Elie Wiesel's life is one that is unique. Surviving the Holocaust
is not an accomplishment that every victim that went through the torture gets to speak of in this present
day. Now, for most of the innocent lives that cound not withstand the harsh control of the concentration camps
or the ones that didn't even get the grand choice of being in a concentration camp but instead instantly being sent to
their death, Wiesel now speaks for them. Wiesel now talks out about the torture he had to indure at all of the concentration
camps he was present at, and he also has written several books about the experience as well. By speaking of something
so terrible that words, even from Elie Wiesel himself, probably can't explain how Wiesel and millions of others suffered,
and is also probably saving our ungrateful lives.
Elie Wiesel's statement, "...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all..." ( http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/HOLO/ELIEBIO.HTM) If Wiesel decided to keep his vowel of silence, i believe we would be in more danger of the horrible genocide reocurring
to us. We would be without knowledge of the experience and if history happens to repeat itself, we would be at a great disadvantage.
A nightmare for us is how Wiesel spent some of his younger life. In 1944 Wiesel was deported to Auschwitz.
Through the readings of Night you probably now know just some of the unremarkable tasks that they were forced to
do. Wiesel had been accustomed to suffering as a daily part of life while being in the concentration camps, and even
today remembering the mortifying details of his stay there is a painful memory. As each day approached for Wiesel while in
the concentration camps, his worry was it could be his last. Going days without food or water, working in hostile conditions,
and seeing first hand innocent victims being murdered for sheer amusment by the Nazis is an experience permenatley
scarred into Wiesel memory. In January, year of 1945, Wiesel's father died at Buchenwald. Wiesel was now alone, with
only the support of his father that remained inside his heart. Wiesel was liberated from the camps about three months later
in April.
Now out of the misery of the concentration camps, Wiesel took a vowel of silence to not speak about his experience
of the Holocaust. He finally was convinced to speak out about his life during the Holocaust and started writing profound novels.
From speaking and writing about his terrible experience and fighting against hatred, genocide, and racism Wiesel achieved
the Nobel Peace Prize. It's amazing how someone who went through near death occasions, who at one point probably didn't care
to either live or die, and was lead to believe by the Nazis that he had no right to live has achieved so many accomplishments.
"Arguably the most powerful and renowned passage in Holocaust literature, his first book, Night, records the inclusive
experience of the Jews:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven
times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children,
whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Never shall I forget those flames which consumed
my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these
things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
With those words and many others Wiesel emphasizes the concern to help fight racism, hatred, and genocide
everyday. Wiesel has now dedicated his life to make sure that we know the great tragedy of the Holocaust and that
we remember what happened to him and millions of other Jews.
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