Confronting the madness of fascism
Elie Wiesel:
The collective political madness of the twentieth century, in the forms of fascism and Communism, took over nations; millions of people were swept up in it. … How can we protect ourselves against this kind of madness? This is not just an abstract historical question. All roads lead back to Auschwitz. If there is violence today, suicide, mental illness, it may well be because seventy years ago, the world did nothing while six million innocent people were slaughtered. How can that not affect us? Confronting those events is essential in ensuring that our fate is not a malediction.
From a 2006 classroom lecture, as recorded by Ariel Burger in Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, p. 113
