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Elie Wiesel & The Holocaust
To be put quite simply, The Holocaust was, and remains to this day, the most infamous genocide in human history. It was the
systematic destruction of over six million Jews and other “undesirable” peoples in Germany under the rule of Adolf
Hitler. One of the most famous survivors of this horrible event is a man by the name Elie Wiesel. Wiesel was born in 1928
in Sighet, Transylvania. He was only fifteen when he and his family were forcefully deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz.
It was here that both his mother and younger sister perished. Elie and his father were then sent to Buchenwald There his father died, shortly before the camp was liberated in April of 1945. Luckily, both Elie and his
two older sisters who had remained in Auschwitz survived.
After the war, Elie Wiesel traveled to Paris, where he became a reporter. Here, during an interview with the French
author Francois Mauriac, Elie was persuaded to write about his experiences during the holocaust. For Wiesel, these experiences
came out in his most famous piece of literature, Night. Since the writing of this book Elie Wiesel has received
many awards for his writing and actions across the globe, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Even today, Mr. Wiesel spreads
awareness through his writing and continues to defend those persecuted in genocides all over the world.
As I look at the life of this extraordinary man, I see not only a holocaust survivor, but a hero as well. By reading
the book Night, I have received a vivid, though censored, description of the holocaust. Even though the book
is fiction, I’m sure that many of the experiences and conditions shared are as real as you or me. Today, at least for
us here in America, it is almost impossible to conceive what the holocaust would have been like. For one who has lived through
it to recall such traumatic memories in such an accurate fashion is miraculous. It is even more inspiring to see that Elie
has accomplished so much more. I hope that by observing his life, I may one day become
as courageous a person.
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