Malcolm Turnbull remembers Elie Wiesel
We mourn the passing of Elie Wiesel, humanitarian, author, witness to the Holocaust.
He was a man whose life was dedicated to the preservation of the memory of victims of genocide and to fighting the evils of repression, violence and genocide.
His passing is another human link lost to the tragedy of the Shoah, another eyewitness gone to the largest crime of the 20th century.
We should also do well to remember his exhortations against the temptations of indifference and silence. In accepting his Nobel Peace Prize he said that “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” and in the same speech, “Action is the only remedy to indifference.”
Elie Wiesel was a man whose life was dedicated to the service of others. He was a man whose public service reached across borders and whose words pricked the public consciousness.
In all his work, especially Night, he testified for both the living and the dead. He spoke to ensure that future generations would hold in their collective memory the victims of the Nazi oppression and to make the promise of “Never Again” a reality.
May the memory of Elie Wiesel be a blessing – not just as comfort, but as a memorial to of the millions of victims on whose behalf he spoke.
….a Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull