Novelist and journalist. Born in Sighet, Transylvania, now part of Romania, but controlled by Hungary during most of World War II.  Raised in a Hasidic environment, he was deported by the Nazis and was in the death camps of Birkenau-Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. For several years following World War II he lived in Paris; later, he settled in New York. His novels, which he originally wrote in French and which were subsequently translated into English, brought him fame not only as a writer on Jewish themes, but also as a major French novelist. Most of his novels are concerned with the Holocaust. Among his best-known works are Night, The Town Beyond the Wall, The Gates of the Forest, Legends of Our Time, The Jews of Silence (an eyewitness report of the plight of Soviet Jewry), A Beggar in Jerusalem, One Generation After, and Souls on Fire. Wiesel played a major role in bringing the Holocaust to the conscience of the world, not only as a novelist but also as an active spokesman for Holocaust survivors. He also spoke out effectively on other issues, both Jewish and general, and in 1986, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for his advocacy.