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Biographical/Historical Information

Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania in 1928. He and his family were deported to Auschwitz in May 1944. His mother and his younger sister were murdered, while he and his father were transferred to Buchenwald, where they survived. After liberation, Wiesel came to France, where he studied literature and philosophy and began his career in journalism in French and Hebrew. He moved to New York in 1955, getting widely known for his published memoirs and other works, as well as for his outspoken stance against violence, repression, and racism. Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He died in New York in 2016.

Erna Weill née Helft was born in 1904 in Frankfurt am Main. She studied sculpture with Helene von Beckerath, a student of August Rodin, at the University of Frankfurt. She married the chemist Ernst Weill, and the couple had two children. The family fled Germany in 1936 for Switzerland and immigrated to the United States in 1937. Erna Weill stayed in the New York City area, where she worked as a sculptor and art teacher. Next to busts of famous people, her sculptures were connected to the American Civil Rights Movement and the world of Judaism. In addition to working as an art teacher in public schools, she also had her own art school where she applied progressive teaching methods. Erna Weill died in 1996.

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Citation

Elie Wiesel : signed photograph of a sculpture by Erna Weill, Leo Baeck Institute, F 3773.