Wiesel: Well, I believe in memory. Look, first of all, I belong to a people who’ve celebrated memory since the very beginning of its existence, 3,500 years ago. But also because I know what the opposite of memory is.

Forgetting can happen not only to one person but to the group. Forgetting means the end of civilization, the end of culture, the end of generosity, the end of compassion, the end of humanity. Therefore I celebrate memory, and I try to strengthen it. And I believe—and I still do, in spite of everything—that memory is a shield. If we remember what people can do to each other, then we can help those who tomorrow may be threatened by the same enemy to do something. In order to feel empathy and compassion for and with a person who is alone, suffering, in desperation, it’s only because we remember others who were alone, suffering and in despair.

Greene: What role did memory play for you in your past, especially during the war?

Wiesel: During the war there was nothing to help me except my father. My father was with me, and therefore I wanted to live, because I knew if I died, he would die. Other people say they wanted to live to bear witness. I must be honest. I thought when I entered that world I will never come out alive. So, memory didn’t help. On the contrary, we tried not to remember. While we were there, we never spoke about those who were not with us. We were afraid of breaking out in tears. We remembered only in our dreams. We dreamt about holidays with special meals and these kinds of things—our family being together in our dreams. We didn’t talk about it. It was afterwards, after the war, when I realized memory was essential to all our efforts.

Greene: Do you think the way that you remember has changed over time?

Wiesel: The way? No. The scope maybe, broadened. But the way, no. Memory means what? Memory means introspection. You go deeper and deeper into yourself. And you find, of course, that memory is inclusive; it’s not exclusive. But then it becomes selective. Then your task is to unlock all the doors and all the gates. And then the memory of course goes deeper, farther, in many directions, discovering more faces, listening to more words and more cries, collecting more tears.

Greene: What role do you think museums should play in memorializing the Holocaust?

Wiesel: Museums, as such, are important to me because—in the case of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I was so involved with from the very beginning—it is accompanied by archives and education and learning and research. You go into a museum, to the Louvre in Paris, and you see the greatest artworks in the world. They are important to you only because then you go to a bookstore and you buy a book about Rembrandt or Goya. And at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, of course, you don’t have to go that far within the building or within the realm of the museum and its library and archives to find all the information about what you see in the museum.

Greene: What should Holocaust museums strive for?

Wiesel: That when the person goes in and then leaves, that person is no longer the same. That was the ideal that I expressed from the very beginning of my involvement with the museum in Washington. I said that what I want from this museum is precisely that: that anyone who enters the museum does not come out of it the same person.

Greene: You mean that it can change not only people’s knowledge but people’s behavior?

Wiesel: Of course it can. Something enters that person’s life, that person’s awareness, that person’s memory, that person’s concerns. Then, when that person leaves, and he or she hears about Darfur, they respond to Darfur. Or, before that, if they hear about Rwanda, they respond to Rwanda. Or simply when there is a beggar in the street, with his palms open, and you say to yourself, of course I know that that person is going to take my money and go and buy drinks or drugs. Nevertheless, you cannot see a person with his outstretched palm and not put something in it. And that is because you have been in that museum.

Greene: We’re living in a moment, as you know, when the generation of eyewitnesses to the Holocaust is diminishing. The survivors’ generation is diminishing. Do you worry about a time when there are no longer any living eyewitnesses to the Holocaust?

Wiesel: Of course I worry. Generations come and generations go. We’re already four generations away. There are already great-grandchildren of survivors. I believe that he or she who listens to a survivor becomes a witness. And I think the third, fourth generations are much more involved than the first one was. So therefore there are some good things to say about what is happening today. I see it around me in the letters I receive from children. I get so many letters from children from high schools around the world, especially from America or France—in the hundreds each month.

Greene: So you don’t have a great concern about this memory being kept?

Wiesel: Concern, yes, but fear, no. I don’t think that this memory can disappear. What I’m afraid of really is not forgetting. I’m afraid of trivialization or banalization of that memory, of the cheapening of that memory. That is something that I have focused on, and repeated, for years and years and years.

Greene: Does one diminish the tragedy of the Holocaust by discussing it alongside other tragedies?

Wiesel: No, no, no. It depends how it’s being done. Look, trivialization or banalization is more the matter than the meaning. It’s how you present it. Even universalization can be presented in a cheap way. But you can take the most sacred thing in the world and treat it cheaply. What I plead for is such a feeling of commitment that whatever you say should be pure, literally pure, almost chemically pure.

Greene: So, you’re comfortable that future generations will take this history and not make kitsch of it going forward or not lessen the memory?

Wiesel: Look, I have faith. It’s an act of faith. I have faith because this is the most documented event—not only tragedy but event—in history. There are so many books on the subject—what we need is teachers. I place much of the burden on the teachers’ shoulders. We have to prepare our teachers. I remember when learning about the Holocaust became compulsory in the curriculum. I was for it, naturally, and fought for it. But I did have a concern, because suppose a teacher teaches this subject with the same boring tone as other material. Anyone can make education into a boring endeavor—we must teach the teachers. Special programs should be established for teachers, before they become teachers, and then my faith will be justified.

Greene: Do you feel that people look to you as a symbol of memory?

Wiesel: No, I’m not a symbol. I’m a human being. Symbols are not human beings. I’m a human being, except I try to do something with my life.

Greene: Certainly they look to you as a moral voice and as a moral leader.

Wiesel: No, because I have no ulterior motive, really. There is no ulterior motive for me in my work. Even on a very superficial level, I already have a Nobel Peace Prize [laughs]. I have it all. So, whatever we have received, good or bad, we must do something with it that is real. There’s so much that I haven’t done yet.

This discussion took place as part of USHMM’s Voices on Antisemitism, a bimonthly podcast series on the resurgence of antisemitism more than 60 years after the Holocaust. The series is one component of USHMM’s continuing effort to raise public awareness about threats of prejudice and hatred. Daniel Greene, the series curator, brings together voices from across the political, religious and geographic spectrum to discuss how antisemitism influences global politics, interfaith relations and personal histories. In addition to Elie Wiesel, the series includes reflections from former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, Princeton professor Cornell West and many others.

Wiesel also was featured in USHMM’s podcast series Voices on Genocide Prevention, a weekly interview program covering genocide and current crimes against humanity around the world.

To listen to an audio version of this and other programs visit Voices on Antisemitism. The series is produced by USHMM and Melissa Robbins.