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To Forget is not an Option

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor and author of Night.

What is the alternative? Not to remember? It will give victory—or a sense of victory. It’d be justified, I’m sure. I’m sure an attempt could be made to say, “Look it belongs to the past, nothing to do with us today or for tomorrow, forget it.” Nothing is worse than forgetting. I understand remembering can think it’s wrong, but not to remember is not an option. First of all, to know the story—and it’s—today, so easy to know the story, to learn about it, so many books have been published by all sides; by the victims, by the perpetrators, by the bystanders, by the governments, by civilians, nearly never before has any event caught such a coverage from all viewpoints, from all aspects, from all sides. So it’s easy and not to do so would be to deprive them of—of extraordinary element in education.