Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight program. I’m Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I’m Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 3
“Let us remember, let us remember the heroes of Warsaw, the people who died for their beliefs at Treblinka, the children of Auschwitz. They fought alone, they suffered alone, they lived alone, but they did not die alone, for something in all of us died with them.”
Voice 1
These words belong to Elie Wiesel. He is a Jew. And he is a survivor. He lived in Europe during the Second World War. The German Nazis killed about six million [6,000,000] Jews in Europe. This was the Holocaust. Elie survived this time. He says there are no words to describe these terrible events. But he will not be silent.
Voice 2
Jews were not the only non-military people killed during World War Two. The Nazis killed people with physical problems. And they killed people with different religious or political beliefs. Five million [5,000,000] other people died because the Nazis hated anyone who was not like them.
Voice 1
In 1928, Elie was born in Sighet, which is now part of Romania. He lived with his parents and his three sisters.
Voice 2
World War Two began in 1939. The Wiesel family heard about the terrible ways the Nazis were treating Jews in other countries. But Sighet had not seen the effects of the war. So Elie’s family believed they were safe.
Voice 1
But in 1944, the Nazis came to his town. They put his family and many other Jews on trains. These trains were supposed to move animals. But the Nazis used them to move people. The conditions on the train were bad. The trains were very full. The people travelled for many days without food. Many people died on the trains.
Voice 2
The trains took the Jews to concentration camps. At these camps, the Nazis separated the men from the women. They killed some people. They forced others to work. But they did not give them much food. At the camps, many people became sick and died.
Voice 1
The train took the Wiesel family to the Auschwitz concentration camp. There the Nazi guards separated Elie and his father from his mother and his sisters. He never saw them again. After the war, Elie learned that the Nazis killed his mother and one sister. Millions of Jews died from fire, gas poisoning, hunger, and sicknesses in these camps.
Voice 2
Elie and his father were not sent to die right away. They were strong enough to work. The Nazis forced them to work very hard. They were given very little food. Every day Elie and his father got weaker.
Voice 1
In the middle of winter the Nazis decided to move all the Jews from Elie’s camp to another place. For ten days they made the Jews run many miles in the snow. It was very cold. Most of them did not have shoes. They were starving. People that could not run fast enough were killed. Many more people died on these death marches.
Voice 2
After the run, the Nazis forced Elie and other survivors to get on another train. The train travelled for days. More people died. There were one hundred [100] people on Elie’s train. Only twelve [12] people were still alive when the trip was over. Elie and his father were still together.
Voice 1
Being with his father helped Elie not to give up. But over time, Elie’s father became too weak to move. Elie could do nothing. He watched his father die. He was all alone now. Elie was only fifteen [15].
Voice 2
Soon after Elie’s father died, the Nazis were defeated. All the Jews in the concentration camps were free. Elie had survived. But Elie already felt like he was dead. He did not want to live anymore. He did not think he had any reason to live.
Voice 1
For the next few years, Elie lived in a home for children without parents. There he re-united with his other two sisters. They had also survived the concentration camps.
Voice 2
After the war Elie began to write for newspapers. He wrote about the news in different parts of the world. But Elie did not write about his experiences during the war. For ten years he did not talk about the Holocaust. Later, he said:
Voice 3
“I waited for ten years. But I wanted to be sure that the words I would use are the right words. I was afraid of language.”
Voice 1
Then a friend told Elie that he should write his story. He wanted Elie to do it so that people would never forget about the Holocaust.
Voice 2
Elie listened to his friend. It was time to share his experiences. He wrote a book called ‘Night’. This book tells his story to millions of people around the world. He said:
Voice 3
“I wrote it not for myself. I wrote it for the other survivors who found it difficult to speak. And I wanted to tell them, ‘Look, you must speak. As poorly as we can express our feelings, our memories, we must still try’.”
Voice 1
But Elie Wiesel is not just a writer. He is also an activist. He has spent the rest of his life working for peace. He has defended refugees from Cambodia, victims of mass killing in Africa, and many more groups of people.
Voice 3
“I always try to listen to the victim... If I remain silent, I may help my own spirit but because I do not help other people, I poison my spirit. Silence never helps the victim.”
Voice 2
In 1986, Elie received the Nobel Peace Prize. He won it for opposing hate, violence and oppression against people of any race.
Voice 1
Because of Elie’s work, many peoples’ lives have been changed. This world is a better place because Elie chose to work for peace instead of keeping silent.
Voice 2
Elie Wiesel came from Jewish roots, but his work was for everyone. It is common for people to struggle for their own rights. But it is less common for people to struggle for other people’s rights. And two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ taught “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you, that you may be children of your Father in Heaven.”
Voice 1
Such teaching talks of the need to fight evil with love. The struggle for victims of violence, hate and injustice won a Nobel Prize for Elie Wiesel. The same struggle has an even greater prize for all people - the prize of a peaceful world, the way God wanted it to be.
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