“Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.” -- Elie Weisel
Roughly 20 years ago, I traveled to Warsaw, Poland with several colleagues to assist the Polish Mint with their coin program. While there, we took the opportunity to travel south to Krakow for several days. We rode the train through the Polish countryside. On the trip, I couldn’t help thinking of the countless thousands who traveled those same tracks to a destination very close to Krakow – the town of Oświęcim. The German name for that town is Auschwitz, site of the most infamous concentration death camp in world history.
First-hand, I learned there is nothing more sobering than standing in the midst of where 1.3 million were deported and imprisoned. Of those, 1.1 million, mostly Jews, were murdered in gas chambers or by shootings, hangings, and from starvation, disease, and exhaustion. The exact spot where the notorious Dr. Mengele stood as he selected and pointed in one direction for those who lived and the other direction for those destined for immediate gassing is still there....
Those chosen to live for work or for use in medical experiments existed in a virtual living hell. Food was meager or non-existent. Beatings were commonplace and escape essentially impossible. Of the 1.3 million, it’s believed only 144 ever escaped.
One boy who arrived at Auschwitz at age 15 miraculously was indiscriminately chosen, invariably by Mengele, to live. His mother and little sister were immediately sent to the gas chambers. The boy was put to work while enduring the horrors of the camp. His father also survived but later died when the two were transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.
That young man’s name is Elie Weisel. Weisel was a Romanian-born Jew and one of the few from Auschwitz who survived to adulthood. He was acutely aware of all that went on in the camps. That could have been bad. As the chances of Germany winning the war evaporated, Nazi troops and the SS in particular realized their mass murders would be considered war crimes. Consequently, they made every effort to exterminate any witnesses. If left alive, Weisel would surely be able to communicate his first-hand account of their atrocities. He lived. And, he wrote of it. A lot.
While imprisoned, Weisel had few opportunities to write anything. In a highly controlled manner, inmates were allowed to write or receive two letters per month. They could only correspond with registered relatives and were forbidden to include anything about working conditions or the camp. It was forbidden to mention air raids, illness or politics. All letters were read and highly censored. Breaking censorship rules led to confiscation and punishment. In essence, outgoing mail became a propaganda smokescreen to the public as to the awfulness being experienced.
Inmates were only allowed to keep the most recent letter they received. That’s one reason why so few letters of camp inmates survive. As a result, rare examples of concentration camp mail are of great interest to historians and collectors today.
Freed from Buchenwald in 1945, Weisel became a prolific author, professor, political activist and eventually a Nobel laureate. He wrote 57 books including his most memorable, Night. As did others who wrote about the Holocaust, in Night, Weisel recounted his personal Auschwitz horrors and that of so many others who died. But, it went much further.
Night grippingly explores the loss of innocence and faith of those experiencing the worst. It wrestles with the perceived silence and/or absence of God in the face of unimaginable cruelty. Fittingly, Weisel tries to balance his “faith” against the nonsensical slaughter.
Many years after his release, Weisel had the courage to return to Auschwitz. While walking in the massive compound, he was asked his reaction to what he saw. His answer was stunning. He stated how nice it appeared with green grass and dandelion flowers everywhere. He explained that when occupied by starving inmates, if a single blade of grass appeared it would quickly be eaten.
Weisel has been honored many times on postage stamps worldwide. In a few weeks, on September 17, a new stamp memorializing him will be issued in New York city. The “Forever” stamp features a black-and-white portrait of Elie Weisel taken in 1999. It salutes him for being such a humanitarian.
Rather than being valid for mailing a First-Class letter, the Weisel stamp covers the cost of the prevailing two-ounce rate for slightly heavier mail. Fitting for a very heavy subject. First Day of Issue cancel information is available at www.USPS.com.
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