“Perils of indifference” Speech given by Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Born September 30th, 1928 (currently 87) Born in Sighet, Transylvania At age 15, He and his family were deported to Auschwitz by German Nazis Was later moved to Buchenwald He lost his mother and younger sister while in the concentration camps He was freed in 1945 Wrote “Night”

WWІІ September 1st, 1939- September 2nd, 1945 Holocaust: -Adolf Hitler and his German Nazis captured millions of Jews -approximately six million Jews were killed during this time Auschwitz: -Largest of the concentration camps -Wiesel spent his time at Auschwitz in pain, starvation, and torture

Purpose Wiesel stood before the American Congress and Political leaders to give his speech entitled “Perils of Indifference” He wanted to bring about attention to the affects the Holocaust had on him and the other victims He felt “Indifference” was the main cause of all the suffering going on in history and wanted to motivate people to change that

Indifference Wiesel’s main focus of the speech was indifference and the effects it has on people, especially during the Holocaust “their lives are meaningless” “reduces the other to an abstraction” “More dangerous than anger and hatred” Roosevelt treated the refugees with indifference

Tone -Solemn “Tragic” “cast a dark shadow over humanity” “hatred and anger” “fell in battle” -Hopeful “extraordinary hope” “Peace treaty” “good things have happened”

Pathos “What about the Children?” “Children Perish” “He was finally free, but their was no joy in his heart.” “felt abandoned, forgotten” “We felt abandoned by God” “Victim of His anger” “They were dead and did not know it.”

Ethos Was a Auschwitz victim and survivor “Indifferences reduces the other to an abstraction.” Americans were doing businesses with “Hitler’s Germany” until 1942 “the killers, the victims, and the bystanders” “the Pentagon knew, the State Department knew”

Logos “is not only a sin, it is a punishment” “in denying their humanity, we betray our own”

Repetition “Indifference” “Anger” “Humanity” “Punishment” “Pain” “Gratitude” “Gratitude is a word that I cherish” “defines the humanity of the human being”

Shifts Talked about “indifference” and the Holocaust to represent our past Used “good” events such as the “rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil”, “defeat of Nazism”, and “Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt” do represent our future and his hopefulness for it Wanted to highlight his belief that the world can move past our indifference and suffering

Rhetorical Questions “What about the Children?” “Does it mean we have learned from the past?” “What is indifference?”

Parallelism “To fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler” Emphasizes the discrimination in the world and the need for people to fight against it “What are you doing for the children of the world, the homeless, the victims?” Expresses the need to help those who are suffering from extreme tragedies

Juxtapostion “light and darkness” “dusk and dawn” “crime and punishment” “good and evil” Gives examples of the denotation of the word “Indifference”

Conclusion Very effective in his attempt to bring awareness and persuade people to fight for what is right and support humanity