РефератыИностранный языкElElie Wiesel Essay Research Paper Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Essay Research Paper Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Essay, Research Paper


Elie Wiesel’s statement, "…to remain silent and indifferent is the


greatest sin of all…"stands as a summary of his views on life and


serves as


the driving force of his work. Wiesel is the author of 36 works dealing with


Judaism, the Holocaust, and the moral


responsibility of all people to fight hatred, racism and genocide.


Born September 30, 1928, Eliezer Wiesel led a life representative of


many Jewish children. Growing up in a small village in Romania, his world


revolved around family, religious study, community and God. Yet his family,


community and his innocent faith were destroyed upon the deportation of his


village in 1944. Arguably the most powerful and renowned passage


in Holocaust literature, his first book, Night, records the inclusive


experience


of the Jews:


Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned


my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never


shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the


children,


whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke


beneath a silent blue sky.


Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.


Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all


eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which


murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never


shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God


Himself. Never.


And Wiesel has since dedicated his life to ensuring that none of us forget


what happened to the


Jews. Wiesel survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald and Gleiwitz. After the


liberation of the camps in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French


orphanage and in 1948 began to study in Paris at the Sorbonne. He became


involved in journalistic work with the French newspaper L’arche. He was


acquainted with Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac, who eventually


influenced Wiesel to break his vow of silence and write of his experience in


the concentration camps, thus beginning a lifetime of service.


Wiesel has since published over thirty books, earned the Nobel Peace Prize,


been appointed to chair the President’s Commission on the


Holocaust,awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement and


more. Due to a fateful car accident in New York in 1956, Wiesel spent a


year confined to a wheelchair while recovering. It was during this year that


he


made the decision to become a U.S. citizen and is still today an active


figure


within our society, as well as fulfilling


his role in Jewish politics around the world.


Wiesel’s job as chairman of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust


was the planning of an American memorial to the victims of the


Holocaust.Wiesel writes that the reason for

creating


the museum must include; denying the Nazi’s a posthumous victory,


honoring the last wish of victims to tell, and protecting the future of


humanity


from such evil recurring. Always maintaining


his dedicated belief that although all the victims of the Holocaust were not


Jewish, all Jews were victims of the Holocaust, Wiesel advocated placing the


major emphasis of the memorial on the


annihilation of the Jews, while still remembering the murder of other groups.


Guided by the unique nature of the Holocaust and the moral obligation to


remember, the Commission decided to divide and emphasize the museum


into areas of memorial, museum,


education, research, commemoration and action to prevent recurrence. In


order to come to these decisions, a group of 57 members of the Commission


and Advisory Board — including


Senators, Rabbis, Christians, professors, judges, Congressmen, Priests,


Jews, men and women — traveled to Eastern Europe, Denmark and Israel to


study Holocaust memorials and


cemeteries and to meet with other public officials. The emotional pain and


commitment required by such a trip is remarkable, and Wiesel’s leadership is


undeniably noteworthy.


Wiesel remained chairman of the Committee until 1986. He has aided in the


recognition and remembrance of Soviet Jews, the establishment of Israel and


has dedicated the latter part of his life to the witness of the


second-generation


and the vital requirement that memory and action be


carried on after the survivors have all left us. Wiesel’s own words are the


best


explanation:


Let us remember, let us remember the heroes of Warsaw, the martyrs of


Treblinka, the children of Auschwitz. They fought alone, they suffered


alone, they lived alone, but they


did not die alone, for something in all of us died with them.


Timeline


1928–born in Sighet, Romania


1944–deported to Auschwitz


Jan.1945–father dies in Buchenwald


Apr.1945–liberated from concentration camp


1948–moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne


1948–work in journalism begins


1954–decides to write about the Holocaust


1956–hit by a car in New York


1958–Night is published


1963–receives U.S. citizenship


1964–returned to Sighet


1965–first trip to Russia


1966–publishes Jews of Silence


1969–married Marion Rose


1972–son is born


1978–appointed chair of Presidential Commission on the Holocaust


1980–Commission renamed U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council


1985–awarded Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement


1986–awarded Nobel Peace Prize


1995–publishes memoirs


Bibliography


Wiesel’s Night (Cliff Notes) (Paperback – August 1996)


http://english.cla.umn.edu/courseweb/1591/Students/ElieWiesel/Eliewiesel.html


http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wiesel.htm

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