Elie Wiesel was born in the Romanian town of Sighet, which was annexed by Hungary during World War II (the town is now called Sighetu Martiei). His parents came from Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish families, and he was encouraged to learn Hebrew and to study the Bible and the Talmud. His father kept a shop and was a respected man in the town's Jewish community. Both of his parents died in Nazi concentration camps, as did his younger sister; his two elder sisters survived. After the war, Wiesel went to an orphanage in France, studied at the Sorbonne, and became a journalist. In 1945, he swore to himself not to write about his experience in the death camps for ten years. Ten years later, he wrote a massive book in Yiddish called
And the World Remained Silent, which was published in Argentina in 1956. Parts of it he later edited and published as the books
Night,
Dawn, and
Day. Wiesel moved to the United States in the 1950s. He continued to write many books and has held prominent teaching positions at American universities. For his work as a outspoken proponent of peace and critic of racism, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.