 Throughout the 1930’s Adolf Hitler implements a large scale campaign to scapegoat European Jews.  The Nazis and Gestapo raid Jewish homes and neighborhoods for wealth and prisoners. A synagogue that was firebombed on Kristallnacht. Thousands of homes and storefronts were completely devastated.

 Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel is one of the world’s most respected authors.  He was born September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Russia.  When growing up Elie loved his faith and studied Hebrew and aspired to be a Rabbi. A young, pre - holocaust photograph of Elie Wiesel

An example of a cattle car used to transport prisoners throughout Europe during the Holocaust.  In April, 1944, towards the end of the war, Elie and his family were captured by the Nazis.  They were loaded in to a cramped and filthy cattle car and shipped to Auschwitz.  Once there, Elie and his father are separated from his mother and sister.

 Once inside Auschwitz the horrors for young Elie continue.  Every day he faces abuse, starvation, filth, hopelessness and death.  At Auschwitz Elie and his father face the first of many of the “Selection Lines” that decide whether or not they would be killed immediately.

 In his year as a prisoner, Elie and his father transfer between multiple camps.  He is beaten, worked to the bone, and forced in to near starvation.  He witnesses the death of his friends, his family, and, ultimately, his God.

 After the war and the liberation of the camp Elie Wiesel worked as a journalist in France.  Eventually he wrote the Novel La Nuit (Night) in French, about his experiences in the concentration camps  For continued acts of peace, Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 A recent photograph of Elie Wisel; author, poet, and Nobel Proze winner.