Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the town of Sighet in Transylvania, located in Romania. His parents, Shlomo Wiesel and Sarah Feig, had three other children, not including Elie. The other three siblings were his sisters Hilda, Bea and Tsiporah. Wiesel and his family were primarily an Orthodox Jewish family. At a very young age, he began to study Hebrew and the Bible. He mainly focused on his religious studies. According to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, “he was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz.” During their time in Auschwitz, Elie's mother and younger sister did not survive, but his two older sisters were lucky to survive. “Elie and his father were then transported to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945” (Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity). After surviving all the trials he endured, Elie found himself in France and from there on to his studies of philosophy at the Sorbonne. As he was a refugee in France and had little to do there, he supported himself by being a choir director and teaching Hebrew. “He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in France and Israel” (Holocaust survivor storyteller). Over time, Wiesel became very popular due to many of his stories that he shared along with his experience in the various concentration camps in which he was held. Before publishing these stories, he remained silent until "during an interview with the French writer François Mauriac, Wiesel was persuaded to end the silence" (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). This French writer who persuaded him to break his silence is one of the best things to happen middle of paper......huge impact on the whole world and almost every human being. What I learned most from Elie Wiesel said that you can't take life for granted, because when he was my age (15), he had to experience the worst thing anyone could experience, which was is the Holocaust. Even though it probably won't happen again, it's still possible that something like this could happen and you wouldn't even see it happening at first. I also learned that you can't stay silent forever, because being silent doesn't change anything, it just stays inside, but by breaking that silence, a change happens and the end results are overwhelming. Yes, Elie Wiesel inspired me because he started from the bottom and worked his way to the top, first as a refugee in France, then along the way he supported himself while continuing his studies..