Elie Wiesel has been honored with a United States Postal Service stamp.
The USPS has issued a new 2-ounce stamp depicting Wiesel as part of its Distinguished American series. Fewer than 20 people have received the honor.
Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928 and, at the age of 15, was imprisoned with his family at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. His mother and sister were murdered there, and his father was killed after he and his son were transferred to the Buchenwald camp in Germany, which was liberated by the U.S. Army in 1945.
Wiesel told the story of his time in the camps in the memoir Night, which was first published in France in 1958; an English-language version was released in the U.S. two years later. He followed that book up with two others, Dawn and Day. He wrote more than 50 more books, including the novels The Gates of the Forest, A Beggar in Jerusalem, and The Forgotten, and the nonfiction books Souls on Fire, Messengers of God, and From the Kingdom of Memory.
Other authors who’ve been honored with Distinguished Americans stamps include Edna Ferber, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and James A. Michener.
The stamps honoring Wiesel are now on sale at the USPS online store.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
