Response To Elie Wiesel

A3 Suzy Kassem once wrote, “The gut is the seat of all feeling. Polluting the gut not only cripples your immune system, but also destroys your sense of empathy, the ability to identify with other humans.” The destruction of the human sense of apathy, as mentioned by Suzy Kassem, is the same kind of emotional desensitization that Auschwitz caused Elie to experience. Night by Elie Wiesel uses symbolism, personal conflicts, and flashbacks to show how desensitization leads to people becoming emotionally dormant, as he experienced during his time at Auschwitz. Through his use of symbolism, Elie exposes the emotional dormancy he experienced during his time at Auschwitz.

Elie Wiesel, a Noble Peace Prize winner and Boston University Professor, presented a speech as part of the Millennium Lecture Series at the White House on April 12, 1999. President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton hosted the formal lecture series. Numerous dignitaries from a wide array of public, private and foreign office attended the event. Although Elie Wiesel designed his speech to persuade, it actually fell somewhat outside the deliberative genre category, as being more non-typical within this genre category.

The book Night opens in the town of Signet where Elie Wiesel, the author ,

The 20th century was a time of brutal wars and eradication of joy. On April 12, 1999, Elie Wiesel stepped up to the podium, reflecting the violent times as they were months before entering a new century. Wiesel knew very well that the uncountable tragedies had to change, and each individual must exercise his or her own contributions in the face of justice and humanity. His devastating experiences and tragic realizations produced a voice that carried around the world, revealing the fundamental structure of humanity.

The date is April 11, 1945. A 17 year old boy looks towards the ominous gates of the Buchenwald concentration camp after nearly two years of misery and sees his first sign of hope: an American tank standing at the entrance of the gates. This young boy was Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the gruesome events that occurred in concentration camps during WWII. Elie shares a chilling memoir about his experience in his book Night. Throughout the novel, Elie and other Jewish inmates constantly used their families as their primary motive to overcome hardships even while being challenged by tough circumstances.

“Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end.” (American Rhetoric). This is a sentiment that Elie Wiesel pushes throughout his speech, The Perils of Indifference. Elie Wiesel was a Romanian born, Jewish writer, and was a survivor of the holocaust (Berger). In his speech, The Perils of Indifference, he discusses how indifference has hurt him, and everyone throughout the world. In this speech Wiesel uses appeals to pathos to make his argument effective. Examples are scattered across the speech to make it more appealing, and provide real world context for what he is arguing about. The last of the rhetorical choices the speaker makes is definition, in this speech Wiesel defines indifference, and uses this definition to prove why indifference hurts people. In Elie Wiesel’s speech, The Perils of Indifference, he argues that indifference hurts people, and his argument is effective by using various rhetorical choices.

The Holocaust began around 1933 when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party. During that time, the first concentration camp, Dachau, was established to torture and kill Jewish people. Soon after, in 1935, Nuremberg Race Laws against Jews were decreed and depriving Jews of German citizenship. Germany then invaded Poland, starting World War II in Europe. With the start of World War II came many more concentration camps, and millions of deaths. Six million European Jews lost their lives during this horrific time. Many survivors shared their stories after they were freed, so that the world would know of the horrors they experienced. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, told his story in his book, Night. Elie Wiesel was a teenager during the Holocaust, but lived on into his eighties and continued to speak out against what the Nazi’s did to his family.

As soon as the speech begins, Elie uses pathos with an anecdote on his experience after being freed from a concentration camp by American soldiers. This successfully elicits emotion from the audience and collects their attention for the rest of the speech with phrasing like “there was no joy in his heart”. Then, further in, Elie compliments Mr. Bill Clinton by saying he has gratitude for him being the “Commander and Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others” and Mrs. Clinton is thanked for her efforts to help “…the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society directly. However, he continues on and calls the government out on their seeming indifference when it came to the events of WWII. By saying, “We believe that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets…but we learned that

Imagine yourself in a situation similar to the concentration camps during the holocaust. Would you remain strong, courageous, and wise? It’s hard to know how you would act during this circumstance, nevertheless to imagine this situation at all. However, Elie Wiesel was one to not only experience this horrible situation but survive it. Through his journey he stayed strong and courageous, even if he didn’t realize that is what he was doing at the time. In my opinion, Elie Wiesel was a resilient, compassionate, wise, and an intelligent human being. Of course, no one would have realized that they were being strong or smart at this time; they were focusing on staying alive, doing exactly what the SS men said, and wondering what was happening to their other family members. Yet, as I read Elie’s experience and watched as he returned to Auschwitz I saw him as resilient for his ability to do everything he was told to, to fight for his life while in the camp, and for being able to go back and visit the place that once caused him so much pain. Not only was he strong for being able to go back and visit but he was thoughtful. He wanted to go back to the camps to pay respects to all of the people that met their fate there and to make sure they are never forgotten. Another way he strives to keep the memory of those who lost their lives is through his books. He uses his intelligence to share his memories as well as the truth of all that happened to him and all the others.

1.If you were stripped of your freedom and individuality to be held in a camp waiting to die would you feel indifferent. Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Boston University Professor, presented a speech as part of the Millennium Lecture Series at the White House on April 12, 1999 2.(Wiesel 221). President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton hosted the formal event. Numerous government officials from a wide order of public, private and foreign office attended the event 2.(Wiesel 221). Although Elie Wiesel designed his speech to persuade, it actually felt somewhat outside from its original intended purpose, as being more different.

Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, in the speech “Perils of Indifference”, calls out the American government for being indifferent in an important time in world history. He claims that indifference is a very horrible thing and bad things have come from. He supports his claim by first explaining his childhood, then he goes on to talk about what it means to him, next explains the power it can have and finally explains the consequences that can come from it. His purpose is to educate his audience about indifference in hope of preventing indifference to continue in the future generations in order to accomplish his purpose for the speech. He establishes a calm tone for his audience.

I hated Eli, correction, I really hated Eli. I wanted to kill him. It was a trap, I knew that going in. No good would come from it but if I didn't ask her today he would slap me and look disappointed at me for at least a month. Ugh! Could I be doing anything else? Could I be hitchhiking through Europe? No, I had to do this. But why? I could walk across hot coals barefoot with no quarrel. Somehow this seemed more like jumping off a cliff blindfolded. I guess that’s what this story is about. How I jumped off a cliff, and blamed someone else.

“Night”, written by Elie Wiesel is a novel where the author speaks on the events of his life, and the many different jewish concentration camps he was jailed in. Wiesel talks a lot about God, and he questions why he should even worship him because he believed that God was not helping him and his family through their misery. He also talked about the high number of deaths each day, and the all the hardships that the people in concentration camps went through, including himself. Furthermore, Wiesel talked about how me managed to get out of trouble and get food during the most hardest times. He talked about his struggles in the camp and also the struggles after he was freed. The horrifying events that occurred to Elie Wiesel always stayed

Elie Wiesel's Speech: "The Perils of Indifference," tells of the injustice suffered by the Jewish people at the hands of “Hitler’s Germany” (Wiesel, 1999) fifty-four years prior to giving the speech on April 12th, 1999. During his encounter of the events, he takes note to highlight the feelings of the Jewish people because of others’ failure to deliver them from such turmoil, calling this failure indifference. By the end of his account, he is more than relieved that the indifference has ceased, but encourages others to react lest our children, our future fail. Likewise, is Susan B. Anthony’s speech: “On Women’s Right to Vote” is a report of injustice. Her account takes place in 1872 and surrounds the inequality suffered women; but more so her personal experience, as she was indicted for casting what she calls, an alleged illegal vote. She took this opportunity to focus not only on her personal prejudice but on the injustice of American women “without having a lawful right to vote” (Anthony, 1872). While these two speeches share a common theme that any injustice to any person’s civil liberty is wrong; I will show the reaction of the two author's are certainly different as well as the fate of the two groups were certainly not the same.

Elie Wiesel, in the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, tells his experience of being forced into a concentration camp during the mass extermination of the Jewish people. He faces many obstacles as a fifteen year old boy in such harsh conditions. In a place where everyone is fending for themselves and he must do so as well. Weisel must now forget his old life and take on the number A-7713 as his new identity. Because of what he had to go through, he had to learn to adapt and become more aware of how serious his situation was. Therefore, his response to the events that he had to go through were justifiable since he was not prepared for what was to come.