For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone.

I do not believe in collective guilt.

Therefore, all my adult life, since I began my life as an author, or as a teacher, I always try to listen to the victim.

Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.

How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in furnaces? Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar?