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place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe. Of course, since I am a Jew profoundly rooted in my people's memory and tradition, my first response is to Jewish fears, Jewish needs, Jewish crises. For I belong to a traumatized generation, one that experienced the abandonment and solitude of our people. It would be unnatural for me not to make Jewish priorities my own: Israel, Soviet Jewry, Jews in Arab l a n d s … B u t others are important to me. Apartheid is, in my view, as abhorrent as anti- Semitism. To me, Andrei Sakharov's isolation is as much a disgrace as Joseph Begun's imprisonment and Ida Nudel's exile. As is the denial of Solidarity and its leader Lech Walesa's right to dissent. And Nelson Mandela's interminable imprisonment. There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism and political persecution—in Chile, for instance, or in Ethiopia—writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right. Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. That applies also to Palestinians to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore when they lead to violence. Violence is not the answer. Terrorism is the most dangerous of answers. They are frustrated, that is understandable, something must be done. The refugees and their misery. The children and their fear. The uprooted and their hopelessness. Something must be done about their situation. Both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people have lost too many sons and daughters and have shed too much blood. This must stop, and all attempts to stop it must be encouraged. Israel will cooperate, I am sure of that. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from their horizons, and there will be peace in and around the 119
Holy Land. Please understand my deep and total commitment to Israel: if you could remember what I remember, you would understand. Israel is the only nation in the world whose existence is threatened. Should Israel lose but one war, it would mean her end and ours as well. But I have faith. Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even in His creation. Without it no action would be possible. And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all. Isn't that the meaning of Alfred Nobel's legacy? Wasn't his fear of war a shield against war? There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person—a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King Jr.—one person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs. This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately. Thank you, Chairman Aarvik. Thank you, members of the Nobel Committee. Thank you, people of Norway, for declaring on this singular occasion that our survival has meaning for mankind. 120
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Also by Elie Wiesel DAWN DAY (previ
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ELIE W I E S E L TRANSLATED FROM TH
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In memory of my parents and of my l
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why not for others more deserving t
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the wisdom of their elders understa
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"Well?" The SS had flown into a rag
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were alive when they were thrown in
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Foreword by François Mauriac FOREI
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man—this set of circumstances wou
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Almighty to whom my life had been b
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2
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One day I asked my father to find m
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AND THEN, one day all foreign Jews
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news: the daily bombings of Germany
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made no offensive remarks, and some
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small Jewish r e p u b l i c … A
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"There are rumors," my father said,
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By eight o'clock in the morning, we
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My father had accompanied the depor
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We finally arrived at our destinati
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and the wine and swallowed the food
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German Army. Anyone who still owns
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Our nerves had reached a breaking p
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strolling down the platform, asking
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Behind me, an old man fell to the g
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Tell him that I was a student? "Far
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mained of my strength in order to b
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Suddenly someone threw his arms aro
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"And now, stop moving!" There was n
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"EVERYBODY outside!" A dozen or so
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NO SOONER HAD WE CLIMBED into our b
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I knew nothing about them…Since 1
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"Mother is still a young woman," my
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most important thing is not to be a
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gerous. Only Idek, the Kapo, occasi
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"What are you going to do, sir?" "I
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"Idek, the Kapo…the young Jewish
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This went on for two weeks. It was
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"Ten…eleven!…" His voice was ca
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and, with open mouth, thrust his he
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frightened. His manacled hands did
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The Oberkapo was arrested on the sp
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THE SUMMER was coming to an end. Th
Page 93 and 94: them from paradise. When You were d
Page 95 and 96: transferred me to another Kommando,
Page 97 and 98: Yes, we were ready. So were the SS
Page 99 and 100: "Let's have a moment of quiet. I ha
Page 101 and 102: quickly or not. I was afraid of fin
Page 103 and 104: We went off to work as usual, our b
Page 105 and 106: "Doctor?" "Yes?" "Will I be able to
Page 107 and 108: As for me, I was thinking not about
Page 109 and 110: TWO O'CLOCK in the afternoon. The s
Page 111 and 112: "Don't think, don't stop, run!" Nea
Page 113 and 114: a single bark. Houses with gaping w
Page 115 and 116: he lay down too, next to the corpse
Page 117 and 118: There was shouting outside, in the
Page 119 and 120: I thought he'd lost his mind. His v
Page 121 and 122: think that the Germans would run ou
Page 123 and 124: PRESSED TIGHTLY AGAINST one another
Page 125 and 126: WE RECEIVED no food. We lived on sn
Page 127 and 128: him. They jumped him. Others joined
Page 129 and 130: AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE CAMP, SS off
Page 131 and 132: The sirens began to wail. Alert. Th
Page 133 and 134: worldly, the face of a stranger. It
Page 135 and 136: THE FOLLOWING DAY, he complained th
Page 137 and 138: When I came down from my bunk after
Page 139 and 140: This was the end! Hitler was about
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Page 143: perished? Do I have the right to ac
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