Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 131

GENOCIDE

Wiesel is not alone in his questioning of the validity of the covenant between God and man. In Night,
the character Akiba Drumer, a fellow Jewish prisoner,
speaks openly to the protagonist Eliezer and others
regarding his loss of faith in God saying, “Where is the
divine mercy? Where is God? God is no longer with us.”6
In a review of Night titled, “A Thousand
Darknesses,” Ruth Franklin describes Wiesel’s seeming annoyance that his memoir is often received as a
narrative on the loss of faith. However, she contends
that what Wiesel has written is “ more than an indict…
ment of God’s absence … [one] in which the Jews in
the camp address God in a tone that is half menacing,
half sympathetic”7 This fractured tone—saturated with
fear, anger, and cynicism—is understandable, reflecting the frailty of the human spirit when awash in an
environment of death. Do we expect more from a dying
people? When we have lost all physical and theological
ties to the world (family, dignity, faith in God), we are
often left only with questions, questions regarding our
existence … and purpose behind such.
Wiesel’s Night offers the reader a unique opportunity to vicariously travel with him on this journey
of discovery, experiencing the horrors of AuschwitzBirkenau through a perspective offering both historical
insight and unadulterated emotion. Throughout the
memoire, readers will find themselves questioning the
existence of evil as well as the harsh realities associated with the cruelty of man and the nature of conflict.
Where does one go from this place? How does one
mentally deal with the loss and destruction of family,
friends, and livelihood in magnitudes never before witnessed? Can one ever truly become human again having
witnessed such atrocities? These are all questions with
which Wiesel, and all Holocaust survivors, are forced to
forever struggle. They continue even today.
Maj. Caleb A. Lewis, U.S. Army, Kirtland Air
Force Base, New Mexico

Notes
1. Josephine Knopp, “Wiesel and the Absurd,” Contemporary
Literature (15)2(1974): 212.
2. Elie Wiesel, Night (New York: Bantam Books,1960), ix.
3. Wiesel, 62.
4. David Foster Wallace, Kenyon Commencement Speech
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006).
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2014

5. Knopp, 213.
6. Wiesel, 73.
7. Ruth Franklin, “A Thousand Darknesses,” The New Republic Online (March 23, 2006), http://www.powells.com/review/2006_03_23.htm

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL:
The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Romeo A. Dallaire and Brent Beardsley, Carroll &
Graf, New York, 2004, 584 pages, $32.99

A

trocious crimes against humanity in Rwanda
began in 1993 when organized groups of
the ethnic Hutu majority embarked upon a
campaign of genocide against the ethnic Tutsi minority. This was done at a time when relatively few U.N.
forces were on site to intervene in the subsequent
massacres. In spite of his insistence that military
reinforcements were necessary to prevent and stop
the brutal killings, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, commander-designate of the U.N. Assistance Mission in
Rwanda (UNAMIR), did not receive any additional resources to assist his small number of troops in
protecting the Tutsi victims. As a result, the local
government that perpetrated the mass killings was
unopposed by any organized defensive force or by international military forces. The result was the murder
of over 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Following his tour in Rwanda and retirement from
the Canadian armed forces, Dallaire documented his
experience and provided readers with an intimate
tale recounting the time he spent in Rwanda during
the attempted genocide of the Tutsi ethnic minority.
His story begins with the invitation for him to accept
command of UNAMIR, continues with an explanation of the U.N.’s lack of preparation for the mission,
and focuses on his direct observations of the mass
atrocities as they unfolded.
In his account, Dallaire provides an elaborate and
thorough explanation of the emotions and justification behind his decisions. He lists his actions and the
associated motivation behind them. What is particularly interesting is his insight into the actions he
opted not to take. He explains in detail the potential
outcomes that may have resulted had he made different choices such as attempting to stop the Rwandan
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