Argumentative Speech By Elie Wiesel

During WWII, Adolf Hitler, with the help of the Nazi regime, detained Jews from across their captured territory in concentration camps - sometimes referred to as “death factories”. Concentration camps usually starved their inhabitants, forced them to work long and strenuous hours, among other atrocities.Many Jews in concentration camps consoled themselves with the fact that none of the Allied countries knew the pain that they we’re going through. They convinced themselves that if they knew, they would act against the Nazi Regime and free them...only to learn after their release that the Allies had known all along. On April 12th, 1999, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor himself and Nobel Laureate, gave an impassioned speech at the White House, hosted by President Clinton and the First Lady. To convince his audience of the dangers of indifference during times of peril, Wiesel …show more content…
As with any speech or work of prose, a speaker must always connect with their audience if they hope to convince them of their message - Elie Wiesel is no exception. Wiesel had to especially make sure in this case that he formed an emotional connection with the American people so that they would listen to what he had to say. He begins by sharing a personal story of his past about of a young boy waking up in Buchenwald, a concentration camp described as “a place of eternal infamy”, and his liberation from its clutches. He opens with this important past experience to form a deeper connection with his audience, appealing to their emotions in