Chapter 2 Author's Preface

If I could only write one book in my life, it would be this book.Past and present are always intertwined and inextricably linked.After I wrote it, all my other writings, whether about the Bible, or the Talmud, or the Hasidic teachings, bear the imprint of this book.It's hard for people to understand my other books if they haven't read my first book. Why am I writing this book? Why am I writing this book?In order not to go crazy?Or on the contrary, in order to understand the nature of madness, in order to understand the hideous madness that suddenly bursts out of history and human consciousness?

Or is it to leave a written legacy, a memory, to prevent history from repeating itself? Or simply want to keep a record of suffering?I experienced that ordeal as a boy, before all my understanding of death and evil was limited to literary descriptions. Some say I survived writing this book, I can't say for sure.I don't even know how I survived, I was weak and frightened, and I hardly did anything to save myself.Is it a miracle?of course not.If God can show miracles for me, why not show miracles for someone more worthy?It's just an opportunity.However, since I survived, I have to live meaningfully.Could it be that in order to defend this meaning, I resorted to writing about my originally meaningless life experience?

I asked myself, and I had to admit, I don't know, I don't know what was the purpose of writing this book in the first place.All I know is that without this record, my life as a writer, or my entire life, would have been very different.If the enemy can erase all evil from the memory of mankind, they will win the final victory.As a Witness, I firmly believe that I have a responsibility and an obligation not to let them have their way. In recent years, many documents have come to light, which show that, as soon as the Nazis took power in Germany, they wanted to create a society that did not allow Jews to survive.Before their demise, the Nazis changed their goals: They decided to leave behind a devastated world where the Jewish people never seemed to exist.That's why in Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania, the "Final Solution" was everywhere implemented by the SA, they turned their machine guns, and killed millions of Jews, leaving no men, women, or children behind, and dumped their bodies in huge mass graves. It was dug just before the victim's death.Squads dragged the bodies out of the pit and burned them.Thus, for the first time in history, the Jews were killed twice and deprived of a cemetery for burial.

It is obvious that the war waged by Hitler and his accomplices was not only against the Jews, but also against the Jewish religion, Jewish culture and Jewish tradition, and even against Jewish memory. I firmly believe that sooner or later this history will be judged fairly, and I must testify.I know I have a lot to say, but I can't find the right words.Painfully aware of my own inadequacy, language was a hindrance, and I could do nothing but sigh as I clearly needed to invent a new language.But how can a language desecrated and misinterpreted by its enemies be revitalized and transformed?Hunger—thirst—fear—escort—big pick—burn—chimney—these words had their own meanings, but in those days they all meant something else.I wrote in my mother tongue—my mother tongue was on the verge of extinction at the time—I wrote a sentence, stopped, and started over and over again.I often think of another word, another image, another silent cry, and it still feels like the words don't convey the meaning.What it is?It sneaks in the dark, hiding in the dark for fear of being tampered with and desecrated.The words in the dictionary are empty and pale, without vitality.We sat in a closed cattle car, going nowhere, how to describe that last trip?Or, in a mad, spooky universe, where the human and the inhuman are all reversed, where well-organized, well-bred men in uniform kill as soon as they arrive, innocent children and feeble old men go to their deaths, How should this be described?On a night of burning flames, countless relatives were forcibly separated overnight, and the entire family and the entire community were torn apart. What kind of tragic scene is that?A slim, charming, well-behaved, blond-haired, smiling Jewish girl arrived at her destination with her mother and was executed that very night. Who could believe it?How can people not be terrified and heartbroken whenever they think of these things?

In all honesty, eyewitnesses then believed, and still believe, that their testimony would not be believed because such events took place in the darkest regions of humanity.Only those who have been to Auschwitz and those who have been there will know the true face of the matter, and others will never know. Will people finally understand the truth? People usually help the weak, rescue the dying, protect the young, respect the wisdom of the elderly, can those men and women understand what happened?Can they comprehend how, in that damned world, those who held the power of life and death trampled on the weak, how they murdered the children, the sick, and the old?

People who have had this kind of life experience, no matter how difficult it may be, cannot keep their mouths shut and will tell the truth whenever they get the chance. So I teach and forbear, I believe that silence is golden, silence can cover words, and go beyond words.I have always believed that a field of Birkenauer littered with ashes carries more weight than any material about Birkenauer.Although I have tried everything to say the unspeakable, it is still not ideal. I wrote the manuscript of "But the World Was Silent" in Yiddish and translated it into French and English.François Mauriac, the Nobel Prize winner in literature and a great Catholic French writer, persisted in running around for the publication of this book, but every major publisher, whether in France or the United States, returned the manuscript .Why?After months and months of correspondence, phone conversations and door-to-door meetings, he finally succeeded and the book was published.

Although I have made extensive abridgements, the original Yiddish manuscript is still too long.Jerome Lyndon, the legendary leader of the small but prestigious Midnight Press, edited the French edition of this book, and he made extensive cuts to the French translation.I accepted his decision because I was worried that some things would be too long, and only the material was the most important thing.I worry more about talking too much than too little. For example, in the Yiddish edition, the book begins with some pessimistic musings: God's divine spark, our eyes and hearts see the light and shadow of God's image.

In the original Yiddish manuscript, there are passages that speak of my father and the emancipation of the Jews.Why doesn't the new translation include these?Perhaps these passages are so personal and personal that they should be lost between the lines.but: In the Yiddish version, the book ends not with a mirror image but with a melancholy reflection on the status quo: Readers have the right to ask, the old translation has been circulating for forty-five years, why is there a new translation?If it wasn't for faith, if it wasn't because the old translation wasn't good enough, why did I wait so long to replace the old one with a better one, closer to the original?

I would like to answer this way, I was an unknown and fledgling author earlier, and my English was not very good.When the British publisher told me he had a translator, I couldn't wait for it.Later I read that translation, and it felt good, but I never read it again.Since then, many of my works have been translated by my wife, Marion, who understands my voice better than anyone else.I was lucky that when Farah, Strauss and Giros asked her to prepare a new translation, she accepted.I believe readers will appreciate her translation.In fact, thanks to her tireless editing and processing, I was able to correct and revise many important details.

So, I re-read old works from many years ago.I'm glad it didn't take long for the new translation to come out, but I'm still a bit confused, is my wording relevant?I talked about my first night in a concentration camp.Inside the barbed wire, I saw the living reality.A "senior" prisoner advised my father and me not to reveal our actual ages, that my father should act younger and I should act older.Then came the "big pick", people lined up under the indifferent sky towards the black chimney in the distance, some babies were thrown into the burning ditch... I didn't say they were thrown into it alive , I just thought so.But I still convinced myself: No, they are dead, otherwise I would definitely go crazy.However, the companions all saw the babies, who were still alive when they were thrown into the fire.Historians, especially Delford Taylor, confirm this.It appears that I am not insane.

Before ending this introduction, I think there is a very important question. I feel strongly that books, like people, have their own destiny. Some books make people sad, some books make people happy, and some books make people both. There are. As I mentioned just now, forty-seven years ago, the publication of the book suffered repeated setbacks in France.Although the book received rave reviews, sales were poor.Its subject matter is creepy and uninteresting.If a rabbi occasionally brought up the book in his sermon, people complained that it was pointless to let children carry the tragedy of the Jewish past. Later, the situation changed drastically.People have embraced the book far more than I expected.Today, American high school and college students, among others, read this book as a textbook. How to explain this phenomenon?First, there was a major shift in public attitudes. In the 1950s and 1960s, those who were born before or during World War II were indifferent to the so-called "Holocaust."Things are very different now. Previously, few publishers would have dared to publish books on this subject. Today, most book catalogs carry such books.The same is true in academia.Previously, few schools offered courses on this type of content.Today, many schools offer such courses.Strange to say, this kind of class is so popular now.The subject matter of Auschwitz became an integral part of mainstream culture.Films, plays, novels, international conferences and exhibitions abound, and state officials all attend relevant commemorative events.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., which has welcomed more than 22 million visitors since it opened in 1993, is a stunning example. Perhaps the public, knowing that the number of survivors is dwindling, is willing to listen to survivors tell stories about the past.In the end, of course, it's all about reminiscing about the past, about its origin, importance, and influence. Clearly, there is a duty to provide historical witness to both the dead and the living on the part of survivors who are willing to provide evidence.He has no right to deprive future generations of the memory of the past, which belongs to our collective memory.Forgetting the past is not only dangerous but also harmful, and forgetting the dead is tantamount to killing them a second time. Sometimes people ask me if I have ever heard of "Auschwitz Answered Prayers", and I reply that not only have I never heard of it, but I don't even know that such a major tragedy has answered prayers.I just know that responsibility requires a "response".Whenever we refer to that age of evil and darkness—so near, yet so far away—“responsibility” is the key word. Witnesses must come forward and be witnesses, for the youth of today, for the children of tomorrow, he does not want his past to be their future.