“To be silent is impossible, to speak forbidden.” said author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. This quote here is Wiesel’s way of showing one who did not experience time during the Holocaust how it is fair to say that they could never begin to understand what it was like. If one were also to ask Wiesel to speak about the work he did or what he saw at the concentration camps, he may explain how speaking of it fails to acknowledge the depth of evil put out, and how it is discourteous to the memories of those who died during the Holocaust. Speaking may be forbidden, however, it is for the failure it may bring for speaking the truth about the Holocaust.
One may say that by never speaking of the Holocaust, will then make those who died become
Wiesel vowed to say nothing of the Holocaust for 10 years, but as the horrors of the Holocaust became revealed, he began his life’s work. Wiesel traveled throughout the world in places like Europe, Asia and South Africa, giving lectures and writing about his life experience. The camps had shown Wiesel pain, a kind of pain that he did not wish upon others. It was because of this that his humanitarian efforts against violence, racism, and other forms of injustice and discrimination took place.
The Message of the Memoir Night Eliezer Wiesel writes, Eliezer Wiesel is a Jewish Holocaust survivor, an author, and a human rights activist. At the onset of the Holocaust however, Eliezer Wiesel was a thirteen-year-old, small-town-boy of Sighet, Transylvania who by all accounts was “deeply observant” (Wiesel 3). The Holocaust was a dark time in Jewish history in which Anti- Semitics; mainly the German Nazis led by Hitler, tried to exterminate the Jews. As an author, Eliezer uses an array of rhetorical appeals. Rhetorical appeals consist of pathos, logos, and ethos.
In today’s society, people tend to view the Holocaust as a horrible thing that happened and it won’t happened again. But nobody really understands fully what it meant to go through it, except for Holocaust survivors. Unfortunately, they were hesitant to share those moments that forever changed them. Elie Wiesel is not one of those people. As the author of the memoir Night, he uses repetition and imagery to try to fully express the amount of terror and suffering that they had to go through during the Holocaust.
Think about what the world would be like if we didn’t know who committed the crimes against the people during the Holocaust. We know what happened because of people like Elie Wiesel and Lily Ebert. All because they were willing to share their experiences. This is why we should not stop talking about the Holocaust and should keep remembering what happened, and take a stand against the evil that is willing to commit these
In this speech, Elie Wiesel discusses indifference and how staying neutral can have serious consequences. Wisel uses his experience in the Holocaust to support his argument, going on to say how he felt forgotten and how the only hope he had was that nobody else knew what was happening so they couldn't help. (p.14) He uses alliteration and repetition to make his point clear, showing his surprise and disappointment when he learns that the U.S. government did know what was happening in the concentration camps. Wiesel uses his ethos to appeal to the White House and the people around the country, using his time in the concentration camps as a way to have some leverage in the issue.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night tells the unforgettable tale of his account of the savagery and brutality the Nazis showed during the Holocaust. Night depicts the story of a budding Jew from the small town of Sighet named Eliezer. He and his family are exiled to the concentration camp known as Auschwitz. He must master the skills needed to survive with his father’s guidance until he finds liberation from the monstrosity that is the camp. This memoir, however, hides a far more meaningful lesson that can only be revealed through careful analyzation.
Elie Wiesel gave his speech “Perils of Indifference” at the White House on April 12, 1999, as part of the Millennium Lecture series, presented by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton. In the summer of 1944, Nazis deported Wiesel and his family to Auschwitz, a concentration camp located in Poland. In January 1945, Wiesel was moved to Buchenwald in Germany, where he was later liberated by American troops in April. After he regained his freedom, Wiesel learned that leaders of the free world had been aware of the horrors being committed and yet they did not take immediate action. In his speech, Wiesel addresses the leaders of America and bystanders who do not take action in times of trouble.
The Holocaust was a tragic and fatal experience that many Jews suffered from during World War II. The most famous survivor, Elie Wiesel writes about his experiences in his memoir Night. Elie is tortured, starved dehydrated, and beaten. Trauma like this transforms people. Elie’s experiences in Auschwitz also altered his relationship with God and his father.
In Night by Elie Wiesel, he recounts his experiences in the Holocaust and talks about how many of the people involved–those who could be seen as perpetrators, victims and bystanders alike–and how denial played a key role in their actions in the Holocaust. Wiesel writes about denial so much as a warning to the reader, helping us understand that we need to avoid denial in the modern world and whatever crises we may face; if denial hadn’t been so prominent in the Holocaust, much less people would’ve died. This is clear in Wiesel’s retelling of the events.. Many people were involved in the Holocaust, obviously. Some were just innocent people, pushed into the deadly situation for being who they were; others were people seeking to somehow help themselves
Mr.Wiesel will be remembered as a person who survived through concentration camps in Auschwitz and in Buchenwald. He will also be remembered as one of the few people who actually was okay with sharing his story. He wrote many books and gave many lectures about what he went through. He explains that if someone want to stay “human” then they have to talk about their pain and things that they have witnesses. If people choose to keep things in then that is how they go
Elie Wiesel’s speech falls into the deliberative genre category, and 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 exercise 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, “To be indifferent to suffering is to lose one’s humanity” (Wiesel, 1999). Wiesel persuades the audience to embrace a higher level of level moral awareness against indifference by stating, “the hungry children, the homeless refugees-not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope, is to exile them from human memory”. Wiesel’s uses historical narrative, woven with portions of an autobiography to move his persuasive speech from a strictly deliberative genre to a hybrid deliberative genre.
Although the world continues to face tragedy, little compares to that of the horrors millions of innocent Jews like Elie Wiesel faced, as they were deported from their homes, separated from their families and pushed around into different concentration camps where they were brutally tortured, killed, and discarded of by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany Army beginning in 1941. It wasn’t until April of 1945 that Elie along with the limited number of other survivors were finally liberated. This mid 20th century atrocity has come to be known as the Holocaust, a tragic part of history that will never be forgotten. It was because of that experience, that Elie Wiesel extensively depicted the events he faced through written and verbal accounts including the speech he gave entitled “The Perils of Indifference” on April 12, 1999. The speech was given at the 7th Millennium Evening at the White House, with an intent to create a kairotic moment with the public including the audiences it was broadcasted to, as an opportunity to explain a darker side of history, while also hopefully enlightening them for the future.
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
The Holocaust is widely known as one of the most horrendous and disturbing events in history that the world has seen; over six million lives were lost, in fact the total number of deceased during the Holocaust has never been determined. The footage of concentration camps and gas chambers left the world in utter shock, but photos and retellings of the events cannot compare to being a victim of the Holocaust and living through the horror that the rest of the world regarded in the safety of their homes. Elie Wiesel recognized the indifference that the
As a young Polish Jew, Wiesel was sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp where he fought for his life day in and day out. This background alone establishes unshakable ethos. Additionally, World War II is often viewed as one of the darkest times in American and World History; thus, no one would question someone who lived through the gloomiest time of that war, the Holocaust. The humble Wiesel further establishes his ethos by showing his appreciation to the President and others: “And now, I stand before you, Mr. President – Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others – and I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people.” This helps to reinforce Wiesel’s already strong ethos, because he speaks directly to the audience and tells them how much he admires them. For the average audience member, this makes them feel appreciated and that he is not talking to them but rather talking with them. The audience reacts to this by furthermore appreciating Wiesel; thus, increasing their willingness to hear what it is he has to say. Furthermore, this quote makes the audience feel as though Wiesel is humbled to be speaking before them. Nevertheless, Wiesel places his ethos on the line by speaking the truth regarding how the United States was indifferent to what was happening in Nazi Germany. Wiesel begins to talk about World War II President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt turning a blind eye at the beginning of the war. Wiesel goes on to