Biography of eli wiesel

Elie Wiesel was born in in Sighet, a small village in northern Transylvania, Romania, an area that was part of Hungary from to Wiesel was the only son of four children of Shlomo, a grocer, and his wife, Sarah Feig Wiesel. He was devoted to the study of the Torah, the Talmud and the mystical teachings of Hasidism and the Cabala.

Elie wiesel family

The Nazis, led by Adolf Eichmann, entered Hungary in the spring of with orders to exterminate an estimated , Jews in under six weeks. Wiesel was 15 years old when the Nazis deported him and his family to Auschwitz-Birkenau. His mother and younger sister died in the gas chambers on the night of their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He and his father were deported to Buchenwald where his father died before the camp was liberated on April 11, Wiesel did not learn until after the war that his two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, also survived.

After receiving medical treatment, Wiesel went to France with other orphans but he remained stateless. He stayed in France, living first in Normandy and later in Paris working as a tutor and translator. He eventually began writing for various French and Jewish publications. But Wiesel vowed not to write about his experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald because he doubted his ability to accurately convey the horror.