
told to say he was 18 by a prisoner, so he did and also said he was a farmer. He and his father got
put into the same group which was to work manual labor until it was time for their death. Wiesel
worked at Auschwitz for some time until he and his father were transferred to Buna work camp.
Wiesel worked there for the remaining of his years as a slave for the Germans. He endured
whipping, watching hangings of other prisoners, verbal abuse, and had little food and energy
(Wiesel). He started to lose emotions and only cared about one thing, his food and water:
Bread, soup these were my whole life. I was a body (Wiesel). The camp broke him down and
dehumanized him. Eventually, Elie Wiesel watched his father die before him in Buna. A few
weeks after this event, the German guards fled and they were liberated by US troops. Wiesel
survived the treacherous events of the camp, however he found out his family died and he was
the only survivor. Though this horrible experience affected him tremendously, some good came
out of it in giving Wiesel a voice.
After his experiences in Auschwitz and Buna Wiesel began to write: In the early 1950s
he broke a self-imposed vow not to speak about the atrocities he witnessed at the concentration
camps (History.com). He wrote about his time in the Holocaust: His experience of the

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holocaust enabled him to write his story and thoughts and give a voice to those being oppressed
(ushmm.org). However, he began writing in a time where everyone wanted to forget about this
tragic event. Therefore, Wiesel sought assistance from a writer to get his book published:
Francois Mauriac, a French writer, assisted Wiesel in helping him write his book
(History.com). This helped Wiesel in many ways however it was still rejected by many
publishers. Finally, the book was released in 1958. It was called Night and contained his stories
of the Holocaust. His book was eventually recognized for awards and was considered a classic
book. Through Wiesels writing career he earned awards such as The Nobel peace prize,
Congressional Gold medal, Presidential Medal of freedom, and the National Humanities medal:
His more than forty books have won numerous awards (ushmm.org). He went on to live a very
prosperous and successful life through his writing career. Finally, after all the attention and
recognition Wiesel brought to the holocaust event he was recognized by President Jimmy Carter:
In 1978 President Jimmy Carter appointed him chairman of the presidents commission on the
holocaust (ushmm.org). Elie Wiesel officially had a voice in all of the holocausts affairs and
actions after more than three decades.
Elie Wiesel lived an extraordinary life. At the young age of 15 he began facing one of the
worst experiences the world has ever seen. However, because of his extreme mental strength, and
hope. Wiesel knew that this happened to him for a reason. At the time he did not know why, but
he never gave up. When he was finally liberated he knew that he had a mission to accomplish.
Wiesel wanted to become a writer and inform the world about his experiences in the
concentration camps. He was successful and became an advocate and voice for Holocaust
victims. Elie Wiesel once said Once you bring life into the world you must protect it. We must
protect it by changing the world (BrainyQuote.com). Elie Wiesel forever changed the world by

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taking his life experiences and changing the world to protect people from the atrocities he faced.
He will always be remembered in history.

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Works Cited
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council,
hello to me 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of
hello to I yo Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.

Biography.comeditiors. "Elie Wiesel Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television,

Larry toto fn.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

"Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web.
Hello toto t11 Feb. 2016.