1. The Story of Elie Wiesel
Created By Sarah Meidinger

2. The Early Years Born in Sighet, Transylvania on Sept. 30, 1928
He had two older sisters and one younger sister
His father was looked up to by members of the community and they would come to him for advice
His family was very faithful to the Jewish religion

3. The Horror Begins - Deportation
On April 19, 1944 Elie and his family were deported, along with all the other members of the town of Sighet, to Auschwitz-Birkenau. They were crammed into cattle cars and did not eat or drink anything for days.

4. The Horror – Concentration Camps
When Elie’s family arrived at the concentration camps, Elie and his father were separated from his mother and sisters. Once Elie and his father were stripped of their clothing and shaved from head to toe, they were registered into the camp. They saw babies being thrown into the air and shot and grown men being burned alive.
In the pictures to the right, the top one is women being shaved and the bottom one is all the clothes and shoes that were once owned by Jews.

5. The Horror – Forced Labor
In the concentration camps, the men were forced into building railroads or doing other hard labor jobs. If they stopped working for a few seconds, they would be shot. If they tried to run away, they got shot. Even if they looked too weak to go on, they were shot. A lot of the men died from brutality.
Elie always made sure to work his hardest and stay in shape so that he was not shot because of being too weak or not working hard enough. He also pushed his father to work hard and not look too weak in order to keep him stay alive.

6. The Horror - Malnutrition
The men were not fed properly and eventually became malnourished. Thousands starved to death and as you can see, their bones protruded out through their skin. Six million people died in the concentration camps during WWII.
This is a picture of the barracks at Buchenwald. Elie Wiesel is the seventh person in the second row from the bottom.

7. The Horror – Medical Experiments
Prisoners were taken into medical settings and had various organs removed from their bodies for experimental purposes. No medication was given and many died from these horrible medical procedures that were performed on them.
Elie was taken to a doctor to get his gold tooth pulled, but he was able to spare it because he knew down the road he might need that gold in order to survive.

8. The Horror - Crematoriums
Crematory ovens were used to burn dead bodies. Sometimes they would make live people march into the ovens to be killed. Smoke would fill the air all day long and the stench was horrible for the prisoners because they knew that someday they might be in the ovens.
Elie’s father was burned in the crematory, but Elie does not know if he was alive or dead when they took him.

9. The Horror Ends
Finally in April of 1945 Buchenwald was liberated by the Third American Army. Elie had survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald and Gleiwitz. But his father had died in Buchenwald four months earlier from dysentery, starvation, exposure, and exhaustion.
Elie’s love for his religion and his family had all disappeared during his stay at the concentration camps. All he could think about was keeping himself alive in the camps. His spirit and great wit was gone and all he had left was his fragile body that he could not even recognize when he looked into a mirror for the first time in a year and a half.

10. After the Horror
Elie later learned that his mother and youngest sister died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
His two older sisters had survived
After the liberation, Elie lived in a French orphanage
He began to study philosophy, literature and psychology in Paris
He became a journalist for a French newspaper
He also began to find his faith again in the Jewish traditions

11. Elie’s Achievements
Wiesel has written various novels about his experiences during the Holocaust including “Night”
He has written over 40 novels in his lifetime
He also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986

12.
In His Own Words
I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented ~Elie Wiesel

13. Works Cited
Academy of Achievement. 12 Apr 2007 <
Brainy Quote. 12 Apr 2007 <
Dove, Laura. "Elie Wiesel." Memory Made Manifest: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 3/10/ Apr <
"Elie Wiesel: A Brief Biography." Chicago Public Library. 2/26/ Apr <
"Elie Wiesel Holocaust Survivor, Author and Nobel Peace Prize Winner." Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. 12 Apr <
"Elie Wiesel." Santa Clara University. 12 Apr 2007 < of-peace/Wiesel/homepage.html>.
"Elie Wiesel." Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 4/11/ Apr 2007 <
"Holocaust Survivors' Storyteller." Academy of Achievement. 2/5/ Apr <
"Messengers of Peace." Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. 12 Apr <
"Pictures of the Holocaust." About 20th Century History. 12 Apr <
"Senta Jerabek." Australian Memories of the Holocaust. 12 Apr 2007 <
"Summer Reading Overview ." Meredith College. 12 Apr <