Quotes

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. [Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1986]

[on arriving for internment at Auschwitz] Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which had turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke behind a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget those things, even if I am condemned to live long as God himself. Never.

I don't know how I survived. I was weak, rather shy. I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not. If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for others rather more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than chance.

[a happier time, 1957] I don't know if a Garden of Eden awaits adults in the hereafter. I do know, though, that there is a Garden of Eden for children here in this life. I know because I myself visited this paradise. I have just returned from there, just passed through its gates, just left the magical kingdom known as Disneyland. And as I bade that kingdom farewell, I understood for the first time the true meaning of the French saying 'to leave is to die a little' [partir, c'est mourir in peu'].

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.