t Si ence
BY JOSEPH AARON
Special to The Jewish News
r
and Vision of Elie Wiesel,
(Holocaust Library, $85 ► , a
three-volume work that pro-
vides, for the first time,
nothing less than the com-
plete Wiesel.
On the fate of Soviet Jewry:
Abrahamson made the ef-
"The letters of the Russian
fort, he says, for "many,
Jews to the world sound like
many reasons. He's an impor-
historic documents of the
tant writer, a first-class
15th and 16th centuries. I am
convinced these letters will
writer; and it's crucial his
become part of bur liturgy, as
material be preserved and
they already are part of our
protected, from a Jewish
history. If we do not do our
point of view and a literary
share toward making their
point of view.
revolution a success, we will
"I did it also for my
be guilty in history. IL the
parents, for the six million,
Jews of Russia feel that we
for the Jewish people. I did it
have abandoned them and
because I wanted to do it."
failed them, I ain convinced
Abrahamson met Wiesel 'as
that they will try to commit
a result of a review he had
cultural suicide."
done of one of Wiesel's books
On the impact of the
and had gotten to know him :liolocaust
on Jewish life:
fairly well. "One day .I said to !,"After Auschwitz, every-
Elie, 'Look, there's going to ' thing brings us back to
come a time when people are
Auschwitz, even as all 'ques-
going to Avant to track down
tions pertaining to Auschwitz
everything you've said Peo-
lead to anguish. No matter
what we do, no matter what
ple N' alue your work and you
sho'ild do something abodt
it.. Niesel agreed, but said
For once in hand, it was
"he wouldn't let anyone else
then a matter of taking those
do it except me."
words and editing them, re-
Wiesel gave Abrahamson
vising, adapting, organizing,
full access to his files, but
Wiesel's files didn't have classifying by, subject mat-
ter, by date, deleting phrases
many of Wiesel's words.
"People think he gave me that appeared in more than
the stuff, I typed it up and one place, making connec-
that was it. It wasn't like tions. All done without the
aid of a computer and with
that at all. It was very, very
Abrahamson typing much of
hard,"
the material himself.
And very, very long. .
"There were moments," he
In all, it took Abrahamson
a decade, a lot of his own admits, "that it felt like it
money, a three-year leave of was too big a job. But I knew
absence from his job and a lot that once I started I had to
go all the way. It was just too
of perseverance.
Abrahamson's search took• important."
. him to Canada, Europe, Is-
Important, says Abraham-
reel, and all over the United, son, because of who Wiesel is.
"He is someone who almost
States, to archives, newapap
ers, public libraries, private single-handedly put, and has
kept, the Holocaust in the
individuals;
'Inevitably, the first reac- forefront. He was the first to
tion was 'I don't, I can't, I put the plight of Soviet
won't.' But slowly, it started Jewry on the front pages.
to become, 'I did, I can, I He's always been where it
counts and not just for Jews.
. will.' "
And slowly Abrahamson Cambodia, Biafra, he's there
began compiling Wiesel's and he's not afraid."
Important, too, says Ab-
words. But thritwas still just
•rahamson, because of what
the beginnirig.
A Sampling Of Wiesers Words
the subject, no matter in
what direction we go, some-
how we end up studying the
Holocaust as though all ques-
tions and perhaps even all
answers are embodied in it —
and truly they are." '
•
8 ' A' A' A' A' CA' a' AT 'A'
e CA' A' a' a'
A'
A' A' CA
WA'A`VOWAY*•*•*•A'a.'*,*,
On hisfirst visit to the
Western Wall: "They tell me
this is the Wall. No. I do not
believe it. I am not able — I
am afraid to believe it, Deep
down, of course, I realize that
they are right, that indeed it
is the very Wall. Which Jew
cannot recognize it instantly?
Yet I cannot believe it is I
who now stand before it, gaz-
ing as if in a dream, breath-
lessly confronting it as
though it were a living being,
omnipotent, all knowing,
master of the secrets of the
universe, a man of stone who
has raised himself outside
'
Wiesel has
to say and how he
says it. „ As a speaker, no one
can match him. As a writer,
he's incomparable. He draws
on a background other Jew-
ish writers can't or don't
want to or don't know. There
is a richness to his work that
doesn't exist in others. He
has the words, he has the si-
lences, he has the vision.”
The three volume work be-
gins with a lengthy and infor-
mative introductory essay by
Abrahamson to Wiesel, his
words and his silences. The
first entry,is a letter Wiesel
wrote to the Jewish Daily
Forward about a 1941 mas-
sacre of Jews in Hungary.
The third volume ends with
Wiesel's speech to the chil-
dren of Holocaust survivors.
In between, there are hun-
dreds of different pieces,
most just a page or two,
divided into 21 different
categories, including works
on Jewish identity, Jerusa-
lem, Soviet Jewry, writers
and writing, friends and
teachers, education and
.
,
and above time, a being that
bears me to a strange and dis-
tant world, where each stone
has its own will, fate and
memory. I cannot believe
that it is I who have con-
ceived such stormy fantasies,
that it is I who now tremble
- like a wisp in the wind."
On his mission: "Since I
live, I must be faithful to
memory. Though I want to
celebrate the sun, to sing of
love, I must be the emissary
of the dead, even though the
role`is painful. If we study to
forget, live to die, then why?
I write to understand as
much as to be understo
Literature is an act of co
science. It is up to us
rebuild with memories, wit
ruins and ith, maim;
grace."
rabbis, because anyone at
anytime who will want to find
out who we are and what we
are going to be will have to
face up to Wiesel, will have to
pay attention to him, will
hav,e to come to these books.
But Elie doesn't write for
scholars. He's a forever kind
of writer and this is a forever
kind of book. People who
don't understrind him
through his other books will
be able to understand him
through this. That's vital
because the future belongs to
the young. If they read and
really understand what's in
there, our future is secure. It
is a book for everyone and it
will make everyone probe
more deeply into themselves
than they ever have."
The ability to make people
do that, says Abrahamson, is
what makes Wiesel one , of a
kind.
The most recent proof of
that was Wiesel's pul3lic plea
to President Reagan not to
visit the Nazi military cem-
etery at Bitburg. Wiesel, said
Abrahamson, handled the sit-
uation "as beautifully as it
possibly could have been
handled."
Wiesel's words on Bitburg
would be. a beautiful way to
start the fourth volume of
Against Silence, Abraham-
son says, noting that there is
probably already enough'
material to fill another op
bk.
But, for now, Abraham on
says he wants to focus on the
three volumes he's finished,
and enjoy. Wiesel, he says, is
doing the same. "I haveri't
seen him as happy in .a long
time."
"For 10 years after he came
out of the camps, Wiesel took
a vow of silence," says Abra-
hamson. "Then he wrote his
memoir, Night, which said we
must be. against, silence,
against evil. Everything he's
written since says we can't be -
silent in the face of evil, we
can't be silent in the face of
wrongdoing. That's the Jew-
ish message. That's Elie Wie-
sel's message." 0
,
,
youth, Israel.
And though Wiesel is pri-
marily identified as a Holo-
caust writer, only one section
is devoted directly to the
Holocaust. Though, in a way,
says Abrahamson, every-
thing Wiesel writes is related
tr, the Holocaust.
" l'he Holocaust' made such,
an impact on him, it's in-
evitable that he sees life
thereafter through it. For
Wiesel, all roads lead to the
Holocaust. He sees the world
from a very special angle that
affects everything."
The result of that special
angle, says Abrahamson, is
that "there is not one page in
the books that won't make
you think about who you are;
where you come from, what
you are, why."
And that is exactly one of
the "purposes of the book,
says Abrahamson. "It's in-
tended for two audiences. I
wanted to, preserve the
material for historians,
theologians, philosophers,
moralists, writers, scholars,