“I knew I would have to bear witness,” Elie Wiesel told NPR in 1988. “Everyone who was there is a witness, …”
At age 16, Elie Wiesel was one of the more than 21,000 people liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945.
Elie was first deported to Auschwitz with his family in May 1944. Elie and his father, Shlomo, were selected for forced labor and later transported from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, where his father died. His mother and one of his sisters were killed at Auschwitz.
Ten years later, he began writing what would become his memoir, “Night,” now published and translated into more than 30 languages.
Elie is pictured here after liberation in the second row of bunks, seventh from the left, next to the vertical beam.
#YomHashoah #WeRemember
Photo: National Archives
Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
