Night.
I finished reading Elie Wiesel’s Night, just a moment ago… In the book, Wiesel chronicles his life between 1941 and 1945, from the time when he lived in Sighet, Transylvania, and how, within two years, half of his family had been murdered and he and his father were transported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. It actually hurts to imagine life through his eyes. Watching everyone close to him be taken away through either death itself or through seperation in the many camps during the Nazi regime.
The statement he made that had the most profound impact on me wasn’t during the pages of the book. It actually comes from a speech Wiesel delivered over forty years later during the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received on December 10, 1986. An ideal task in my life, and hopefully the lives of many others, is to fulfill these words with our lives…
"…I have tried to keep the memory alive…I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.
…I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe."
Categorized as Culture/Books & Film
Hello. Thanks for stopping by The Wardrobe and the White Tree.
I haven’t started this book yet, but as soon as I finish it I will return and pos my thoughts.
That quote is fantastic, made me think of Africa.