Elie Wiesel Speech In The Book Night

The Holocaust was a time of devastation. 11 million innocent people died just because they weren’t the “perfect German”. 6 million of those were Jews. The Jews had privileges taken away so that they were not as good as the Germans. They weren’t allowed to have pets, they were forbidden to own land, prohibited to have health insurance and banned from getting legal qualification. In August of 1938, Jews were forced to add Israel(if you were a man) or Sarah(if you were a woman) to your name so that people would know that you were Jewish. In October of 1938, Law requires Jewish passports to be stamped with a large red "J." Anything that would made the Jews stand out, so that people could easily avoid them. Many of the Jewish were hanged, burned, killed and put into concentration camps, where their lives were made miserable. Elie Wiesel was a rare survivor of the Holocaust. He spent his life writing books and giving speeches to spread an important message: everyone has a voice, use it. Don’t sit to the side and let others push you around. Speak up for yourself. Don’t be indifferent. Do not ignore the people who need help. Did Elie …show more content…
However, he doesn’t directly refer to not being indifferent. In his speech, the word indifferent comes up numerous times. “So much violence, so much indifference”(Perils of Indifference). From the title alone, I can tell what his speech is about. When I read the book, a number of different themes came to mind, though to be honest, to avoid being indifferent was not at the top of the list. It was not what I first thought the theme was. I thought that the speech more clearly explained what Elie’s message was. “What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means "no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn, crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and evil”(Perils of