To Speak the Unspeakable: The Message of Elie Wiesel

Framed between Wiesel's address at the American Holocaust Museum and his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, this assembly of archive material recalls what appears to have been the lost pre-war paradise of schtetl, family and shul in the Carpathians. The b/w footage has the beauty of Roman Vishniac's work, and William Hurt's unassertive narration is deceptively powerful: 'If I explain, it's not so you'll understand, it's so you'll never understand.' Wiesel's journey back to find his roots is blocked by the discovery that there are no Jews in his part of Romania any more, and their houses have gone, giving rise to an urge to warn the world that there are people hungry for blood. 'We were naive. We didn't expect that our neighbours were mad dogs.' He revisits Auschwitz and Buchenwald where he lost his family - 'If we are separated, we'll meet back at the house after the war,' were his mother's parting words - and views again the 'unspeakable' set against the roar of the furnaces.