“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