Remembering the Holocaust The Elie Wiesel Story

A Time of Uneasiness lt&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&fr2=tab-web Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President of the USA and launches a new program to help agriculture after the Great Depression Hitler becomes the Chancellor of Germany Italian Prime Minister Mussolini invades Ethiopia 1930s

Family Life in the 1930s Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel was a young Jewish boy who was raised in Sighet. He and his family lived there prior to the events of World War II. Elie at age 15 Sighet, or Modern day Transylvania.

%26fr%3Dyfp-t- 501%26x%3Dwrt&w=350&h=273&imgurl= irtuallibrary.org%2Fjsource%2Fbiography%2FWiesel.html&size=24.8kB&name=wieselbunk.jpg&p=elie+wiesel&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=7,267&oid=d96e2ff5fc9050da&ei =UTF-8 Sighet was a quaint Jewish community. This is a picture of members of the Jewish religion in front of a wooden synagogue in Sighet in the 1930s. Elie was born to the parents Shlomo and Sarah. They owned a grocery store. He had two older sisters Hilda and Bea and a younger sister Tsipora. Life was good for the Wiesel family. The children attended school and Elie was learning Hebrew and studying the Jewish religion.

Elie Wiesel

In May of 1944, Elie and his family along with other Jewish people of Sighet were loaded into cattle cars and taken to Auschwitz – a Nazi death camp. At Auschwitz, Elie and his father went one way and his mother and younger sister went to the gas chambers.

Elie and his father survived Auschwitz and were then moved to Buna - a subcamp of Auschwitz There were 10,000 prisoners in Buna and the majority of them died due to starvation

Elie Wiesel’s Path Elie and his father moved from Buna to the camp known as Buchenwald. They did this by foot for ten days in harsh winter weather conditions. Elie’s father died at the end of January 1945 of dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion upon arrival at Buchenwald. However, on the morning of April 11, 1945 the United States liberated the Buchenwald camp and Elie Wiesel was set free.

Present Day Elie Elie has been the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University since He is a Member of the faculty in both of the departments of Religion and Philosophy. He is the author of over 40 books, fiction and non- fiction - including “Night” and “The Fifth Son”.

Elie’s Awards  Presidential Medal of Freedom  U.S. Congressional Gold Medal  Medal of Liberty Award  Nobel Peace Prize for Peace

Elie Wiesel was one of the lucky individuals. He survived. He was allowed to tell his story and share it with the rest of the world. It teaches us to recognize that this type of behavior cannot go on. The human population must stand against this and try to make today’s world a better place to live in.

The time of World War II was a troubled time. Many individuals were killed and tortured in Nazi camps. Some survived and some did not. All types of people were sought after, however, not just the Jewish people.

If you are still interested: Visit the Web sites identified at the bottom of each slide Or go to: for more information on tours that are given of the Nazi Concentration Camps

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