Autobiographical Writings

In his survival memoir Night (La Nuit, 1958), Wiesel records his memories of the experiences he bore witness to during the Shoah. However, before Night was published, Wiesel released a more detailed version in Yiddish under the title ...and the world remained silent (...un di velt hot geshvign, 1956). As the inaugural publication in our series of scholarly annotated pieces, the Elie Wiesel Research Center has released the first German translation of this work along with a new translation of Night. Wiesel himself noted that Night acts as a cornerstone for his entire body of work:

„If in my lifetime I was to write only one book, this would be the one. Just as the past lingers in the present, all my writings after Night, including those that deal with biblical, Talmudic, or Hasidic themes, profoundly bear its stamp, and cannot be understood if one has not read this very first of my works.“

(Elie Wiesel, Preface to the New Translation in English, 2006)

Elie Wiesel's autobiographical accounts of survival and life form the basis for understanding Wiesel's work as a whole.

In particular, Wiesel’s memories from his childhood in Sighet and its sudden end through the time he spent in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps shape Wiesel's journalistic and literary work, as well as his outstanding humanitarian commitments around the world. Memories of his hometown Sighet always remained a point of orientation for Wiesel. He kept them close to his heart and carried them with him throughout his journeys in Europe, Israel, and the United States.

Wiesel's other autobiographical writings are also shaped by experiences from his youth and complement his larger testimony. They also shed light on important contextual information regarding Wiesel's academic career, which is reflected in his work. These short biographical texts have been newly edited and are included in the complete annotated edition of Elie Wiesel’s Works (EWW), which is contextualized linguistically, politically-historically, and Judaistically.

Autobiographical Writings published by Wiesel: