Below my comments, Rabbi R.
Mermelstein wrote this short essay as an insight and rebuttal to a
December 1987 article by Mr. Elie Wiesel for Parade Magazine as found
at:
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a highly detailed compilation of substantiations demonstrating that
throughout modern history gun control laws have preceded genocides of
civilian populations, were presented to Elie Wiesel, a survivor of both
Auschwitz and Buchenwald, he refused even to consider the plain
evidence.Wiesel, who has said, "To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all," wrote the two-sentence response: "I received your recent letter linking 'gun control' laws with genocide in the twentieth century. Sorry, but I am for gun control."
This is a matter of record.
Certain taboos have been observed since the era of Adolph Hitler and his implementation of the Final Solution. For one, the topic is off limits for comedians, either professionals or amateurs, Jew or Gentile. Also, Holocaust survivors could not be queried about their experiences unless they volunteered the information. But above all is the self-enforced impotence of those who weren’t there to play Monday morning quarterback, using the hot buttons of "would’ve", "should’ve" or "could’ve".
This last ban also makes learning from history an exercise in impotency, so why bother to study history at all?
We’ve read and heard ad nauseum that history repeats itself. Natural disasters, like hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, also repeat themselves. And the surviving victims, after they’ve pulled themselves out from the rubble and debris, either learn to build stouter dwellings for the next bout of Mother Nature throwing a tantrum or learn to pray.
Prayer is a powerful tool to bring us closer to our Creator, but practicality would dictate to me that I had better take a crash course in architecture and improved building methods or quickly hire someone already expert in those fields. After my new, stronger home is erected I would pray that there wouldn’t be any future need to rebuild.
So I will violate the unspoken MMQV Rule (Monday Morning Quarterbacking Verboten) and categorically state that Mr. Elie Wiesel is wrong. And since he is an internationally recognized authority on the Nazi Holocaust hence his word packs the weight of a Heavenly edict, not an opinion, his mistaken view has all the supremacy to make anyone anxious to live through examining what is broken and repairing it in advance against a recurrence very dead.
Wiesel’s praise for the Jewish warriors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising under the leadership of Mordechai Anilewicz who was the chief commander of that ghetto knows no bounds. Wiesel waxes poetic in describing their courage in the face of certain annihilation. His singular lament in speaking of the uprising against the Nazi occupying force alludes to the lack of means they had at hand to fight effectively. Wiesel spoke these words about the uprising at a dedication address at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in May 1979 as found at:
"They were all teenagers, and they one day decided simply to take Jewish history on their shoulders and carry it forward into death and beyond it."
Bull. Teenagers are not, neither then nor now, philosophical altruists. That trait generally comes by way of a higher reading on the odometer of life. They fought because that’s what one does when cornered with no means of escape. Even animals are that intelligent. They fought with the hope of running up the mileage on their odometers—to save their necks, to use the common vernacular.
Elie Wiesel’s life did not get off to an easy start. He, with his family, was deported to a Nazi death camp in 1944. And Wiesel has since dedicated his life to ensuring that none of us forget what happened to the Jews.
We know what happened. We are not so thick that we must be constantly reminded of it. There is a respectful period of mourning in Judaism. Our
sages instruct that one must not prolong the prescribed period. If
someone is so absorbed in his grief that he mourns longer than the time
allowed G-d says, "You are not more merciful than I."
Wiesel will be enshrined by history as a great man. History, though, is not a deity. Men record it. Often these are the same people who call toll free phone numbers in television infomercials or rush to the store isle with the flashing blue light to buy something on impulse.
It is time we dusted off the ashes we sprinkled on our heads, took off the sackcloth, put the Lamentations of Jeremiah back on the bookshelf and worked to prevent what happened from happening again. Treaties won’t avert it. United Nations resolutions won’t thwart it. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of slavery and forced deportation for Japanese-Americans. Hitch your faith in the goodness of this or any government outside. Thank you.
My only hope is that any future Warsaw Ghetto uprisings won’t be hampered by the lack of equipment to start and finish the job.
To Mr. Elie Wiesel: I have considered your thoughts denying the link between 'gun control' laws with genocide in the twentieth century. Sorry, but I am not for gun control.
