Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighetu Marmației

Eliezer Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, in northern Transylvania, Romania, to Shlomo and Sarah Wiesel. The family spoke mainly Yiddish at home. His father encouraged him to learn Hebrew and read literature, while his mother pushed him to study Torah.

In May 1944 the Jews of Sighet were deported to Auschwitz, where his mother and younger sister were murdered. Wiesel and his father were later moved to Buchenwald, where his father died. The camp was liberated on April 11, 1945, and his two older sisters also survived.

After the war he was sent to a children's home in France, learned French and studied at the Sorbonne. He became a journalist for French and Israeli papers, including Yedioth Ahronoth. A meeting with François Mauriac led him to write about the Holocaust, and his memoir appeared in French as La Nuit, later Night.

He came to New York in 1956 and became a United States citizen in 1963. He chaired the President's Commission on the Holocaust from 1978 to 1986 and helped launch the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He taught humanities at Boston University and was active for Soviet Jews and other causes.

In 1969 he married Marion Rose, who translated his books into English, and they had a son, Elisha. He died in New York on July 2, 2016.