Elie Wiesel Persuasive Speech

Writer, Elie Wiesel in his metaphorical speech “The perils of Indifference” argues that the future will never know the agony of the Holocaust and they will never understand the tragedy of the horrific terror in Germany. Wiesel wants people to not let this happen but at the time many modern genocides that are occurring and people shouldn’t be focused on just the Holocaust, they should focus on making this world a better place; moreover, Wiesel expresses his thoughts about all the genocides that has happen throughout the years. He develops his message through in an horrifying event that took place 54 years ago the day “ The perils of Indifference” was published. Wiesel illustrates the indifferences of good vs evil. He develops this message

In 1944-1945, Elie Wiesel was one of the few survivors to witness the lives during the Holocaust. He was only 15 years old to experience many brutal and harsh treatment between the Jews and the non-Jews. Growing up, Wiesel had faced many prejudice in the concentration camp as a prisoner by the Gestapos and other non-Jew workers. In 1960, Wiesel wanted to share his past experiences from the Holocaust by writing his memoir. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel discusses the theme of Racism. Through his use of atmosphere, tone, and foreshadowing, Wiesel is saying to reader that when one group deems themselves superior to another, they take the humanity away from the lesser groups.

Elie Wiesel was a “Human Rights Activist and a Noble-Peace Prize winning author” (Austerlitz). He wrote about the time in the concentration camps. He wrote many books, but was most noticeable for the book Night (Austerlitz). Wiesel was also convicted and could not remain silent. Wiesel spoke for the Rights of the Kurdish. He wanted to help out the people during these acts. After what happened to him, he didn’t want other people to go through what he did

Wiesel’s inclusion of this quote shows readers that he was appalled by the inhuman prisoners and concentration camp leaders. One of the reasons for Wiesel becoming so traumatized by the evils of humanity is his prior belief that people would help each other in times of need. Halperin writes, “Before coming to Auschwitz, Eliezer had believed that twentieth-century man was civilized. He had supposed that people would try to help one another in difficult times; certainly his father and teachers had taught him that every Jew is responsible for all other Jews” (Halperin 33). Convinced that people were kind and that Jews would help one another, Wiesel was greatly disappointed after coming to a tragic realization in the concentration camps. Wiesel was robbed, pushed, beaten, and betrayed by his fellow Jews at the camps. Contrary to his prior belief that Jews should be working together, the other Jews invested in themselves. They cared, solely, about their own well being. In including the evils of the other prisoners, Wiesel is able to show readers that due to the lack of innocence within the concentration camps, it was inevitable for him to lose his

The emotional connection Wiesel has to the injustice and inhumane acts from other people being a survivor from the Holocaust

The message that is sent across in this speech is also something that makes it so effective. Wiesel’s goal is not only to inform the people of the horrible events of the Holocaust, but also a call to action. This call to action is to end indifference throughout the world. Wiesel tries throughout the speech to inspire his audience within the White House, as well as the people of the world to act in times of human suffering, injustice, and violence. Within this call to action, Wiesel argues that indifference is an action worse than any other. Even anger, according to Wiesel, is a more positive action than indifference. “Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.” When Wiesel states this simple, yet powerful statement, it forces any listener to consider how negative of an emotion hatred is, then puts indifference well below it. Wiesel also addresses how easy it is for any person to be indifferent. He states, “Of course, indifference can be tempting—more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims.” This quote

Elie Wiesel’s speech was designed to influence his listeners into action by warning them about the dangers indifference can have on society as it pertains to human atrocities and suffering. The speech helped the audience understand the need for every individual to show their moral conscience in the face of injustice. Wiesel attempts to convince his audience to support his views by using his childhood experience and relating them to the harsh realities while living in Nazi Death Camps as a boy during the Holocaust. He warns,

“He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again”. This quote stated by Elie Wiesel from his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”, refers to the day Elie Wiesel got liberated from the Holocaust when he was young. The Holocaust was just one of the many horrific tragedies that occurred during that century. In hopes of changing the future for the better, Wiesel decides to deliver a speech about helping the victims of injustice. He gives this speech intended for the President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, and friends hoping that they will make positive changes for the future. By using rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, rhetorical questions, and ethos, Wiesel tries to help the victims of injustice and prevent future tragedies from happening.

We live in a world of over seven billion people, how can one person even make a dent? It may not always be the action itself, but the impact that it has on a person. Never forget, never again, the words that resound in one’s head when thinking of Elie Wiesel's speech for the Nobel Peace Prize. We can never forget the stories of the lost, gone, and the survivors, so that we do not repeat their mistakes. Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust, World War II, and life’s brutalities. In his lifetime Elie Wiesel experienced discrimination because he was Jewish. He was sent to labor camps because he practiced a different religion. However, many people of the world today are discriminated against because they act or look a little different. The

Dzungar, Holodomor, Rwandan, Cambodians, Armenians, Circassian, Ottoman Greek, and the Jewish. All too many genocides. When will it stop? When will we learn? When will we stop forgetting about the past and when will the history books end the patterns of war and death? When? The survivors share their stories, but do we listen? Elie Wiesel was a fifteen year old boy with the a life ahead of him, when his religion, following Judaism, made him a target in Adolf Hitler's extermination plans. He was only a boy. He had done nothing wrong, absolutely nothing, yet his life had been ended before it began. From Auschwitz to Birkenau to Buna to Gleiwitz and Gleiwitz to Buchenwald. Wiesel endured separation and starvation, to survive the brutality of the Jewish Holocaust that left millions of others dead. Individuals with lives, with hopes, with dreams, suffering with no end, and losing everything upon survival. Adults, children, elderly, everyone one of them innocent. As individuals living without these threats we cannot empathize for the horror stories we hear, since we have no personal connection, we can only sympathize for them. With no personal connection to the events, it is sure that we will forget Wiesel, but why do we forget? Because humans are imperfect beings? How do we stop erring and forget the mistakes that have preceded us? Humans struggle to understand that the mistakes of one individual do not define those similar to them. If human can attempt to

The word of Wiesel was taken for granted to the highest degree possible, in which we wish to leave the past behind us and start a new. Nevertheless, we are humans that will always have the need to show no signs of remorse towards genocide that may not involve are well being due to showing differences being painless then taking action.

The general argument made by Elie Wiesel in his speech “The Perils of Indifference,” is that we need to open our eyes and realize that not everything can be sunshine and flowers all the time. More specifically, Wiesel emphasizes that the world needs to be aware and to empathize towards the victims of those of us that have

Wiesel is effective with his speech by connecting exaggeration within his revelation. He questions the guilt and responsibility for past massacres, pointing specifically at the Nazi’s while using historical facts, such as bloodbaths in Cambodia, Algeria, India, and Pakistan to include incidents on a larger level such as Auschwitz to provide people with a better idea (Engelhardt, 2002). He is effective in putting together the law and society’s need for future actions against indifference by stating, “In the place I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killer, the victims, and the bystanders” 7.(Wiesel 223).

You might wonder how the deaths of eleven million people could go unnoticed and why no one spoke up. This proves the ignorance of others. People knew what was going on, they just chose not to do anything about it because it was not happening to them. “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communist and I did not speak out- because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out- because I was no not a trade unionist. Then they came for me- and by then there was no one left to speak out for me” (Poem Pastor Niemoller). This poem proves that no one spoke out for others because it was not them who it was happening to. Wiesel wants to educated people so they will not only care about them selves, but they will care enough other people to stop the hatred that might be happening to others. He wants to show people that if it were you, then you would hope that someone would speak out for you and maybe make a difference.

Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed” (Paulo Freire). No is born violent or racist. It is only when something unjust happens, that a person feels the need to dehumanize the oppressed or themselves, even. Elie Wiesel is a perfect example of someone who experiences this dehumanization, and bears the effects of it. In his memoir Night, before the war, Elie Wiesel has a strong faith and identity as well as a distant relationship with his father because none of these are challenged; however, he witnesses and experiences mistreatment by the Nazis which causes him to lose his faith, his