Thread: Elie Wiesel Prisoner at Buchenwald

Elie Wiesel was born in Hungary in 1928. All his family were killed in the Holocaust. After liberation he moved to France and then the USA. He has written a number of books and poems and received the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1986.

Never shall I forget
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

The famous photo below was taken by Private H. Miller of the Civil Affairs Branch of the U. S. Army Signal Corps on April 16, 1945, five days after the Buchenwald camp was liberated by the Sixth Armoured Division of the US Third Army on April 11, 1945. Elie Wiesel is shown in the photo, at the end of the second tier of bunks from the bottom. His is the last full face that you see to the left of a post. This photo was published by the New York Times on May 6, 1945 with the caption "Crowded Bunks in the Prison Camp at Buchenwald."

I have read all of his books. I am fascinated on how he has taken this cause on and spent the majority of his life making sure people know what happened and that it never happens again.

A wonderful ,wonderful man. He will be remembered for all the contributions he has made. Mostly 1st hand experience. He is one of my personal heros.

The only book I have read by him is "Night", but it was very good and so very heart breaking. Sometimes I read a book like that, and I just can't imagine how anyone could come away from experiences like that and begin some sort of normal life again.

I to have read the book "Night" and it was a very good book but it was such a hard read in that it is so hard to wrap your mind around the horror he went through and has seen. Has anyone read his nonfiction book called "Dawn" yet? I heard that it is very good also.

I've only read "Night", but it didn't really make a big impression on me. I wonder why... maybe I only read it on the surface and couldn't grasp the full meaning of it. But I think it had more to do with the writing style.