Elie Wiesel Biography: 30 September 1928 marks the birth of Eliezer Wiesel. He was a Romanian-born American author, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, mostly in French and English, including “Night,” which was inspired by his time as a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He taught humanities at Boston University, where the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies was named in his honor. This individual merits our focus today.
Elie Wiesel Birthday
Shlomo and Sarah Wiesel were the parents of Elie Wiesel, who was born in Sighet, Romania. He attended an adjacent ‘Yeshiva’ for religious studies and grew up with three sisters. At age 15, Wiesel and his entire family were deported to Auschwitz as part of the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of over six million Jews. Only he and his two elder sisters escaped the concentration camps in 1945 and survived the Holocaust.
From 1948 to 1951, Wiesel studied journalism at the Sorbonne in Paris, writing for both French and Israeli magazines. French Nobel laureate in literature Francois Mauriac encouraged him to write about his experiences in the concentration camps. In 1956, he published the Yiddish memoir “Un di velt hot geshvign” (“And the World Remained Silent”). In 1960, the novel was abridged and published in France as “La Nuit,” and in English as “Night.” The memoir became a best-seller, was translated into numerous languages, and is widely regarded as a seminal work on the atrocities of the Holocaust. The memoir was followed by two novels, “Dawn” (1961) and “Day” (1962), which constituted a trilogy about humanity’s heinous treatment of each other. Wiesel moved to the United States in 1955 and became a citizen in 1963. In 1969, he married Marion Rose, an Austrian Holocaust survivor, whom he had met in New York.
He went on to publish numerous fiction and nonfiction publications. Wiesel rose to prominence as an international activist, orator, and peace figure over time, speaking out against injustices in a variety of countries. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust. Midway through the 1970s, Wiesel followed his passion for teaching to Boston University, where he was appointed the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities. He was also a visiting scholar at Yale and a professor of Judaic studies at New York City University. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986. Together with his wife, he established the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity to combat global indifference, prejudice, and injustice. Elisha was the only offspring of the couple.
Elie Wiesel Net Worth, Height
| Name | Eliezer Wiesel |
| Nickname | Elie |
| Birth date | September 30, 1928 |
| Death date | July 2, 2016 (age 87) |
| Zodiac Sign | Libra |
| Height | 5′ 6″ |
| Net Worth | $5 million |
| Social Media |
Elie Wiesel Biography: 5 SURPRISE FACTS
During the mid-1940s, while Wiesel was residing in a French orphanage, a journalist took his photo, and his older sister Hilda recognized him (she believed he was deceased).
After being liberated by the Allies on April 16, 1945, Wiesel and other captives at Buchenwald Concentration Camp were photographed while still in their bunks, and the photograph was published in the “New York Times.”
On his way to report to the United Nations in New York in 1956, Wiesel was struck by a taxi vehicle and forced to use a wheelchair for a year.
The memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel was not a commercial success upon its publication and only gained popularity after Holocaust studies were introduced in colleges.
Together, they founded the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.
