Never Forget.

"If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate."

Hate is what fueled the crimes of the Holocaust outlined in Elie Wiesel's book, Night... and hate is what killed over 3000 people on September 11, 2001.

In the book Night, the message is to "Never Forget". This is the message Elie is trying to make because he constantly uses the phrases "Never will I forget" and "I remember". Elie states, "Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair" (Wiesel 119). He means that we must remember the worst of the past to have a chance at a better future.

In Night, Elie says, “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” (Wiesel xv), the meaning he is trying to convey when he says this, is that if someone has forgotten such a tragedy, it would have been the same as killing them a second time. This ties into his "Never Forget" message.

Elie uses repetition to show his message of "Never Forget." "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget" (Wiesel 34). This citation shows how the events of Elie's experience will never be forgotten and never should.

Elie uses symbol to illuminate his message. The chimneys that Elie sees while he is at Auschwitz, is something he continues to mention throughout the book. He sees the chimneys as a symbol of death, corpses, and fire. "The word chimney wasn't an abstraction; it floated in the air, mingled with the smoke. It was, perhaps, the only word that had real meaning in this place...". (Wiesel 39). It means that Elie must remember the horrors of the "chimney" to be frightened, to stay alive.

A similar "hate" event happened on September 11, 2001. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 (also referred to as 9/11), were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda on the United States. The planned attacks used multiple commercial planes used as missiles on the World Trade Center and a couple of other areas in the US. The attacks lasted for less than 2 hours and took the lived of over 6000 in total.

Elie Wiesel's message in the book, Night, "Never Forget", connects to the tragedy of 9/11 because Americans across the United States, who witness and experienced the attacks would never forget what happened that day, and because of this, we have become stronger as a nation. We have let go of this tragic event and even rebuilt New York. Elie Wiesel has gotten stronger by writing his sufferings in the holocaust in books and later winning a Nobel peace prize.

After the tragedy of the holocaust, people argued about the inhuman act and slowly, but surely, people learned from their mistakes and became smarter, better people. The 9/11 surprise attacks shocked people throughout the nation. There was many lost that day, and America had seemed to fall down. But soon people got the courage and stand back up, and become stronger. “Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness. And now, they see defeat.” (George W. Bush)

Both events must never be forgotten, in the concentration camp, Elie sees the suffering, the hatred, the death of thousands of innocent people. He will never forget what he saw, and as for the 9/11 attacks, witnesses of the attack, will definitely remember what happened that day, they will always remember what happened that day, but perhaps for the best, to have a better tomorrow.

“When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.” (Margaret Atwood)

Always remember the past and the bad and good event that happened yesterday, in order to make a better tomorrow. Elie remembers his experience in Auschwitz by writing books, we remember 9/11 by building a stronger, safer nation.

The final message is to always remember, and never forget the good and the bad of the past, to become a stronger person. Both in the book, "Night" and 9/11 are great examples of never forgetting.

Work-Cited Page

• "Images as shown" Google Images & Haiku Deck default pictures
• www.History.com
• www.BrainyQuotes.com
• www.theweek.com - Did 9/11 make us stronger?
• www.goodreads.com
• http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/night/
• www.nobelprize.org
• ww2.kqed.org
• www.enotes.com - "Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair."
• "Night" by Elie Wiesel Book & 1986 Nobel Peace Prize aceptance speech
• www.youtube.com