Which side are you on?
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must, at that moment, become the center of the universe.
Elie Wiesel, Dec. 10, 1986, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Elie was a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, and Holocaust survivor.
Elie Wiesel at the 2012 Time 100 gala.
Photo By David Shankbone - Own work, CC BY 3.0
Buchenwald concentration camp, photo taken April 16, 1945, five days after liberation of the camp. Elie Wiesel is in the second row from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the bunk post.
