Elie Wiesel: Survivor Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Transylvania, which was at the time part of Hungary. In 1944, along with the Jews in his community, Wiesel was deported with his family to Auschwitz [beside the narrator will be a series of images, the first of which is here, a photo of Auschwitz.], a concentration camp where thousands of Jews were tortured and eventually killed at the hands of the Nazis. In all, his mother, father, and one of his three sisters perished in the Holocaust. [A photo of unnumbered shoes taken from millions of people before they were exterminated] Over eleven million people lost their lives during the twelve years of the Holocaust. Families were destroyed, and lives were shattered. Living through these horrific experiences inevitably had a powerful effect on Wiesel. After the war, he studied in France and became a journalist. For ten years after the war, he did not discuss his experiences of the Holocaust, until eventually a friend persuaded him to commit them to writing.

Despair and Authenticity When World War I erupted in 1914, the major powers of Europe expected the fighting would last only a few months. As events unfolded, it became clear that neither side would achieve a quick victory. [World War I photo of a soldier on a tank] The war dragged on for four years, resulting in horrific death and destruction. [World War II airplanes flying in formation] Less than twenty years after World War I ended, Europe started on the path toward a second global conflict, one that would prove to be even more destructive than the previous war [World War II memorial, the Atlantic Pavilion Pillars]. In addition to the millions of military and civilian casualties, World War II’s death toll included an estimated six million European Jews, approximately two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population.