MY INTERVIEW WITH ELIE WIESEL

By Jaqueline Hamrick

Q: Were your family or community expecting the transfer to Auschwitz that took place in your town?

A: No, not one of us had expected this to happen to us, maybe to other but not us. It was unthinkable, who would do that type of thing to innocent people? I did have a friend at the time, Moche the Beadle, whom believed it would occur. I wish we would have listened to him at the beginning, but it may have not made a difference. They all would have died just the same.

Q: When you and your father were separated from your mother and sister, did you realize they would be executed immediately or had you believed they would live? A: When I saw my mother and young sister,

Tzipora, go to the right, I knew that it would be the last time I would see them. I had no doubt in my mind that their journey was over, they would be killed. My sister was so young at the time and my mother was not capable of doing labor. If I could have, I would have taken my sister’s place. She will never live the life that God had planned for her, never marry, and never love a man.

Q: Did you have an experience at Auschwitz that you believe was better than the others?

A: There was not one single time that I enjoyed my stay in Auschwitz. I had been imprisoned in anyone’s worst nightmare. One cannot have a good time in a place where death is the norm. In a killing factory there is no good, only evil.

Q: What was the one emotion you felt the most while in the concentration camp?

A: Ha, one emotion, no I did not feel one emotion. I had either felt a combination of emotions like hatred, anger, depression, fear, and pity, or I felt no emotion at all. I believe that is one of the things that the concentration camp took from me, my ability to have my own feelings. They demanded everything inside and out.

Q: So you were fifteen at the time this occurred. If this had not happened, what do you believe you would have

done differently in life?

A: This is a question I think of often. What would I have done with my life, if I had not had it taken from me and demolished by demons? See, my father was the head of our community. I may have taken his place or I may have become a rabbi. The events that happened led me to doing neither, I had no chance. My father died and I began to lose my faith. I am not proud of this but yet it is true. God had begun to be of less importance to me; I could not have been a true rabbi without my faith.

Q: Was there any time during your stay that you had wanted to kill someone for revenge?

A: Death was the new normal during this time. For someone else to die meant no bother to me, but I do not believe I could have killed someone myself. So many people had started out with the same thinking as I did but turned to darkness when they became lost. Even in my darkest hour I would not have killed someone on purpose. For the men around me, this was not the same. They killed with no regret because they believed it was justified. An eye for an eye.

Q: Hitler, the commander and chief of your Hell. How do you feel about him? Was he a big topic of talk in the concentration camp?

A: Hitler may have been the man in charge but there were so many men involved in our pain. Yes. Many will blame solely him but you must also think of the thousands of men under his control. Don’t get me wrong, I despise him with every part of my soul but he is not the only one. While in the concentration camp, few mentioned his name. One man mentioned that he was the only person in the business that kept his promise. He succeeded in killing millions of Jews.

Q: Have you kept in touch with any of the other survivors?

A: No, I have not, we may share the same pain but none of us want to relive it together.

Q: Do you ever wish you had not survived and were with your family?

A: Never. My mother and father would have despised me for thinking this. My father worked hard to keep me alive and I would not allow it to be in vain. I am grateful for this chance to continue to live and be able to tell my story to others.

Q: If there was anything you could have done differently, what would it be?

A: I would have kept my gold tooth. I gave it because my father was being beaten for it. The next day the men that threatened me were transferred, along with my tooth. I could have used this for rations or, maybe, when my father had been dying I could have paid the doctor to treat him better. I was a boy at the time and I was afraid.