Elie Wiesel ( Romania , September 30, 1928 – New York , July 2 , 2016 ) was a Romanian Yiddish-language writer , political and human rights activist. His best-known literary work in Spanish is the so-called Night Trilogy , where he recounts his passage through several Nazi concentration camps in which he was imprisoned because of his Jewish origin.
Summary
[ hide ]
- 1 Biographical summary
- 1 Literary works
- 2 Death
- 2 His works
- 3 Fountains
biographical synthesis
He was born in the city of Sighetu Marmației, on the banks of the Tiszia River, which separates northern Romania from southern Ukraine .
In 1943, at the age of 16, Lázaro Wiesel was captured by the Germans ―in the framework of World War II (1939-1945) ― like the other Jews of his town when the Nazis invaded his country. Towards the end of the war, the Soviet Red Army drove out the Germans and liberated Romania, which had been decimated by Nazi fascism. In gratitude, the Romanians founded in the city of Sighetu the Memorial to the Victims of Soviet Communism… About 550 meters to the north, in the center of the city, an Elie Wiesel House Museum was founded.
The only survivor of his family, at the end of World War II, Wiesel settled in Paris and studied Philosophy and Literature at the Sorbonne University . Upon finishing his studies he devoted himself to journalism and worked for publications in France , Israel and the United States . In 1956 he settled in the United States.
literary works
With the advice of F. Mauriac, he managed to publish his novel La noche (1958) in French, the first part of a trilogy where he dealt in depth with the drama of the Jewish holocaust, and which he completed years later with El alba (1960) and El día ( 1961). In works such as Biblical Celebration: Tales and Legends of the “Old Testament” (1972), and Against Melancholy (1996), he drew on Hasidism and Jewish mysticism to respond to the inexplicable experience of despair and horror. His reflections in these texts promoted a morality of daily life based on the appreciation of tolerance among men, without forgetting the experience of the holocaust.
With the intention of helping to prevent a barbaric situation like that produced in the Nazi concentration camps from being repeated in the world, he dedicated himself fervently to practicing the exercise of memory, as a reaffirmation of life. His permanent intervention in international human rights forums, his role as Chairman of President Jimmy Carter ‘s Holocaust Commission , and his tireless activity in favor of human fraternity, earned him the Nobel Prize in 1986. Peace . His memoirs, published under the title of All torrents go to sea (1996), are a moving testimony of Nazi captivity, and a fervent plea for world peace.
Death
He passed away in New York on July 2 , 2016 at the age of 87.
His work
- Prophetic Celebration: Characters and Legends of Ancient Israel, 2009
- The Wise Men and Their Stories, 2006
- Hasidic celebration: biographical sketches and legends, 2003
- All Torrents Go to Sea, 1996
- Against the Melancholy, 1996
- The City of Fortune, 1992
- The Forgotten, 1991 (1994).
- Testament of a Murdered Jewish Poet, 1980
- The Forest Gates, 1971
- The Night, 1958 (2002).
- Night Trilogy, 1958 (2008).
