On July 2, the world lost the life that was Elie Wiesel. Wiesel was an author, advocate for peace and human rights, and was most famously known as a Holocaust survivor. Although Wiesel wrote many books in his 87 years of being alive, his most famous work is his memoir, "Night."

In my high school English class, we were required to read Wiesel's, "Night," and I remember it vividly. I remember my class being split 50/50 of those that were horrified that they were required to read such a graphic and torturous memoir, and those who felt compassion for the victims of the Holocaust, eagerly looking forward to beginning the memoir. I was one of the latter. I, unlike many people I know, know that the Holocaust was a real tragedy -- not just something made up, like some think. I feel we need to honor those who lost their friends, family or even their own lives, and I felt the best way I could do that in my high school years was to read the memoir of someone who actually lived and breathed the Holocaust: Wiesel.

It didn't take long for me to get through the book in its entirety. I was fascinated by this account of the Holocaust from a point of view that I had never seen or heard before. Wiesel was 15 when he and his family were taken to Auschwitz. It was there that his mother and only sister died, and later, he and his father were transported to Buchenwald, where Wiesel lost his father as well. Wiesel was young with no family left, like many of those who were in the camps. In the camps, he battles his relationship with God, ultimately resulting in his belief of the death of God, saying, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever."

This isn't a work of fiction, but rather a true account of the horrific acts of the Holocaust which has now become a bedrock for Holocaust literature, having been translated into over 30 languages and required in many schools all over the world. Wiesel once said, “...I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.” There is no doubt that in all of his books, especially "Night," that Wiesel invoked feelings in all of us and ignited a spark that cannot die.

Today, we honor Wiesel not only because of what he went through and how his works changed the literary spectrum, but also because he's a human being who deserves to be remembered, something Wiesel so avidly fought for in his later life. Wiesel wrote, "To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." So we must not forget Wiesel, but rather love, cherish, and honor him wholly.