Response to Genocide

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

He was finally free, no joy filled his heart but abandonment was drowning it. How dangerous is indifference to humankind as it pertains to suffering and the need for conscience understanding when people are faced with unjust behaviors? Elie Wiesel is an award winning author and novelist who has endured and survived hardships. One of the darkest times in history, a massacre of over six million Jews, the Holocaust and Hitler himself. After the Holocaust he went on and wrote the internationally acclaimed memoir “Night,” in which he spoke out against persecution and injustice across the world. In the compassionate yet pleading speech, ¨Perils of Indifference,¨ Elie Wiesel analyzes the injustices that himself and others endured during the twentieth century, as well as the hellish acts of the Holocaust through effective rhetorical choices.

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.

Elie Wiesel has given the listener a wonderful opportunity to feel the intense movement of his speech, “The Perils of Indifference”. His speech is centered around the need for vigilance in the face of evil. Throughout this speech, with which he moved so many, he shared his experience with being sent to Buchenwald, a concentration camp, the treacherous conditions in which they were living, and the way that indifference has separated human beings. He explained, that through anger and hatred a great poem or symphony can be written, because “One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses.” (Wiesel, 1999/16, p. 78). The three strategies that will be explored throughout this analysis are ethos, logos, and pathos.

Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and successful writer and speaker. He’s written a very popular book, Night and speeches that also get Elie’s message across. While his book Night and his speech Perils of Indifference both illustrate indifference, it’s displayed in different ways. The effects, pain and suffering from the holocaust were described in the book and all this was due to indifference which was communicated through the speech. The two texts have common similarities, but also many differences as well.

“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.

Holocaust survivor and writer, Elie Wiesel in his influential speech “The Perils of Indifference,” claims that indifference is the root of all evil and inhumanity---all pain and all tragedy has resulted because of indifference. He supports his claim by highlighting the reason for “World Wars,” “Civil Wars,” “Assassinations,” “Bloodbaths,” and “Tragedy---” indifference (Wiesel par. 5) . Specifically, Wiesel uses imagery to paint an image of what the innocent victims of indifference experience. The poor “children [that] perish” because of the indifference in a man’s soul; until they see the children’s “pain” and “agony” and “hear their pleas,” until “one of them dies” because of the “violence,” “disease” and “famine,” then one will notice the dangers of indifference (Wiesel par. 23) . Further, the author flashbacks to past events that have left humans without a soul. He mentions how one day he “woke up in a place of eternal infamy, Buchenwald.” Remembering the day he is captured and the day he is “free[ed]” (Wiesel par. 1) . The problem now is that “there [i]s no joy in his heart;” he becomes a victim of indifference---the metal torture (Wiesel par. 1) . Wiesel’s purpose is to inform humanity of the dangers indifference holds in order to encourage humans to continue to hope for a world without indifference---no pain, no horror. He establishes a critical tone for readers by using stylistic devices such as imagery, flashbacks and rhetorical questions in order to achieve his purpose that indifference is monstrous and dangerous. Wiesel’s message about the inhumanity of indifference and the importance of resistance is still relevant today.

Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel in his critical speech, ”Perils of Indifference,” maintains the idea that indifference is inhumane. He supports his claim by using his personal experience in the Holocaust. Additionally, it states in paragraph 9 that “They were dead and did not know it.” emphasizes how indifference has made the “Muselmann” completely unaware of their fate. Further, it states in paragraph 8 that “Indifference can be tempting… troublesome… and can make our lives meaningless.” Wiesel’s purpose is to warn the people that change is needed in order to encourage the people to make a change in the world for the better so something as tragic and devastating like the Holocaust never happens again. He establishes a critical tone for readers by using stylistic devices and rhetorical devices such as imagery, contemplative questions,and word choice in order to achieve his message that indifference is inhumane. Wiesel’s message about the inhumanity of indifference and the importance of resistance is still relevant today.

On April 12th 1999, in Washington D.C., Elie Wiesel gave a speech during the Millennium Lecture Series that took place in the East Room of the White House. The speech was given in front of Mr. Bill and Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and other officials. Elie Wiesel is an author most noted for his novel Night, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and political activist. In the speech he spoke on his view of indifference and explained how it was negatively affecting humanity and the nation as a whole. The Perils of Indifference was a speech that successfully used ethos, pathos, and logos to inform, persuade and inspire its audience on its views.

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).

Elie Wiesel’s speech “The Perils of Indifference” is a mind opening and emotional speech that prompts the audience to change the indifference that plagues America and many people in this time and age. He expresses to the audience that indifference is the reason appalling and horrifying events, such as the Holocaust, occur and why no one takes immediate actions to help the victims. To get his point across, Wiesel uses his own history and experiences so that the audience can visualize the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor and to project the feelings of hopelessness and defeat that the victims felt when no one came to end the injustice. In this critique, Elie Wiesel’s rhetorical speech of indifference will show its effectiveness through testimony, emotion, and rhetorical questions; this speech accomplished its goal and without a doubt persuaded most of the audience to call out for change in indifference.

In the world during the time of the Holocaust, there was indifference towards the suffering of millions of Jews. When individuals reflect about the Holocaust, the majority of the time the responsibility of the terrible events is placed upon the perpetrators. However, bystanders and witnesses indirectly affected the victims of the Holocaust as well. The silence of these people played one of the largest roles in the Holocaust, they influenced it by avoiding any type of involvement and by becoming blinded towards the suffering of others. In his Academy Award acceptance speech, Elie Wiesel says, “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”. This exert from his speech reveals the importance

After twenty percent of cambodia’s population was slaughtered, much of the victims were left with very little resultion or justice. Few moments in human history offer as poignant an insight into the human condition as genocide, no moment was more demonstrative of this than the prosecution of Kang Kek Lew, the most deadly of all of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge leaders. Thierry Curvellier’s book Master of Confessions: the Making of Khmer Rouge Torturer examines this trial through an impartial lens that allows the reader to understand the great societal implications the tribunal carried not only for the healing of Cambodia, but for the future of judicial independence and rule of law in Cambodia.

People are individuals with their own identities,personalities and sense of self worth & pride. Individuals are subjected to family dynamics, peer pressure & dictates of neighborliness & civics. They follow the traditions of etiquette, proper manners & good citizenship. They are bound by rules of the community they live in, abide by the ordinances and laws wherever they are, even if they are merely passing through the region.