Question of the Day

Read biography in front of you. Then answer the questions below.

1. What is the name of your person? Where were she/he from? When were she/he born?

2. List two things that happened to him/her during the years 1933-1939

3. List two things that happened to him/her during the years 1940-1944

4. What happened to him/her?

Elie Wiesel (pronounced ELL-ee vee-ZEL)

Obj: Learn background information to understand the relevance of the novel, Night

Background Information

Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Transylvania, (now part of Romania) in 1928

At 15, Elie and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz ( a concentration camp) because they were Jewish

Elie Wiesel at 15, the age he was imprisoned in Auschwitz

Elie’s Family

Where He Grew Up

• In 1941, 20,000 Jews lived in Sighet

• Today, 100 Jews are left

Sighet, Transylvania is located in present day Romania and is referred to as Sighetu, Marmatiei. Over 40,000 people live there today.

1941 in Sighet

Elie Wiesel met Moishe the Beadle

Elie Wiesel’s House in Sighet

Elie’s entry card to Paris

Elie as writer

After graduating from the Sorbonne (in Paris), Elie became a journalist for a small French newspaper

He also worked as a translator and a Hebrew teacher to make ends meet

Elie’s entry card to Paris

The novel, Night

After 10 years of silence, Elie was persuaded to recount his time at Auschwitz

Night, his memoir about his experience during the Holocaust, was published in 1960.

Night - continued

Has been translated into more than 30 languages

Sold more than 7 million copies

Wiesel has written 40 books since

Most of them are about the Holocaust, which still “haunts” him

Nobel Peace Prize

In 1986, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize

He used the Prize to create the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

Wiesel delivered his Nobel Prize speech in Oslo on December 10, 1986.

His work

Wiesel considers himself a “messenger of the dead among the living.”

He considers it his mission to make sure that the Holocaust is never forgotten.

He also works fervently to protect others from Human Rights violations

Human Rights- Wiesel has defended:

Israel Soviet Jews Nicaragua's Miskito Indians Argentina's Desaparecidos, Cambodian refugees Victims of famine and genocide in Africa, of

apartheid in South Africa\ Victims of war in the former Yugoslavia.

Present

Wiesel lives with his wife in Connecticut

He is 80 years old

He is still working to promote human rights all over the world

Recent photo of Elie Wiesel

Quotes

“Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to

each other.”- Nobel Speech, 1986

In November 1945 Niemöller visited Dachau, where he had been imprisoned from 1941 to April 1945.

Summary and ProcessingSummary• Write a summary about what you learned about

the author Elie Wiesel • Finally, mention why you think the author may

have chosen to name the novel Night. How may this be symbolism?

Process• Your option, but it must support your summary

Question of the Day 1/4

• Choose one of the quotes I showed you and put it in your own words. In addition, mention why the meaning has relevance still today

Works Cited

“Elie Wiesel.” The Elie Wiesel Foundation. 12 March 2009. <http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/eliewiesel.aspx>.

“Elie Wiesel Biography.” The Nobel Foundation. 12 March 2009. <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/wiesel-bio.html>.

Works Cited

“The Life and Work of Elie Wiesel.” 2002. PBS.org. 12 March 2009. <http://www.pbs.org/eliewiesel/life/index.html>.