Media Essay
Elie Wiesel (Media Essay)
Items 1 through 1 of 2
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Romania 1933, Sighet Marmatiei indicated
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Sighet
Prewar view of the main market square in the Transylvanian town of Sighet, Romania.
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Sighet
Prewar view of the Transylvanian town of Sighet, Romania.
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Sighet
Prewar view of the Transylvanian town of Sighet, Romania.
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Leaders of the Sighet Jewish community
Leaders of the Sighet Jewish community. Those pictured include Mr. Hershkovich (seated far left), Mr. Klein (seated second from left), Mr. Yacobovich (standing far right), and Mr. Jahan (standing second row, right). Photograph taken ca. 1928–1930.
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Group portrait in front of a synagogue in Sighet
Prewar group portrait in front of a synagogue in the Transylvanian town of Sighet.
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Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz
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Deportation from Sighet
Jews bound for the rail station during deportation action from Sighet. May 18, 1944.
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Deserted street in Sighet Marmatiei
See AlsoElie Wiesel - Life, Books & DeathElie Wiesel | Books, Awards, & FactsElie Wiesel Taught the World How to Confront AtrocitiesElie Wiesel, Nobel laureate, dead at 87 | CNNA deserted street in the area of the Sighet Marmatiei ghetto. This photograph was taken after the deportation of the ghetto population. Sighet Marmatiei, Hungary, May 1944.
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Damaged synagogue in Sighet
View of the burned-out Malbish Arimim synagogue on Teglash Street in Sighet. This photograph was taken after the deportation of the Jewish population. May 1944.
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Major camps in Greater Germany, Buchenwald indicated
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Former prisoners of the "little camp" in Buchenwald
Former prisoners of the "little camp" in Buchenwald stare out from the wooden bunks in which they slept three to a "bed." Elie Wiesel is pictured in the second row of bunks, seventh from the left, next to the vertical beam. Abraham Hipler is pictured in the second row, fourth from the left. The man on the third bunk from the bottom, third from the left, is Ignacz (Isaac) Berkovicz. [He has also been identified as Abraham Baruch.] Michael Nikolas Gruner, originally from Hungary, is pictured on the bottom left corner. Perry Shulman from Klimitov, Poland is on the top bunk, second from the left (looking up). Buchenwald, Germany, April 16, 1945.
This image is also among the commonly reproduced and distributed, and often extremely graphic, images of liberation. These photographs provided powerful documentation of the crimes of the Nazi era.
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Child survivors of Buchenwald
Escorted byUSsoldiers, child survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp file out of the main gate of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.
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Child survivors of Buchenwald
Children march out of Buchenwald to a nearby American field hospital where they will receive medical care. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.
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Jewish displaced youth at a Children's Aid Society home
Group portrait of Jewish displaced youth at the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) home for Orthodox Jewish children in Ambloy. Elie Wiesel is among those pictured. Ambloy, France, 1945.
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Vladka Meed with President Jimmy Carter
Vladka Meed shakes the hand of President Jimmy Carter at a White House Rose Garden ceremony. The ceremony marked the official presentation of the report of the US Holocaust Commission to the president by commission chairman Elie Wiesel (second from right, with Benjamin Meed, center). Washington, DC, September 27, 1979.
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Elie Wiesel speaks at a conference
Elie Wiesel speaks at the Faith in Humankind conference, held before the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, on September 18–19, 1984, in Washington, DC.
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Elie Wiesel speaks at the Faith in Humankind conference
Elie Wiesel speaks at the Faith in Humankind conference, held several years before the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. September 18–19, 1984, in Washington, DC.
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Elie Wiesel with his wife and son during the Faith in Humankind conference
Elie Wiesel (right) with his wife and son during the Faith in Humankind conference, held several years before the opening of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. September 18–19, 1984, in Washington, DC.
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Opening day of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
President Bill Clinton (center), Elie Wiesel (right), and Harvey Meyerhoff (left) light the eternal flame outside on the Eisenhower Plaza during the dedication ceremony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. April 22, 1993.
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Auschwitz fence posts and Elie Wiesel quote on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This photograph shows Auschwitz fence posts and a quote from Elie Wiesel's Night. They are on display in the third floor tower room of the Permanent Exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
"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 consigned to live as long as God Himself Never. "
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Elie Wiesel speaks at a Days of Remembrance ceremony
Elie Wiesel speaks at the Days of Remembrance ceremony, Washington, DC, 2001.
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Elie Wiesel speaks at a Days of Remembrance ceremony
Elie Wiesel speaks at the Days of Remembrance ceremony, Washington, DC, 2002.
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Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel became Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 1980. Here, he speaks at a ceremony held during the Tribute to Holocaust Survivors, one of the Museum's tenth anniversary events. Flags of US Army liberating divisions form the backdrop to the ceremony. Washington, DC, November 2003.
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Elie Wiesel with Romanian president Ion Iliescu
Elie Wiesel with President Ion Iliescu in Sighet following the presentation of the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania.
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Elie Wiesel, his wife Marion, and President Ion Iliescu in Sighet
Elie Wiesel with his wife Marion and President Ion Iliescu in Sighet following the presentation of the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania.
Learn more about Romania facing its past.
1928
The Kellogg-Briand Pact renounces war as an instrument of national policy.
On September 30, Elie Wiesel is born in Sighet, Transylvania, then and now part of Romania.
1931
Japan invades Manchuria, beginning hostilities in the Far East.
1933
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi Party takes control of Germany's government. The first permanent concentration camp, Dachau, is established.
1935
The Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews are decreed, depriving Jews of German citizenship.
1936
The SS renames its units deployed at concentration camps the "Death's Head Units," later known as "Death's Head Battalions." SS chief Heinrich Himmler is appointed chief of the German Police. The summer Olympic games are hosted in Berlin.
1937
Japan invades China proper, initiating the Pacific War that would become a part of World War II.
1938
Kristallnacht (night of crystal, also known as the night of broken glass): a government-organized pogrom against Jews in Germany, Austria, and the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia results in widespread destruction of synagogues, businesses, and homes and the loss of at least 91 lives in November.
1939
In April, Britain and France guarantee the integrity of Poland's borders after Hitler violates Munich Agreement of 1938 by invading and dismembering Czechoslovakia. In September, Germany invades Poland, starting World War II in Europe. In response, Great Britain, France, and the British Dominions declare war on Germany. In November, the first ghetto is established in Piotrków, Poland. Jews in parts of occupied Poland are forced to wear armbands bearing the Star of David for identification.
1940
In spring, Germans conquer Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister. In May, Auschwitz concentration camp is established near the Polish city Oswiecim. Italy declares war on Britain and France in June. In August, at German and Italian arbitration, Romania is compelled to cede northern Transylvania, including Sighet, to Hungary. In autumn, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia join the German-Italian alliance, called the Axis. German authorities begin to seal off ghettos in German-occupied Poland.
Elie Wiesel and his family become residents of Hungary.
1941
Nazi Germany attacks the Soviet Union on June 22. The British and the Soviets sign a Mutual Assistance agreement. On July 31 Nazi Security Police chief Reinhard Heydrich is given authorization to plan and coordinate a "total" and "final" solution of the "Jewish Question." Construction of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp (Auschwitz II) begins in autumn. The US enters World War II on December 8, a day after Germany's Axis partner, Japan, attacks the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 8, the first of the killing centers in Nazi-occupied Poland begins operations.
Twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel begins studying the Kabbalah.
1942
The Wannsee Conference held in Berlin in January in Berlin ensures the full cooperation of all state, Nazi Party, and SS agencies in implementing "the Final Solution"—a plan to murder the European Jews—under the coordination of the SS and police.
1943
Jews in the Warsaw ghetto rise up against their oppressors. By the end of the year, the Germans and their Axis partners have killed more than four million European Jews.
1944
Germany occupies Hungary in March. Between late April and early July, around 440,000 Hungarian Jews are deported from Hungary, most of them to Auschwitz. On June 6, D-Day, Anglo-American forces establish the first Allied beachhead in western Europe on the Normandy coast of German-occupied France. On June 22, Soviet forces begin a massive offensive in Belarus and advance to the outskirts of Warsaw in six weeks. Anne Frank's family is arrested by the German occupation authorities in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler orders a halt to the "Final Solution" in November 1944 and orders the destruction of the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Elie Wiesel is fifteen years old when he and his family are deported in May 1944 by the Hungarian gendarmerie and the German SS and police from Sighet to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perish; his two older sisters survive.
Map
Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz (Map)
Credits:
- US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Photo
Child survivors of Buchenwald (Photo)
Escorted byUSsoldiers, child survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp file out of the main gate of the camp. Buchenwald, Germany, April 27, 1945.
Credits:
- National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD
1945
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz on January 27. US troops liberate Buchenwald on April 11. Germany surrenders on May 7; World War II in Europe ends on May 8. On September 2, the Pacific War ends with the surrender of Japan after the US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. World War II is over. The United Nations is founded. Establishment of International Military Tribunal in August. On November 20, the trial of the top Nazi leaders begins in Nuremberg under the auspices of the International Military Tribunal. The Allies (France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union) indict 22 top-ranking Nazi leaders and six German and Nazi Party organizations for crimes against the peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
SS units evacuate Auschwitz in January. Elie and his father are transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar Germany. Elie's father dies in January; Elie is liberated with the arrival of US troops in April.
1946
Eighteen of 21 defendants are convicted by the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trial; 12 are sentenced to death.
1945–1949
177 Nazi offenders are tried under the jurisdiction of the International Military Tribunal in 12 subsequent Nuremberg trials of second rank Nazi leaders. Thousands more Nazi perpetrators and their collaborators are tried in the four zones of occupied Germany and in the countries that Germany and its Axis partners occupied.
1948
The State of Israel is created. On May 14, 1948, the last British forces withdraw from Palestine and the State of Israel is established in accordance with the United Nations Partition Plan that proposed the partition of Palestine into two states, an Arab state and a Jewish state.
The US Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act, authorizing 200,000 displaced persons to enter the United States.
On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust, the United Nations approves the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide" as an international crime, which signatory nations "undertake to prevent and punish."
Elie Wiesel studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He becomes interested in journalism.
1949
Elie Wiesel goes to Jerusalem for the first time.
1951
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide enters into force.
Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
