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Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel3 posts
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1 Nov, 2000

O Magazine interview

Interview0 Comments

Wiesel talks about hie memoir Night:

I wrote that, but I didn’t hate. I just felt terribly angry and humiliated. At that point, our disappointment was not with the Germans but with the Hungarians. They had been our neighbors [before they joined forces with the Nazis and captured us]. The moment we left our homes, they became vultures. They came into our house and robbed us of everything. And I was terribly disappointed. I used the word hate because that was the strongest feeling I could imagine having. But when I think about it now, there was no hate in me. I grew up learning that hate destroys the hater as much as its victim. I didn’t hate the Germans, so how can I hate the Hungarians?