I hope you're watching Eli Wiesel on MSNBC

[WilliamPitt]

At Buchenwald, speaking of his imprisonment there, how his father died there, and the world today. Unfathomable sorrow in his voice.

[CBR]

1. Very moving. My eyes are welling up. nt

[Faygo Kid]

2. What a moment. Glad I had today off and could watch it all live.

Indeed, very moving.

[cagesoulman]

3. Bernie Madoff is the biggest asshole for ripping off this guy

Hope he fries.

[MountainMamma]

4. I am so glad that I was able to watch this ceremony this

morning. All the participants seemed very moved as were we. We have admired Eli Wiesel for a long time. His words are so full of pain and passion about this horrible episode of "man's inhumanity to man' from which we should have learned. Good to see your post Will Pitt.

[lonestarnot]

5. That was emotionally sobering.

:cry:

[lazyriver]

6. A professor of mine was friends with Mr. Wiesel and had

him come in to give a surprise guest lecture to our class - all of about 30 of us. We had just read Night and spent a couple classes discussing the Holocaust when he paid us the visit. I really didn't appreciate the magnitude of having that man speak to us at the time but remember that 40 minute lecture/discussion and how every person in the room had tears streaming down their faces for about 37 minutes of it and for hours afterward. I can't watch him on the TeeVee today but am moved again to tears thinking about the words I heard him speak and the intense emotion with which he spoke them about 16 years ago.

[kentuck]

7. And our President should be commended for his actions also...

Yesterday, he was cheered by the students at a Cairo University. Today he stands with Elie Weisel at Buchenwald. He is a very empathetic person. Hopefully, he will help to make this world a better place.

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Yes. And he finally told the truth about our overthrow of the Iranian government

That wasn't news to the people in the Middle East, of course, but it's an important step in the right direction.

[fooj]

14. Indeterminate Indefinite Detention...

That should help make the world a better place, eh?

[TahitiNut]

8. Born in 1943, I've lived my entire life in the shadow of the atrocities of WW2.

The lesson is clear. WE are capable of committing unspeakable horrors on our fellow human beings - our fellow human beings are capable of committing unspeakable horrors on US. WE are kin to BOTH victims AND perpetrators of these atrocities. WE have a inescapable duty to speak out, in remembrance to the more than 11 million lives destroyed by human beings no different than us, whenever WE step in that direction.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. That's a big Amen, TahitiNut!

What you say is so important.

It's no consolation when the things we do are less heinous than those of the Nazis. The comparison misses the point. The point is that it can happen again, so it's vital that we speak out before things get out of hand. The German people as a whole weren't sadistic maniacs. And yet look what happened. It can happen here. It can happen anywhere. Our best defense is to stop it before it does.

“Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

"… in your own community, you speak privately to your colleagues, some of whom certainly feel as you do; but what do they say? They say, ‘It’s not so bad’ or ‘You’re seeing things’ or ‘You’re an alarmist.’

"And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic…..

"… Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to—to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait.

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty….”

From They Thought They Were Free

[ensho]

9. I was a kid when the camps were liberated and saw the movies and

photographs. I read about the horrible things they did to women in the camps. to this day I can barely think about them it was so horrible.

when Elie spoke I broke into tears and typing this I'm tearing up.


that's why gitmo and the other US neo con torture camps are such a criminal thing.

let's remember that the Bush family backed hitler.

(if you can find and see the movies and photos of the camps, do so)

[conscious evolution]

15. Over 20.000 camps

20,000
I just read a story in todays apaper about some researchers who counted the camps they were able to find mentioned in old nazi records.
Over 20,000 camps.

Iwill never believe a german again when they say they did not know.

[Junkdrawer]

10. He just had his life savings stolen by Madoff...

...

Wiesel's charity lost $15.2 million, and he and his wife, Marion, lost their life savings. "This was a personal tragedy where we discovered all of a sudden what we had done in 40 years — my books, my lectures, everything — was gone," said Wiesel, who shared his story as part of a panel discussion on the Madoff scandal on Thursday.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/worldbusiness/27iht-27madoff.20475093.html

[goclark]

11. There must be a special place in Hell for Madoff

The ceremony was deeply moving.

:cry:

[JerseygirlCT]

16. He always moves me. But today was special. nt

[bridgit]

17. yup