Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the city of Sighet in Transylvania, which is located in Romania. His parents, Shlomo Wiesel and Sarah Feig had three other children excluding Elie. The other three siblings were his sisters Hilda, Bea, Tsiporah. Wiesel and his family were primarily an Orthodox Jewish family. When he was very young he began studying Hebrew and the Bible. He concentrated mainly on his religious studies. According to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, "He was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz." During his time in Auschwitz, Elie's mother and younger sister did not make it, but his two older sisters were lucky enough to survive. “Elie and his father were subsequently deported to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945” (Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity). After surviving all the hardships he endured, Elie found himself in France and from then on studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. Since he was a refugee in France and had little to live on, he supported himself by being a choirmaster and teaching Hebrew. “He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel” (Holocaust Survivor's Storyteller). Over time Wiesel became very popular thanks to many of his stories that he shared about his experiences in the different concentration camps where he was detained. Before publishing these stories he remained silent until “During an interview with the French writer François Mauriac, Wiesel was persuaded to end his silence” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). That French writer convincing him to break the silence is one of the best things that c...... middle of paper... a huge impact on the whole world and almost all human beings. What I learned most from Elie Wiesel is that you can't take life for granted because when he was my age (15) he had to face the worst thing anyone can experience, and that was the Holocaust. While this most likely won't happen again, there is still a chance that something like this could happen and you wouldn't even have seen it coming in the beginning. I also learned that you can't stay silent forever because keeping quiet doesn't make a change, it just stays inside, but by breaking that silence a change is made and the end results are overwhelming. Yes, Elie Wiesel inspired me because he started from the bottom and worked his way up, initially being a refugee in France and then along the way supporting himself while also getting an education.