Elie Wiesel’s defiant faith

“How can you not believe in God after Auschwitz?” A rabbi put this question to Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor, writer-activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and it epitomizes one of two issues that stand out in Joseph Berger’s new biography of Wiesel.

One issue concerns hope: When evil is ghastly and relentless, what prevents giving up? How can you confront cynicism and resignation? The book suggests that faith—even difficult faith involving constant argument with God—is crucial. Despite our many questions, might not faith be indispensable to hope? After Auschwitz, ultimate trust in humanity, the rabbi was saying, feels like folly.

The second issue concerns how we deal with parts of our history that alarm and terrify us—or leave us ashamed. What does it mean to be an honest human being? Can you live a constructive life without bearing witness to inconvenient, often agonizing, facts?