Elie Wiesel was a teenager in Romania when the Nazis took control and deported him and his family to concentrations camps in and around Germany. He was liberated from Buchenwald in 1945, but by then, both his parents and his younger sister had died in the camps.

After the war, when it became apparent people hadn't learned anything from the tragedy of the Holocaust, Wiesel dedicated his life to fighting injustice. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in his lecture, "Hope, Despair and Memory," he talks about how important it is to remember the Holocaust, both to honor the people who died and to stop all the war and genocide still happening around the world.

Throughout the speech, Wiesel argues against forgetting the Holocaust, even though it's easy to understand why everyone wants to stop thinking about it. So many terrible and horrific things happened, millions of people suffered and died—but that's exactly why history has to remember it. Only by remembering it will we honor the victims, both the survivors and those who died, and remind the world why it's so important to put a stop to genocide and ethnic cleansing.