What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shal… - Elie Wiesel

But because of his telling, many who did not believe have come to believe, and some who did not care have come to care. He tells the story, out of infinite pain, partly to honor the dead, but also to warn the living - to warn the living that it could happen again and that it must never happen again. Better than one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all. (vi)

AVREMEL: You came to us from Zhironov?
YANKEL: Were you there when—
MENDEL: Yes, I was there.
AVREMEL: How did you manage to escape?
SAM: There is always one singled out to escape.
YANKEL: A miracle!
SAM: There is always someone to call it a miracle.

We tried. It was not easy. At first, because of the language; language failed us. We would have to invent a new vocabulary, for our own words were inadequate, anemic. And then too, the people around us refused to listen; and even those who listened refused to believe; and even those who believed could not comprehend. Of course they could not. Nobody could. The experience of the camps defies comprehension.