The
news of Eli Wiesel’s death was painful beyond words. A hero to many
of my generation and a spokesman for all Holocaust survivors. He was
the voice of the silent. The one million children, the six million
Jews along with and the seven million Gentiles all considered by the
Nazis to be “untermention” or subhuman. The people labeled as
subhuman were taken to death camps to be worked to death by
starvation, or gassed to death with Ziklon B and then cremated. Their
ashes mashed together with so many others as to be indistinguishable
as individuals. Even “untermention” are deserving of a name and
an ability to be recognized by their families. Hitler had a plan to
eradicate the History of the Jews and those who were classified in
the same subhuman category. The mentally disabled, the gypsies,
anyone who opposed Hitler’s plan all were treated to the label of
“untermention” and their destiny was also to be identical to that
of the Jews. Eli Wiesel dedicated his life to resurrecting the lives
of those people unable to speak for themselves.
The
perpetrator of this unspeakable and manycle plan were to have a
destiny more gracious then his victims. Hitler has his place in
History while his victims are lost to history by their destiny. Eli
Wiesel was their voice in a world that would have otherwise not known
what that destiny was like. The loss of Eli Wiesel is the lost of a
quiet but powerful voice that gave the millions of victims of the
Shoah a voice of life, in a world that would have otherwise forgotten
them. Eli Wiesel gave other survivors the strength and courage to
tell their stories and many of them were emboldened enough to record
their stories so that the slogan “never again” would be a
testimonial to the thirteen million lives lost in the crematoria of
Hitler’s Germany. Eli Wiesel was the pebble high on the hill that
began to roll down and instigated an avalanche which would caused
Jews and non-Jews all over the world to remember and call out for all
to hear “Zachor” and the Shoah took on new meaning. Eli Wiesel’s
impact was profound and while thirteen million were lost in the
crematoria of Europe millions were awaken to the truth of Nazi
Germany.
More
attention was given to the coming Olympics than this giant of a
humanitarian. It speaks more about us and our values. I picked up the
New York Times the Sunday after Eli Wiesel’s death expecting full
well a large article about Eli Wiesel’s life and his gift to
humanity but instead silence. As a student of theology, many of my
teachers in the private schools in the Jewish community were
Holocaust survivors since they were hardly able to do anything else
they became teachers in parochial religious schools throughout the
Northeast. Later in life, I considered it a blessing. I understood
the opportunity that I had been given to be by their side. However,
while their bodies survived many of them were so wounded spiritually,
so alone, so haunted, that their survival was hardly a gift but
rather a torment. I’m sure they asked themselves every day “why
me”! Why did I survive?
Many
of them have lost entire family's brother’s, sister's, mother’s
and father’s, some even lost spouses and children grabbed from the
safety of their homes trained across Eastern Europe in cattle cars,
like animals, ultimately lead to reach their destination, a death
camp where they would be starved and work to death. and worked to
death They watching loved ones die and friends turned into skin and
bone.
After
I graduated from yeshiva high school I was visiting with a friend and
we began to talk about a common teacher of ours, Rabbi R for the
purposes of this writing, I said Rabbi R’ was a very special man
and I remember him with fondness. My friend responded, “did you
know that Rabbi R lost his entire family wife and six children in the
Holocaust”. I did not know. My friend went on, “after coming to
America he remarried started a new family and began again”. I shook
my head in disbelief. “How does someone begin again after watching
their family murdered and surviving the death camp that took their
family”? Then I uttered the words;" how do you start over
after watching that”? My friend responded " that is why he so
admired by all of his colleagues! It is because of his faith, deep
and abiding faith! Eli Wiesel often questioned his faith having seen
the horror of mans inhumanity to man but he always returned to
instruct his students that it was fine to question faith but not to
abandon faith.
Once
we abandon faith in God, we also abandon faith in man. I, for one,
don’t want to be that kind of cynic.
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