BOOKS

And The Sea Is Never Full

By Elie Wiesel

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When Elie Wiesel was 15, he, his family and his Jewish community were taken from their homes in the small Transylvanian town of Sighet and transported by train to Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz. During the days and months that followed, Wiesel lost his parents, his sister, his innocence and his peace. Witness, activist, writer and sage, Wiesel has since devoted his life to the fight for human rights and for remembrance.

The second volume of Wiesel's memoirs, And the Sea is Never Full, is at once a book of history, philosophy, frustration and conscience. Exploring the political and professional relationships and encounters he has experienced since 1969, Wiesel weaves a compelling personal rejection of hate, intolerance and compromised principles.

And the Sea is Never Full is steeped in memory--the memories of one person, of course, but also the memories of all Holocaust survivors, of the Jewish people and of the world. Wiesel asks again and again how we, as individuals, as cultures and as a global community, can and should approach the task of remembrance. To forget the Holocaust would be unconscionable, but to communicate it is impossible. Wiesel searches for a balance between the silence required to show respect for the dead and the silence that will cause the dead to die again through forgetfulness.

Wiesel finds this balance, to the extent it is possible, when communicating his own experiences. In And the Sea is Never Full, Wiesel speaks of others more than he speaks of himself. His words are elegant but simple, punctuated by evocative phrases, more beautiful for their rarity. His expressions of disagreement are measured and his expressions of bitterness are restrained. And yet Wiesel's opinion is always clear and his message is always powerful.

"I am saddened." "I am disappointed." Wiesel describes his emotions in terms that are distant, spare. Often he describes his actions and reactions as if from the outside, as a biographer might. The "I's" could be changed to "he's." When explaining his opinions, he often quotes himself. But beneath these simple phrases lies an ocean of emotion. In each description of an encounter, Wiesel embeds a new clue and connection to his own motivation and intensity.