Elie Wiesel

Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone.

It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. And anyone who does not remember betrays them again.

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.