Elie Wiesel

If you ask me, "What is a hero for you?'', I always imagine superheroes, who save the world from evil and villains. However, I remember that there are some brave, strong, inspiring people in the real world, who did so many incredible and valuable things which have changed the world and made it a better place to live in. I believe that a true hero is someone powerful and a good role model, someone who has worked hard to reach his/her goal and has impacted so many people by doing what he loves and believes in. Someone exactly like Elie Wiesel.

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Romania to Jewish parents, Sarah and Shlomo and had 3 sisters. In his youth, his parents, mostly his father, encouraged his to study Hebrew, Yiddish and the Torah and other literature. When he was 15, his family moved to Hungary. In 1944, in the middle of World War 2, Germany invaded Hungary and the mass murder of the Jewish people in Hungary began. Wiesel's family were sent to Auschwitz where his beloved mother and sister were sent to the gas chambers. Wiesel and his father were then deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald and luckily, the war ended a year later, and Wiesel and his father survived the Holocaust. Wiesel began his life anew in France. In 1947, at the age of 19 he began writing for French and Israeli newspapers and in 1955 he moved to the USA and wrote his famous book 'Night', which was about the horrors he had endured during the Holocaust. It was a best-selling book with over 10 million copies sold only in the United States. Wiesel always shared his opinions against racism around the world and in 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against racism and violence and was described as "one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age". Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2, 2016 (aged 87) in New York, USA.

The reason I have chosen to write about Elie Wiesel is that I believe he is a true hero. As a child, he went through so many difficult things which a lot of people could never have handled. I think that every Holocaust survivor is a hero, however the ones who were able to move on and make a fresh start, in my opinion, were and should be the most appreciated, and Elie Wiesel was one of them. He found an incredible way to show his beliefs by sharing his story with the world and by fighting against everything he thought was wrong. His opinions led him to get the Nobel Peace Prize, which proves how important and inspiring he was.

I personally feel very connected to Elie Wiesel. His background and his story, like many other Holocaust survivors' stories, has taught me not take anything for granted and to believe I can do anything I put my mind to. I feel inspired by his story, the fact that after everything he had been through he still managed to fight for what he believed in. I respect him so much for his story and for his opinions and I truly believe he was a hero.