Chapter 13 Remarks by Elie Wiesel at the acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1986

Your Majesty the King, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Chairman Avic, members of the Nobel Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen: A few words of thanks first.First, thank you for our common Creator.Jewish tradition requires us to do so, and on any important occasion, we are obliged to say this prayer: "Barukh atah Adonai...shehekhyanu vekiymanu vehigianu lazman hazeh" - "Thank you...for giving us life and sheltering us , let us live to this day." Thank you, Chairman Avik, for your magnificent speeches that moved your heart, your gestures of generosity, and your bridges between generations.I especially want to thank you for helping humanity realize its most needed and noblest ambitions in peaceful ways.

Chairman Avik, your words moved me, touched me deeply.It is with humility that I accept this honor - the highest honor in the world - that you made the choice to bestow it on me.I know I deserve your choice. Do I have the right to represent the countless dead?Do I have the right to accept this major honor on their behalf?No!No one can speak for the dead!No one can explain their shattered dreams and visions!But, I think they are here!I will always feel their presence - especially at this moment, my parents, my little sister, my teachers, my friends, my peers... That honor belongs to all the survivors and their children, and through us, to the entire Jewish community, whose fate is forever tied to mine.

I remembered something that happened just yesterday, maybe a long, long time ago.A young Jewish boy discovers the kingdom of the night.I remember his confusion, but also his pain, it all happened so fast.The ghetto, the deportations, the sealed cattle carts, the burning altars, the history of our Jews and the history of humanity as a whole means sacrifice. I remember him asking his father: "Is this true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who can tolerate such a crime? How can the world keep silent?" Now, that kid turns around, "Tell me," he said, "what have you done for my future? What have you done for your life?" Living memory, I am fighting those who try to forget the past.For forgetting the past, we are sinners through the ages and accomplices of the enemy.

Later, I explained to him that we were naive and the world knew about it and kept silent.That is why I swear that I will never remain silent when and where someone suffers and is humiliated.We have to make a choice and decide which side we are on.Neutrality will only help the abuser, not the abused.Silence only encourages the perpetrator, not the victim.Sometimes, we must intervene.National borders are irrelevant when human life is at stake, when human dignity is trampled upon, and we cannot back down from sensitivity.Whenever men and women are persecuted because of racial, religious and political differences, that place, that moment—should be the focus of the world's attention.

Of course, I am a Jew, my roots are deep in Jewish memory and tradition, and I respond first and foremost to Jewish fears, Jewish needs, Jewish cries.Because our generation has been traumatized, abandoned and isolated.It is unnatural for me not to prioritize Jewish issues, Israel, the Jews of the Soviet Union, the Jews of the Arab lands... But, other people are also important to me.In my opinion, apartheid is as abhorrent as anti-Semitism.In my opinion, the isolation of Andrei Sakharov is a disgrace, no different from the imprisonment of Joseph Bacon and the exile of Eda Nudar.Equally scandalous: the closure of the Solidarity trade union, the deprivation of union leader Lesh Walesa's power to dissent, and the long prison sentence of Nelson Mandela.

How much injustice and suffering in the world cries out for our attention: hunger, racism, political persecution - in Chile, in Ethiopia - in many countries where leftists or rightists are in power, many writers are imprisoned , the poet and the prisoner. On every continent, human rights are being brutally violated, and more people are oppressed than free.How can we remain indifferent to their pain?Everywhere, human suffering is linked to countless men and women.This also applies to the Palestinians, whose suffering touches my heart, but whose resort to violence I deeply regret.Violence is not the solution to the problem, terrorism is the most dangerous solution, they are despondent, it is understandable.We must make a difference.Refugees and their sorrows, children and their fears, uprooted and hopeless.We must do something about their situation, how many children Jewish and Palestinians have lost, how much blood has been shed.This should end, and all attempts to eradicate suffering should be encouraged.I am sure that Israel will cooperate, and I believe in Israel because I believe in the Israeli people.Israel, given the chance, will remove danger and hatred from their horizon, and there will be peace in the sacred land and surrounding areas.Please understand me, I want to make a selfless devotion to Israel.If you can remember what is in my heart you will understand.In the whole world, only Israel's existence is threatened.If Israel loses one battle, it means its destruction, and it means our destruction.But I have faith, I believe in the God of Abraham, the God of Esau and Jacob, and everything he has created.Without this belief, no action is possible.Only action can make up for indifference, and indifference is the greatest danger that lurks in the hearts of men.Isn't that the essence of Alfred Nobel's legacy?It was because he felt the horrors of war that he forged the shield against it, didn't he?

There are many things that need to be done and many things that can be done.A man like Raoul Wallenberg, a man like Albert Zweig, a man like Martin Luther King Jr. -- as long as there is a genuine person who comes forward , can change the situation, can make the difference between life and death; as long as a dissident is still in prison, our freedom is not real freedom; as long as a child is still starving, we life will still be full of pain and shame.What those who suffer most need to know is that they are not alone and we have not forgotten them.Their voices are muffled, and we lend them our mouthpieces.Their freedom depends on us, and our freedom depends on them.

That's how I told it to the young Jewish kid who didn't understand what I was doing to people his age.I speak to you in his name, and as a man who survived the kingdom of night, I express my deep gratitude to you.We know that every moment is an hour of grace, every hour is an hour of giving, and that not telling them this would be betraying them. Our lives not only belong to ourselves, but also belong to all those who need our help urgently. Thank you, Chairman Avic!Thank you, all members of the Nobel Committee!Thank you, Norwegian people!You have given me a rare opportunity to tell the world that our survival has meaning for all of humanity.