orig. Eliezer Wiesel
born Sept. 30, 1928, Sighet, Rom.
Romanian-born U.S. novelist.
Living in a small Hasidic community, Wiesel and his family were deported in 1944 to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald; his parents and sister were killed. All his works reflect his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust and his attempt to resolve the ethical torment of why it happened and what it reveals about human nature. They include Night (1958), A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968), The Testament (1980), and The Forgotten (1989). A noted lecturer, he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace for his universal condemnation of violence, hatred, and oppression.