Humanity Is Not Concerned With Us
July 2, 2016 § Leave a comment
“Poor devils, you’re going to the crematory.”
He seemed to be telling the truth. Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load – little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it – saw it with my own eyes…those children in the flames. (Is it surprising that I could not sleep after that? Sleep had fled from my eyes.)
So this is where we were going. A little farther on was another ditch for adults.
I pinched my face. Was I still alive? Was I awake? I could not believe it. How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a nightmare….Soon I should wake with a start, my heart pounding, and find myself back in the bedroom of my childhood, among my books….My father’s voice drew me from my thoughts:
“It’s a shame….a shame that you couldn’t have gone with your mother….I saw several boys of your age going with their mothers…..”
His voice was terribly sad. I realized that he did not want to see what they were going to do to me. He did not want to see the burning of his only son.
My forehead was bathed in cold sweat. But I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it….
“Humanity? Humanity is not concerned with us. Today, anything is allowed. Anything is possible, even these crematories…..”
Elie Wiesel found a weapon in the first person singular. I read Night for a history class in eleventh grade. It was the first horror novel I ever read.
Neil Serven 
Leave a Reply