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Night by Elie Wiesel: The Lessons of the Holocaust: Courage to Care

Through Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, the reader gets a sense of what it was like to be a young person caught in the maelstrom of the Nazi Holocaust and the growing darkness that resulted in a never-ending night of prejudice, devastation, and death.

Eternal Flame in the Hall of Remembrance

Yad Vashem

Resistance and Rescue

Psychological and Moral Implications

The Courage to Care

"In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted an attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care. These few men and women were vulnerable, afraid, helpless - what made them different from their fellow citizens?… Why were there so few?… Let us remember: What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander…. Let us not forget, after all, there is always a moment when a moral choice is made…. And so we must know these good people who helped Jews during the Holocaust. We must learn from them, and in gratitude and hope, we must remember them."

Elie Wiesel