16
TO REMEMBER
In the Beginning, there were the Six Days of Creation.
In the Holocaust, there were
The Six Days Of Destruction
BY ELIE WIESEL
Special to The Jewish News
In that time, terror negated
languages and borders and became a
world of its own and a universe apart.
It imprisoned and mutilated i4 vic-
tims and their dreams before reduc-
ing them to ashes. It deprived vic-
tims of their right to sunshine, and
the heart of its right to joy, the soul
of its right to solace. It ruled in the
heights as well as the depths and its
reign seemed eternal.
To escape it, Hava was ready to
abandon her home, her neighbors, the
familiar streets of her native city,
Kreinsdorf, somewhere in Germany.
"Let's leave," she urged her hus-
band. "Let's leave, Baroukh." "Not
yet," he answered. They didn't know
it, they couldn't know it, but in the
eyes of the enemy their fate was
already sealed.
For in those days, it was the enemy
who held open before him the Book
of Life and Death; it was he who in-
scribed the names there in letters of
black fire on white fire.
"What's the use of hurrying?" ask-
ed Baroukh. "We have time. Our
children go to school, our property
keeps us here, our friends have no
thought of fleeing, why should we
separate ourselves from our com-
munity?" "I'm afraid," answered
Hava, "that's all. I'm afraid, that's
enough for me." "Me too, I'm afraid.
And what then? For two thousand
years we've been afraid. As long as
a Jew is alive and as long as he's
Jewish, he is imbued with fear; is that
a reason for him to abandon every-
thing and set out for the unknown?"
Vayehi erev vayehi boker —
And the days passed, and the
nights also. Baroukh wasn't called
only Baroukh, and Hava had other
names. Everywhere, in Jewish
families, the same agonizing discus-
sions troubled parents and children.
And none of them could have
suspected that somewhere, in an or-
dinary office in Berlin, the debate had
already been settled a long time ago.
"For the sake of our daughter who
is expecting a baby, for the sake of
our son who is following the call of
God, let's leave, let's leave while it's
it.P.A.P..)../,.!
still possible," said Hava who also
was named Leah or Sheindl or Rosa
or Feifele. "Where do you want to
go?" answered Baroukh, who could
also be called Zelig or Yaakov or
Leon. "Here, at least, we're known.
Elsewhere, we will be undesirable
strangers."
Both of them were right, but they
didn't know it.
In those days, in order to survive,
one had to appear pessimistic. One
had to tear oneself away from or-
dinary life, from the comfort of
habits and familiar surroundings,
and to flee quickly, to flee far away,
as far as possible; one had to sacrifice
property acquired by several genera-
tions of relatives at the price of their
toil and tears. One had to succumb
to the most violent despair and to
shake off any illusions which con-
nected the Jew to the present: this is
the way it is and we can't do
anything about it: the Jew can live
only by going beyond himself, he can
exist only in the past and in the
future, never in the present if he is
cut off from his past and his future.
In order to survive, he must turn his
back on the present moment, run
with his last breath to find himself
alive on the other side of the border,
away from the abyss.
However, collective departure for
exile is not a simple matter. A corn-
' munity does not voluntarily uproot
itself in one night. It needs heaven to
meet it halfway. A sign is necessary,
a clear sign. Perhaps an earthquake
is needed.
Unfortunately, Death advanced
too slowly. Baroukh didn't see it, few
had the courage to look it in the face
as it approached to enshroud with its
cloak thousands and thousands of
Jewish communities, still flourishing
and already marked.
"We will live, we will survive," said
Baroukh."The ordeal is not new. We
will overcome it."
"But the threats," asked Hava,
seized by a growing panic. "And the
raids? And the burnt synagogues?
And the concentration camps?"
"That the enemy is savage and
. *4
.
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This drawing, by an inmate at Terezin, depicts concentration camp, with wooden bunks.
cruel, that his hatred is contagious
and fertile and malevolent, I don't
doubt," answered Baroukh. "But his
wild outbursts, they're not to be
taken seriously. He will calm down,
he will be forced to calm down. After
all, we are living in the 20th century.
Furthermore, we are living in a coun-
try whose common heritage and
cultural life are the envy of nations:
it's not here, not now, that they will
begin to massacre the Jews,"
However, the enemy imposed his
laws: forbidden for Jews to hold of-
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"In that time it was the
enemy who held open in
front of him the Book of
Life of Death; it was he
who inscribed names
there in letters of black
fire or letters of white
fire."
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