The Opposite of Love, is not Hate, it is Indifference

 

Although today’s world has not descended to the detestable conditions associated with the Holocaust, I certainly feel that today’s perpetuators of these innumerable terrorist acts have the mindset of Nazi thugs.

 

Eli Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner, possibly was the most eloquent educator about the Nazi atrocities. Although Wiesel is best known for his voicing of the suffering of the Jewish people, Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace because of his efforts to promote international justice and human rights. Wiesel actively promoted the creation of Holocaust memorials around the world, introducing hundreds of thousands of people annually to these atrocities.

 

After his liberation from Buchenwald concentration camp, Wiesel took on two personal vocations—to bear witness to the Holocaust (the duty to remember) and to help ensure that such a genocide could never happen again (the duty to intervene). For the latter vocation he involved himself in humanitarian actions in far-away places (such as Bosnia or Cambodia), for which he rightly received the Nobel Prize for Peace.

 

Wiesel’s most famous book—Night—described the harrowing experience of his family’s 1944 capture, detainment in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, and their extermination. Wiesel, who wrote some 60 books that dealt with biblical and Talmudic themes, felt that his holocaust experience was his most profound influence. 

 

Living in the New York area for most of my career, I had the opportunity to hear Wiesel speak on a handful occasions. Furthermore, I attended a tribute to Wiesel at the 92nd Street Y on his 80th birthday. All of these occasions were personally moving. As an overview, Wiesel beautifully tied in his knowledge of the Talmud with his mission to protect victims of hatred and genocide. In accepting the Noble Prize, Wiesel said that he tried to fight those who would forget the Holocaust, because he felt that by forgetting, we become accomplices to further atrocities. 

 

“Night” was published in the late 1950’s and initially sold only a few thousand copies. In the era between 1945 and 1960, there was little interest in the Holocaust. In stark contrast, some 500,000 copies of Night are now sold annually.

 

 Two events— (1) the capture and trial of Adolph Eichmann who coordinated deportation of Jews in western, southern, and northern Europe to killing centers and (2) the Second Vatican Ecumenical—changed dramatically interest in the Holocaust. The Second Vatican Council altered the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. Specifically, in contrast to its historical role, the Church banned anti-Semitism at any time by anyone.  Church teachings explicitly, henceforth, reputed the charge that Jews were guilty of deicide. The Church also renounced the doctrine that Jews were “rejected or accursed by God.” 

 

The trial of Eichmann prompted a new openness in much of the developed world. Many Holocaust survivors who were “silenced by the norms of their society” felt enabled to confront this horrendous chapter in their lives and speak about their privations. This led to an outpouring of news articles, movies, and books that explicitly dealt with the Holocaust theme that continues to the present. 

 

In summary, the manner in which Eli Wiesel conducted his life and his abhorrence of intolerance served as a beacon. In these times of the most inhumane actions on the part of terrorists the world needs more people like him.