Never Shall I Forget

“Never Shall I Forget” –

Not my kind of sleepwear

Penned and immortalized by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, these words echo the travesty he endured while living inside the darkened gray walls of a Nazi concentration camp. His life’s work has been to bring awareness to the injustice borne to the Jewish population during the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler.

     I own a few of the books written by Mr. Wiesel- in his novel “The Night” the  imagery, dark language and descriptive accounts of the horrors that occurred within the camp made me sick inside. From that book, I learned the meaning of hatred expressed in the form of brutal torture.

     There are also many books about the Holocaust and a few movies. One story in particular, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, depicts the friendship between two young boys who happen to see each other through a barbed wire fence in an isolated work camp. They become fast friends -in spite of their circumstances, for they know not the meaning of prejudice. The story was based on truth and demonstrates innocence, camaraderie and loyalty in the face of all that seems hard and cruel.  

The meaning of Friendship

   Our freedoms and the people who helped to foster them bear the responsibility of being remembered not just on certain “holidays” – but the“in-between-days” as well. Liberty-taken for granted may lull some people into forgetting those whose lives were deeply scarred while laying this foundation.

     If we choose apathy over action, ourselves over our neighbor, our own agenda over the betterment of our community – then mankind begins a slow decaying process.

                                 No voice, no cry goes unheard.