Editing Elie Wiesel (section)

==Imprisonment and orphaning during the Holocaust==
[[File:Buchenwald Slave Laborers Liberation.jpg|thumb|right|[[Buchenwald concentration camp]], photo taken April 16, 1945, five days after liberation of the camp. Wiesel is in the second row from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the bunk post.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/former-prisoners-of-the-little-camp-in-buchenwald |title=Elie Wiesel — Photograph |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=November 15, 2022 |archive-date=November 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115152158/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/former-prisoners-of-the-little-camp-in-buchenwald |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

In March 1944, Germany [[Operation Margarethe|occupied]] Hungary, thus extending the [[History of the Jews in Hungary#The Holocaust|Holocaust]] into [[Northern Transylvania]] as well.{{efn|In 1940, after the [[Second Vienna Award]], [[Northern Transylvania]], including the town of Sighet (Máramarossziget) was returned to [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–46)|Hungary]].}} Wiesel was 15, and he, with his family, along with the rest of the town's Jewish population, was placed in one of the two confinement ghettos set up in Máramarossziget ([[Sighet]]), the town where he had been born and raised. In May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, under German pressure, began to [[deport]] the Jewish community to the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]], where up to 90 percent of the people were murdered on arrival.<ref name=Huffington/>

Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered in the gas chambers.<ref name=Huffington/> Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be murdered in the gas chambers. Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]]. Until that transfer, he admitted to [[Oprah Winfrey]], his primary motivation for trying to survive Auschwitz was knowing that his father was still alive: "I knew that if I died, he would die."<ref>[http://www.oprah.com/world/Inside-Auschwitz/5 "Inside Auschwitz"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821173547/http://www.oprah.com/world/Inside-Auschwitz/5 |date=August 21, 2016 }}, Oprah Winfrey broadcast visit, January 2006</ref> After they were taken to Buchenwald, his father died before the camp was liberated.<ref name=Huffington/> In ''Night'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aazae.com/night-by-elie-wiesel/|title=Night by Elie Wiesel|work=Aazae|access-date=October 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025095029/http://aazae.com/night-by-elie-wiesel/|archive-date=October 25, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Wiesel recalled the shame he felt when he heard his father being beaten and was unable to help.<ref name=Huffington>{{Cite web|date=July 2, 2016|title=Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Dies|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elie-wiesel-dead_n_57781653e4b0a629c1aa51bb|access-date=August 8, 2023|website=HuffPost|language=en|archive-date=October 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020031541/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elie-wiesel-dead_us_57781653e4b0a629c1aa51bb|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Donadio-t.html | work=[[The New York Times]] | title=The Story of 'Night' | first=Rachel | last=Donadio | date=January 20, 2008 | access-date=May 17, 2011 | archive-date=December 25, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225014415/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Donadio-t.html%20 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Wiesel was [[Identification in Nazi camps|tattooed with inmate number]] "A-7713" on his left arm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nobelpeacelaureates.org/pdf/elem_EliezerWiesel.pdf|title=Eliezer Wiesel, 1986: Not caring is the worst evil|publisher=Nobel Peace Laureates|access-date=May 17, 2010|archive-date=July 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727125147/http://www.nobelpeacelaureates.org/pdf/elem_EliezerWiesel.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141324,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111129004140/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,141324,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 29, 2011|title=Author, Teacher, Witness|last=Kanfer |first=Stefan |date=June 24, 2001 |access-date=May 17, 2011}}</ref> The camp was liberated by the [[U.S. Third Army]] on April 11, 1945, when they were just prepared to be evacuated from Buchenwald.<ref>See the film ''Elie Wiesel Goes Home'', directed by Judit Elek, narrated by William Hurt. {{ISBN|1-930545-63-0}}</ref>