Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in … Romania.
During World War II, he, with his family and other Jews from the area, were
deported to the German concentration and extermination camps, where his parents
and little sister perished. Wiesel and his two older sisters survived.
Liberated from Buchenwald in 1945 by advancing Allied troops, he was taken to
Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne and worked as a journalist.
In 1958, he published his first book,… a memoir of his experiences in the concentration camps. … In his many lectures, Wiesel has concerned himself with the situation of the Jews and other groups who have suffered persecution and death because of their religion, race or national origin. ….[1]
In 1958, he published his first book,… a memoir of his experiences in the concentration camps. … In his many lectures, Wiesel has concerned himself with the situation of the Jews and other groups who have suffered persecution and death because of their religion, race or national origin. ….[1]
Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987. The Committee stated “Wiesel is a messenger to mankind; his message is one of peace, atonement
and human dignity. …. His message is based on his own personal experience of
total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's
death camps. ….”[2]
Wiesel died in 2016.
Here are some thought-provoking quotes
from the Peace Prize winner:
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s
indifference. … The opposite of faith is
not heresy, it’s indifference. And the
opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Because of indifference, one dies
before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to
concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that's
being dead.[3]
Reminds me of that passage in
Revelations about being lukewarm…[4]
No human race is superior; no
religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists
make them.[5]
Well, that’s been a theme of this blog
all year….
The greatest commandment to me in the Bible is not the Ten
Commandments. … My commandment is ‘Thou
shall not stand idly by.’ Which means, when you witness an injustice:
Don’t stand idly by. When you hear of a person or a group being persecuted: Do
not stand idly by. When there is something wrong with the community around you
or far away: Do not stand idly by. You
must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human
rights.
And there is the challenge: To have the moral courage to act on your
convictions.
I would hope, with the help of God, I
could.
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