Hath not a Jew eyes?
Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions;
fed with the same food,
hurt with the same weapons,
subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
- Shylock
Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice Act III Scene I
Night
Night
Night
The Bible begins with God’s creation of the earth.
When God first begins His creation, the Earth is
“without form, and void; and darkness [is]
upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2).
God’s first act is to create light and dispel the
darkness.
For Elie Wiesel, darkness and night symbolize
a world without God.
Night is always when the suffering is worst,
and the presence of darkness reflects
Eliezer’s belief that his has become a world
without the presence of God.
Elie Wiesel
• Elie Wiesel is the author of Night, his famous
memoir of his terrifying and tragic experiences
during the Holocaust. He was 15 years old when he
and his family were deported to Auschwitz, the
notorious Nazi death camp and symbol of genocide
and terror. His mother and younger sister died there,
while his two older sisters survived. Wiesel and his
father were later transported to Buchenwald, where
his father died shortly before the camp was liberated
in April 1945.
• The internationally acclaimed Night has been
published in more than 30 languages. Wiesel has
received more than 100 honorary degrees from
institutions of higher learning. He received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He has also been
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and the Medal of
Liberty Award. President Jimmy Carter appointed
him as chairman of the President’s Commission on
the Holocaust. He also became the founding
chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial
Council.
• Shortly after receiving the Nobel Prize, he and his
wife, Marion, established The Elie Wiesel
Foundation for Humanity, an organization
dedicated to combating indifference, intolerance,
and injustice though international dialogues and
youth-focused programs that promote acceptance,
understanding, and equality.
• Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of
Sighet, now part of 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, La Nuit, a
memoir of his experiences in the concentration
camps. He has since authored nearly thirty books
some of which use these events as their basic
material. 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. He has been outspoken on the plight of
Soviet Jewry, on Ethiopian Jewry and on behalf of
the State of Israel today.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressing the
Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran on Friday, October 5, 2007,
reiterated his denial of the Holocaust and called for a
referendum to remove the State of Israel from the Middle
East.
"Those who cannot
remember the past
are condemned to
repeat it."
George Santayana: Life of Reason, 1905
“Arbeit macht frei”
(“Work makes you free”)
VIdeo 2
VIdeo 1