Elie Wiesel: A Holocaust Survivor Of The Holocaust

Some events are so devastating that people cannot recover from them. Elie Wiesel is not one of those people. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for writing “Lu Nuit” or Night. (Elie Wiesel Fast Facts) Elie Wiesel happened to be a writer, professor, political activist; most significantly he is a holocaust survivor. Eliezer Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania. He was the son of Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel and his 3 siblings sisters including: Tzipora Wiesel, Hilda Wiesel, and Beatrice Wiesel. Elie also undertook Jewish religious studies; this was also before he and his family were sent away to concentration camps during WWII. Elie pushed through all the harsh conditions in the war and within a few years

Although Elie Wiesel gives you a detailed account of how the Nazis would treat them; how it slowly started to dehumanize them. For example the Nazis took away their names. “We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three “veteran” prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Wiesel 42) Not to mention the Nazis put so much fear into the Jews that they would commit cruel acts that they never imagined they could do. The selection process was another such scarring event that Nazis inflicted on the Jews to put much fear in them. It caused them to do whatever it took to survive. The selection process is when the prisoners would get completely naked and go in front of the SS doctors for examination, the advice given to the Jews is run in front of the doctors, not to walk. Then there were also random beatings for example: “One day when Idek was venting his fury, I happened to cross his path. He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground and picking me up again, crushing me with ever more violent blows, until I was covered in blood. As I bit my lips in order not to howl with pain, he must have mistaken my silence for defiance and so he continued to hit me harder and harder. Abruptly, he calmed down and sent me back to work as if nothing had happened. As if we had taken part in a game in which both roles were of equal importance.” (Wiesel 53) Among all the disturbing things Nazis did, the fact that they would make Jews look in the face of a hanging corpse is something I do not think they will ever forget. “Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…