Good Friday - A Day of Shame!

Good Friday Celebration points to the Cross - an Innocent Man was crucified and died that other may have life.

In some Arabic Literature, is called the "Day of Shame". It reminds of reading again the small book written by Elie Wiesel - Night - Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

This was a testimony of the harrowing experiences in Auschwitz...

Elie Wiesel - The Night

“I remember that night, the most horrendous of my life:

…. Eliezer, my son, come here… I want to you something… Only to you… Come, don’t leave me alone…

I heard his voice, grasped the meaning of his words and the tragic dimension of the moment, yet I did nit move.

It had been his last wish to have me next to him in his agony, at the moment when his soul was tearing itself from his lacerated body – yet I did not let him have his wish.

I was afraid. Afraid of the blows. That was why I remained deaf to his cries.

Instead of sacrificing my miserable life and rush into his side, taking his hand, reassuring him, showing him that he was not abandoned, that I was near him, that I felt his sorrow, instead of all that. I remained flat on my bed, asking God to make my father stop calling my name, to make him stop crying. So afraid was I to incur the wrath of the SS.

In fact, my father was no longer conscious. Yet his plaintive, harrowing voice went on piercing the silence and calling me, nobody but me.

Well? The SS had flown into rage and was striking my farther on the head. ‘Be quiet, old man! Be quiet!’

My father no longer felt the club’s blows: I did. And yet I did not react. I let the SS beat my father. I let him alone in the clutches of death. Worse: I was angry with him for having been noisy, for having cried, for provoking then wrath of the SS.

‘Eliezer! Eliezer! Come, don’t leave me alone…’ His voice had reached me from so far away, from so close. But I had not moved!

I shall never forgive myself.

Nor shall I forgiven the world for having pushed me against the wall, for having turned me into stranger, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts.

His last word had been my name. A summon. And I had not responded.”

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