New York is considered a melting pot because of its unique diversity of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities, thanks to the large number of immigrants that come from all over the world. These different cultures and ethnicities that exist in New York can be seen through food, religion, music, clothes, and art. Ellis Island served as the main immigration station for those coming into the country and has processed over 12 million immigrants since 1892. The island is located right near the Statue of Liberty, which allowed new immigrants to be welcomed by a statue representing their newfound freedom. Not only did these people struggle to get to Ellis Island from their homelands, but when they got there they were not guaranteed passage, were faced with long lines lasting up to several days, and medical examinations that were a crucial and tedious part of gaining access to the United States. To ensure that no foreign illnesses were coming into the US, people that showed signs of illness could not enter the country and were sent back home. It was seen as a great victory to people that made it through Ellis Island, ready to start their new lives of freedom.
Out of the millions of immigrants to come to New York over the years, one of the most influential people in my eyes was Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, and Nobel-Prize winning author. Wiesel went through many obstacles in life from being sent to a concentration camp in Poland with his family, enduring the unthinkable under the Nazi ruling, losing his mother, father, and younger sister, and later the struggle of immigrating to America. Elie Wiesel persevered through these tragic events and came out a survivor, an award-winning writer, an icon and an inspiration to all who knows of his name.
It all started on September 30th, 1928 in Sighet, a small village in northern Transylvania, Romania when Eliezer ‘Elie’ Wiesel was born by his parents Shlomo and Sarah Weisel. Wiesel grew up with two older sisters named Hilda and Beatrice, and a younger sister named Tzipora. Elie’s father was an Orthodox Jew and encouraged him to learn modern Hebrew literature while his mother was Hasidic and influenced him to study the sacred, original Jewish texts. At three years old Elie’s religious education started when he enrolled in a Jewish school where he learned the Hebrew language, read the Bible, and Talmud. Wiesel grew up extremely religious because of his parents and devoted his time to studying the Torah, the Talmud and the teachings of Hasidism and the Cabala. Besides his parents, the root of his religious beliefs came from his grandfather who was a distinguished Hasid. He also learned about the Messiah and other Judaism stories from Moshe, a mentor in his synagogue. In 1942, after the Nazis turned Sighet over to Hungary, Moshe and other Jews that could not prove Hungarian citizenship were sent to Poland to be murdered. Fortunately for Moshe, he was the only person from Sighet to escape and return from Poland. Moshe told the people of Sighet stories about others getting murdered, but the town regretfully neglected to believe him and saw him as crazy. Two years later the tales Moshe told started to turn into reality for the town of Sighet.
In March 1944, German soldiers inhabited Sighet, forcing the Wiesel family into a ghetto. The Nazi soldiers closed all Jewish stores, including their family-owned grocery store, and raided all Jewish homes. They enforced all Jews to wear yellow stars on their clothing so that they could tell them apart from the Non-Jewish Hungarians.
In May 1944, the plan to deport all of the Jews to concentration camps began. The Wiesel family had an offer from their Christian maid to hide in her hut out of town but they rejected her invitation because they wanted to stick with their Jewish community. The family was so adamant in their faith and beliefs that they turned down what could have been a chance at freedom. In June of that year, the Wiesel family was put onto a cattle car with 80 other Jews headed to Auschwitz concentration camp. After four days of travel, the family arrived at Auschwitz and Elie and his father were immediately separated from his mother and three sisters. Elie, who was 15 at the time, was prompted by a fellow prisoner to lie about his age being 18 to an officer which saved him from being immediately killed because he was at good use to work for the Nazis at the camp. Elie and his father were sent together to be slave laborers while his mother and younger sister were taken directly to the gas chambers to never be seen again. After surviving Auschwitz with the help of his father sharing his food and protecting him as much as he could, the two were sent to Buna labor camp for eight months. There Elie, his father, and all the other prisoners endured violent abuse, vigorous labor, and starvation. At this time Elie’s childhood and identity were ripped away from him and was now known only by his number: A-7713.
In the winter of 1945, Elie had to go to a camp doctor for surgery on a foot injury. Two days after the operation the prisoners of Buna, including injured Wiesel, were forced on a death march where the inmates were obliged to run for ten days. At the end of the death march, the 6,000 out of 20,000 who survived were sent to Buchenwald. When they arrived at Buchenwald, Elie’s father passed away from starvation and exhaustion.
At Buchenwald on April 6th, 1945, the guards started evacuating the camp by killing 10,000 prisoners a day and starving the others. Just days later on April 11th, prisoners fought back against the guards with the little strength they had, seizing control of Buchenwald. Later that day, soldiers from the 6th Armored Division of the American military liberated the camp of more than 21,000 prisoners. After Elie Wiesel was liberated from Buchenwald he spent time in the hospital due to intestinal problems. During his time at the hospital after just being freed, Elie started writing an outline for a book describing his cruel and inhumane experiences in the concentration camps. After leaving the hospital Elie was placed in a French orphanage among 400 other orphans. Wiesel later discovered that his two oldest sisters also survived the Holocaust after Hilda found his picture in a newspaper and reached out to him. Eventually, Elie was able to reunite with both Beatrice and Hilda.