“We tried. It was not easy. At first, because of the language; language failed us. We would have to invent a new vocabulary, for our own words were inadequate, anemic. And then too, the people around us refused to listen; and even those who listened refused to believe; and even those who believed could not comprehend. Of course they could not. Nobody could. The experience of the camps defies comprehension.”

— Elie Wiesel

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

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Elie Wiesel 155

writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and … 1928–2016

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