'I Heard the Voice ... I Felt a Great Void'

By ELIE WIESEL

mean, Lord of the Universe, in the
• face of all this weakness, this de-
composition, and this decay? Why
do You still trouble their sick
minds, their crippled bodies?"
Ten thousand men had come to
The summer was coming to an , attend the solemn service, heads of
end. The Jewish year was nearly the blocks, Kapos, functionaries of
death.
over.
On the eve of Rosh Hashana, the
"Bless the Eternal .. ."
the last day of that accursed year, The voice of the officiant had just
the whole camp made itself heard. I thought men
was electric with ' prostrated themselves like trees
the tension which before a tempest.
was in all our
"Blessed be the Name of the
hearts. In spite of
Eternal!"
everything, this
Why, but why should I bless
day was different Him? In every fiber I rebelled.
from any other. Because He had had thousands of
The last dayf
°- children burned in His pits? Be-
year.
"last" The
rang word
very cause He kept six crematories
strangely. What if working night and day, on Sundays
it were indeed the and feast days? Because in His
great might He had created Au-
Wiese'
last day7
schwitz, Birkenau, Buna and so
They gave us our evening meal. many factories of death? How could
a very thick soup, but no one touch- I say to Him: "Blessed art Thou,
ed it. We wanted to wait until after Eternal. Master of the Universe,
prayers. At the place of assembly, two chose us from among the
surrounded by the electrified barb- races to be tortured day and night,
ed wire, thousands of silent Jews to see our fathers, our mothers, our
gathered, their faces stricken. brothers, end in the crematory?
Night was falling. Other prison- Praised be Thy holy Name. Thou
ers continued to crowd in. from who host chosen us to be butchered
every block, able suddenly to con- on Thine Altar?"
quer time and space and submit
I heard the voice of the officiant
both to their will.
"What are You, my God•" I rising up, powerful yet at the same
thought angrily, "compared to this time broken, amid the tears, the
afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You sobs, the sighs of the whole congre-
their faith; their anger, their re- ° atom:
"All the earth and the universe
volt? What does Your greatness
are God's!"
He kept stopping every moment.
1J as though he did not have the
New Year Greetings
strength to find the m eaning
beneath the words. The melody
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choked in his throat.
Everything in Aluminum
And I. mystic that I had be.m.
Canvas, Fiberglas Awnings

From "Night' by Elie Wiese!. Copy-
right Les Editions de Minnit, 1958.
English translation copyright Mac-
Gibbon & Kea, IMO. Used with per-
mission of Ittli end Wang. Inc., New
York, N.Y.

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ment.
Should we fast? The question was

so We should show God that even
here, in this enclosed hell, we were
capable of singing His praises.
I did not fast, mainly to please
my father, who had forbidden me
to do so. But further, there was no
longer any reason why I should
fast. I no longer accepted God's
silence. As I swallowed my bowl of
soup, I saw in the gesture an act
c.f rebellion and protest.
And I nibbled my crust of bread.
In the depths of my heart, I felt

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a

over his parents, over his children,
over his brothers, and over him-
self.
We stayed for a long time at the
assembly place. No one dared to
drag himself away from this mi-
rage. Then it was time to go to bed
and slowly the prisoners made
their way over to their blocks. I
heard people wishing one another a
Happy New Year!
I ran off to look for my father.
And at the same time I was afraid
of having to wish him a Happy
New Year when I no longer be-
lieved in it.
He was standing near the wall.
bowed down, his shoulders sagging
as though beneath a heavy burdefi.
I went up to him, took his hand
and kissed it. A tear fell upon it.
Whose was that tear? Mine? His?
I said nothing. Nor did he. We had
never understood one another so
clearly.
The sound of the bell jolted us
back to . qlity. We had to go to
bed. We came back from far away.
I raised my eyes to look at my
father's face leaning over mine, to
to to discover a smile or some-
thing resembling one upon the

a great void.

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

1.9 CI 0 0 0 Lajas Q9

The service ended with the Kad-
dish. Everyone recited the Kaddish

1. whole year was Yom Kippur. But
others said that we should fast sim-
1 ply because it was dangerous to do

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a surer, swifter death. We fasted
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"All creation bears witness to

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-61

the greatness of God!"
Once, New Year's Day had dom-
Extends Its Heartfelt Best Wishes
inated my life. I knew that my sins
for a Happy New Year
grieved the Eternal, I implored his
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forgiveness. Once, I had believed
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profoundly that upon one solitary
deed of mine, one solitary prayer,
depended the salvation of the -
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This day I had ceased to plead.
I was no longer capable of lamen-
tation. On the contrary, I felt very
strong. I was the accuser, God the
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without God and without man.
Without love or mercy. I had
ceased to be anything but ashes. ---
yet I felt myself to be stronger
than the Almighty, to whom my
Happy New Year
life had been tied for so long. I
stood amid that praying congrega-
tion observing it like a stranger.

"Yes, man is very strong.
greater than God. When You
were deceived by Adam and Eve.
You drove them out of Paradise.
When Noah's generation dis-
pleased You, You brought down
the Flood. When Sodom no longer
found favor in Your eyes, You
made the sky rain down fire ay.,
sulphur. But these men here.
whom You have betrayed, whom aced, dried - up countenance. Noth-
You have allowed to be tortured, ing. Not the shadow of an expres-
butchered, gassed, burned, what sion. Beaten.
.
Yom Kippur. The Day of Atone-

Holiday Greetings to My Friends and CustoMers

I

do they do? They pray before
You! They praise Your Name!"

Friday, September 12, 1969

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Best Wishes to the Entire Jewish Community
For A Year of blealth and Happiness

