Elie Wiesel citations

Page 3

“Il y a un État, et il est différent de tous les autres. Il est juif, et pour cela il est plus humain que n’importe quel autre.”

“Réveille-toi, lui murmurai-je à l'oreille.”

“Je ne pourrais jamais oublier Juliek. Comment pourrais-je oublier ce concert donné à un public d'agonisants et de morts! Aujourd'hui encore, lorsque j'entends jouer du Beethoven, mes yeux se ferment et, de l'obscurité, surgit le visage pâle et triste de mon camarade polonais faisant au violon ses adieux à un auditoire de mourants.”

“Madame Schächter s'était tue d'elle-même. Elle était redevenue muette, indifférente, absente et avait regagné son coin.

Nous regardions les flammes dans la nuit. Une odeur abominable flottait dans l'air. Soudain, nos portes s'ouvrirent. De curieux personnages, vêtus de vestes rayées, de pantalons noirs, sautèrent dans le wagon. Dans leurs mains, une lampe électrique et un bâton. Ils se mirent à frapper à droite et à gauche, avant de crier :

— Tout le monde descend ! Laissez tout dans le wagon ! Vite !

Nous sautâmes dehors. Je jetai un dernier regard vers madame Schächter. Son petit garçon lui tenait la main. Devant nous, ces flammes. Dans l'air, cette odeur de chair brûlée. Il devait être minuit. Nous étions arrivés. A Birkenau.”

“Quatre sages sont entrés un jour dans le verger de la connaissance interdite. L'un a regardé où il ne fallait pas, et il a perdu la raison. L'autre a regardé, et a perdu la vie. Le troisième a regardé, et a perdu la foi. Il n'y a q'un seul, Rabbi Aquiva, qui est entré et sorti en paix…”

“Peace is our gift to each other.”

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”

“Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.”

“I believe in God--in spite of God! I believe in Mankind--in spite of Mankind! I believe in the Future--in spite of the Past!”

“Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.”

“Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”

“Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to life as long as God himself”

“The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes.”

“Some stories are true that never happened.”

“Everybody around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don't know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.”

“The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…”

“Life belongs to man, but the meaning of life is beyond him.”

“Not all games are innocent. Some come dangerously close to cruelty.”

“And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”

“Bite your lips, little brother… Don't cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now… Wait. Clench your teeth and wait…”

“Suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us.”

“every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer…”

“Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?”

“What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.”

“I have tried to keep memory alive… I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.”

“Questions outlive the answers.”

“Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.”

“Even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal.”

“To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”

“We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)”

“The more you ask certain questions, the more dangerous they become.”

“The sky is so close to the sea that it is difficult to tell which is reflected in the other, which one needs the other, which one is dominating the other.”

“The darkness enveloped us. All I could hear was the violin and it was as if Juliek's soul had become the bow. He was playing his life… He played that which he would never play again.”

“I needed to know that there was such a thing as love and that it brought smiles and joy in its wake.”