The Power of Forgiveness is a collection of seven short stories that, taken together, reveal the limits, difficulties, healing qualities, and unforeseen effects an act of forgiveness can have in the lives of the people who give it—or in the lives of those who refuse to give it. One of the stories centers on acclaimed author and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

This clip begins with footage of Jewish families being ushered into concentration camps as the narrator speaks in the background: "Elie Wiesel was one of the few who lived to walk out of the camps—his father died only weeks before the end of the war. For the next 10 years, he was virtually silent about the experience. For the last half-century, his gift for putting words to the nightmare that was the holocaust has helped generations to never forget."

The video shifts to Wiesel giving a speech inside of a concentration camp's remains. "So look and listen," he says. "Close your eyes and listen, but open your hearts and listen. Listen to the question that we asked ourselves then: 'What happened here?'"

The scene shifts again, and an elderly Wiesel reflects on the powerful emotions he experienced in his attempts to grapple with the holocaust later in his life. "I composed a prayer," he says. "Literally I composed a prayer, saying, 'God of mercy, have no mercy on these souls—on these murderers of children. God of compassion, have no compassion on those who killed these children.'" As he speaks, the video shifts to scenes of Jewish children rolling up their sleeves to reveal the numbers they had been stamped with to replace their names.

"I was criticized all over the world," Wiesel continues, "because it was published all over the world. But I felt it—I still feel it. Some persons do not deserve forgiveness. And those are the persons, really, who went beyond the human capacity for evil. They went beyond it."

Content: not rated

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