We cannot indefinitely avoid depressing subject matter, particularly it it is true, and in the subsequent quarter century the world has had to hear a story it would have preferred not to hear - the story of how a cultured people turned to genocide, and how the rest of the world, also composed of cultured people, remained silent in the face of genocide. (v)
Elie WieselI want to go back to the child I used to be, and to read with the same naivetรฉ [the Pentateuch]. I want to leave science aside and go back to the pure perception offered to me in the text that is waiting there for me year after year.
Elie WieselAll collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior.
Elie WieselMy faceless neighbor spoke up: โDonโt be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.โ I exploded: โWhat do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet? His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily: โI have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.
Elie Wiesel