ELIE WIESEL’S “THE PERILS OF INDIFFERENCE” SPEECH

- By Elie Wiesel
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Romanian-born American writer and political activist (1928–2016) Elie WieselWiesel in 1996BornEliezer Wiesel(1928-09-30)September 30, 1928Sighet, Kingdom of RomaniaDiedJuly 2, 2016(2016-07-02) (aged 87)New York City, U.S.OccupationAuthorprofessoractivistjournalistCitizenship Romania (until 1940) Hungary (1940–1944)[1] Stateless (1944–1963)[2] United States (from 1963) Alma materUniversity of ParisSubjectsThe HolocaustreligionphilosophyNotable worksNight (1960)Notable awards Congressional Gold Medal 1984 French Legion of Honor – Commander, Grand Officer, Grand Cross 1984, 1990, 2000 Nobel Peace Prize 1986 Presidential Medal of Freedom 1992 Order of the Star of Romania – Grand Officer 2002 Honorary knighthood 2006 Spouse Marion Erster Rose ​(m. 1969)​ChildrenElisha Elie Wiesel's voice Wiesel's "The Perils of Indifference" speechRecorded April 12, 1999 Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (/ˈɛli viːˈzɛl/ EL-ee vee-ZEL or /ˈiːlaɪ ˈviːsəl/ EE-ly VEE-səl;[3][4][5] Yiddish: אליעזר "אלי" װיזל, romanized: Eliezer "Eli" Vizl; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.[6] In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.[7][8] He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.[9][10][11] He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.[12][13] Early life[edit] The house in which Wiesel was born in Sighet Eliezer Wiesel was born in Sighet (now Sighetu Marmației), Maramureș, in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania.[14] His parents were Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel. At home, Wiesel's family spoke Yiddish most of the time, but also German, Hungarian, and Romanian.[15][16] Wiesel's mother, Sarah, was the daughter of Dodye Feig, a Vizhnitz Hasid and farmer from the nearby village of Bocskó. Dodye was active and trusted within the community. Wiesel's father, Shlomo, instilled a strong sense of humanism in his son, encouraging him to learn Hebrew and to read literature, whereas his mother encouraged him to study the Torah. Wiesel said his father represented reason, while his mother Sarah promoted faith.[17] Wiesel was instructed that his genealogy traced back to Rabbi Schlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), and was a descendant of Rabbi Yeshayahu ben Abraham Horovitz ha-Levi.[18] Wiesel had three siblings—older sisters Beatrice and Hilda, and younger sister Tzipora. Beatrice and Hilda survived the war, and were reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage. They eventually emigrated to North America, with Beatrice moving to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Tzipora, Shlomo, and Sarah did not survive the Holocaust. Imprisonment and orphaning during the Holocaust[edit] Buchenwald concentration camp, photo taken April 16, 1945, five days after liberation of the camp. Wiesel is in the second row from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the bunk post.[19] In March 1944, Germany occupied Hungary, thus extending the Holocaust into Northern Transylvania as well.[a] Wiesel was 15, and he, with his family, along with the rest of the town's Jewish population, was placed in one of the two confinement ghettos set up in Máramarossziget (Sighet), the town where he had been born and raised. In May 1944, the Hungarian authorities, under German pressure, began to deport the Jewish community to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where up to 90 percent of the people were murdered on arrival.[20] Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered.[20] Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be murdered in the gas chambers. Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. Until that transfer, he admitted to Oprah Winfrey, his primary motivation for trying to survive Auschwitz was knowing that his father was still alive: "I knew that if I died, he would die."[21] After they were taken to Buchenwald, his father died before the camp was liberated.[20] In Night,[22] Wiesel recalled the shame he felt when he heard his father being beaten and was unable to help.[20][23] Wiesel was tattooed with inmate number "A-7713" on his left arm.[24][25] The camp was liberated by the U.S. Third Army on April 11, 1945, when they were just prepared to be evacuated from Buchenwald.[26] Post-war career as a writer[edit] France[edit] After World War II ended and Wiesel was freed, he joined a transport of 1,000 child survivors of Buchenwald to Ecouis, France, where the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) had established a rehabilitation center. Wiesel joined a smaller group of 90 to 100 boys from Orthodox homes who wanted kosher facilities and a higher level of religious observance; they were cared for in a home in Ambloy under the directorship of Judith Hemmendinger. This home was later moved to Taverny and operated until 1947.[27][28] Afterwards, Wiesel traveled to Paris where he learned French and studied literature, philosophy and psychology at the Sorbonne.[20] He heard lectures by philosopher Martin Buber and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and he spent his evenings reading works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, and Thomas Mann.[29] By the time he was 19, he had begun working as a journalist, writing in French, while also teaching Hebrew and working as a choirmaster.[30] He wrote for Israeli and French newspapers, including Tsien in Kamf (in Yiddish).[29] In 1946, after learning of the Irgun's bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Wiesel made an unsuccessful attempt to join the underground Zionist movement. In 1948, he translated articles from Hebrew into Yiddish for Irgun periodicals, but never became a member of the organization.[31] In 1949, he traveled to Israel as a correspondent for the French newspaper L'arche. He then was hired as Paris correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, subsequently becoming its roaming international correspondent.[32] Excerpt from Night Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never. —Elie Wiesel, from Night.[10] For ten years after the war, Wiesel refused to write about or discuss his experiences during the Holocaust. He began to reconsider his decision after a meeting with the French author François Mauriac, the 1952 Nobel Laureate in Literature who eventually became Wiesel's close friend. Mauriac was a devout Christian who had fought in the French Resistance during the war. He compared Wiesel to "Lazarus rising from the dead", and saw from Wiesel's tormented eyes, "the death of God in the soul of a child".[33][34] Mauriac persuaded him to begin writing about his harrowing experiences.[29] Wiesel first wrote the 900-page memoir Un di velt hot geshvign (And the World Remained Silent) in Yiddish, which was published in abridged form in Buenos Aires.[35] Wiesel rewrote a shortened version of the manuscript in French, La Nuit, in 1955. It was translated into English as Night in 1960.[36] The book sold few copies after its initial publication, but still attracted interest from reviewers, leading to television interviews with Wiesel and meetings with writers such as Saul Bellow. As its profile rose, Night was eventually translated into 30 languages with ten million copies sold in the United States. At one point film director Orson Welles wanted to make it into a feature film, but Wiesel refused, feeling that his memoir would lose its meaning if it were told without the silences in between his words.[37] Oprah Winfrey made it a spotlight selection for her book club in 2006.[20] United States[edit] In 1955, Wiesel moved to New York as foreign correspondent for the Israel daily, Yediot Ahronot.[32] In 1969, he married Austrian Marion Erster Rose, who also translated many of his books.[32] They had one son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, named after Wiesel's father.[32][38] Wiesel in 1987 In the U.S., he eventually wrote over 40 books, most of them non-fiction Holocaust literature, and novels. As an author, he was awarded a number of literary prizes and is considered among the most important in describing the Holocaust from a highly personal perspective.[32] As a result, some historians credited Wiesel with giving the term Holocaust its present meaning, although he did not feel that the word adequately described that historical event.[39] In 1975, he co-founded the magazine Moment with writer Leonard Fein. The 1979 book and play The Trial of God are said to have been based on his real-life Auschwitz experience of witnessing three Jews who, close to death, conduct a trial against God, under the accusation that He has been oppressive towards the Jewish people.[40] Wiesel also played a role in the initial success of The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski by endorsing it before it became known the book was fiction and, in the sense that it was presented as all Kosinski's true experience, a hoax.[41][42] Wiesel published two volumes of memoirs. The first, All Rivers Run to the Sea, was published in 1994 and covered his life up to the year 1969. The second, titled And the Sea is Never Full and published in 1999, covered the years from 1969 to 1999.[43] Political activism[edit] Wiesel and his wife, Marion, started the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity in 1986. He served as chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust (later renamed the US Holocaust Memorial Council) from 1978 to 1986, spearheading the building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.[44][45] Sigmund Strochlitz was his close friend and confidant during these years.[46] The Holocaust Memorial Museum gives the Elie Wiesel Award to "internationally prominent individuals whose actions have advanced the Museum's vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity".[47] The Foundation had invested its endowment in money manager Bernard L. Madoff's investment Ponzi scheme, costing the Foundation $15 million and Wiesel and his wife much of their own personal savings.[48][49] A staunch foe of the death penalty, Wiesel stated that he thought that even Adolf Eichmann should not have been executed.[50] Support for Israeli government policy[edit] In 1982, at the request of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Wiesel agreed to resign from his position as chairman of a planned international conference on the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. Wiesel then worked with the Foreign Ministry in its attempts to get the conference either canceled or to remove all discussion of the Armenian genocide from it, and to those ends he provided the Foreign Ministry with internal documents on the conference's planning and lobbied fellow academics to not attend the conference.[51] During his lifetime, Wiesel had deflected questions on the topic of the Israeli settlements, claiming to abstain from commenting on Israel's internal debates.[52] According to Hussein Ibish, despite this position, Wiesel had gone on record as supporting the idea of expanding Jewish settlements into the Palestinian territories conquered by Israel during the 6 Day War; such settlements are considered illegal by the international community.[53] Awards[edit] Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for speaking out against violence, repression, and racism. The Norwegian Nobel Committee described Wiesel as "one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression, and racism continue to characterize the world" and called him a "messenger to mankind". It also stressed that Wiesel's commitment originated in the sufferings of the Jewish people but that he expanded it to embrace all repressed peoples and races.[9][10][11] In his acceptance speech he delivered a message "of peace, atonement, and human dignity". He explained his feelings: "Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant."[54] He received many other prizes and honors for his work, including the Congressional Gold Medal in 1985, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.[55] He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1996.[56] Wiesel co-founded Moment magazine with Leonard Fein in 1975. They founded the magazine to provide a voice for American Jews.[57] He was also a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor.[58] In April 1999, Wiesel delivered the speech "The Perils of Indifference" in Washington D.C., criticizing the people and countries who chose to be indifferent while the Holocaust was happening. He defined indifference as being neutral between two sides, which, in this case, amounts to overlooking the victims of the Holocaust. Throughout the speech, he expressed the view that a little bit of attention, either positive or negative, is better than no attention at all.[59] In 2003, he discovered and publicized the fact that at least 280,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews, along with other groups, were massacred in Romanian-run death camps.[60] In 2005, he gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the new building of Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust History Museum: I know what people say – it is so easy. Those that were there won't agree with that statement. The statement is: it was man's inhumanity to man. NO! It was man's inhumanity to Jews! Jews were not killed because they were human beings. In the eyes of the killers they were not human beings! They were Jews![61] In early 2006, Wiesel accompanied Oprah Winfrey as she visited Auschwitz, a visit which was broadcast as part of The Oprah Winfrey Show.[62] On November 30, 2006, Wiesel received a knighthood in London in recognition of his work toward raising Holocaust education in the United Kingdom.[63] In September 2006, he appeared before the UN Security Council with actor George Clooney to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. When Wiesel died, Clooney wrote, "We had a champion who carried our pain, our guilt, and our responsibility on his shoulders for generations."[64] In 2007, Wiesel was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Lifetime Achievement Award.[65] That same year, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a letter condemning Armenian genocide denial, a letter that was signed by 53 Nobel laureates including Wiesel. Wiesel repeatedly called Turkey's 90-year-old campaign to downplay its actions during the Armenian genocide a double killing.[66] President George W. Bush, joined by the Dalai Lama and Wiesel, October 17, 2007, to the ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., for the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama In 2009, Wiesel criticized the Vatican for lifting the excommunication of controversial bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X.[67] The excommunication was later reimposed. In June 2009, Wiesel accompanied US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they toured the Buchenwald concentration camp.[68] Wiesel was an adviser at the Gatestone Institute.[69] In 2010, Wiesel accepted a five-year appointment as a Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Chapman University in Orange County, California. In that role, he made a one-week visit to Chapman annually to meet with students and offer his perspective on subjects ranging from Holocaust history to religion, languages, literature, law and music.[70] In July 2009, Wiesel announced his support to the minority Tamils in Sri Lanka. He said that, "Wherever minorities are being persecuted, we must raise our voices to protest ... The Tamil people are being disenfranchised and victimized by the Sri Lanka authorities. This injustice must stop. The Tamil people must be allowed to live in peace and flourish in their homeland."[71][72][73] In 2009, Wiesel returned to Hungary for his first visit since the Holocaust. During this visit, Wiesel participated in a conference at the Upper House Chamber of the Hungarian Parliament, met Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and President László Sólyom, and made a speech to the approximately 10,000 participants of an anti-racist gathering held in Faith Hall.[74][75] However, in 2012, he protested against "the whitewashing" of Hungary's involvement in the Holocaust, and he gave up the Great Cross award he had received from the Hungarian government.[76] Wiesel was active in trying to prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons, stating that, "The words and actions of the leadership of Iran leave no doubt as to their intentions".[77] He also condemned Hamas for the "use of children as human shields" during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict by running an ad in several large newspapers.[78] The Times refused to run the advertisement, saying, "The opinion being expressed is too strong, and too forcefully made, and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers."[79][80] Wiesel often emphasized the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and criticized the Obama administration for pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt East Jerusalem Israeli settlement construction.[81][82] He stated that "Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture—and not a single time in the Koran ... It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city".[83][84] Teaching[edit] Wiesel held the position of Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Boston University from 1976,[85] teaching in both its religion and philosophy departments.[86] He became a close friend of the president and chancellor John Silber.[87] The university created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor.[85] From 1972 to 1976 Wiesel was a Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York and member of the American Federation of Teachers.[88][89] In 1982 he served as the first Henry Luce Visiting Scholar in Humanities and Social Thought at Yale University.[86] He also co-instructed Winter Term (January) courses at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida. From 1997 to 1999 he was Ingeborg Rennert Visiting Professor of Judaic Studies at Barnard College of Columbia University.[90] Personal life[edit] Wiesel and wife Marion at the 2012 Time 100 In 1969 he married Marion Erster Rose, who originally was from Austria and also translated many of his books.[32][91] They had one son, Shlomo Elisha Wiesel, named after Wiesel's father.[32][38] The family lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.[92] Wiesel was attacked in a San Francisco hotel by 22-year-old Holocaust denier Eric Hunt in February 2007, but was not injured. Hunt was arrested the following month and charged with multiple offenses.[93][94] In May 2011, Wiesel served as the Washington University in St. Louis commencement speaker.[95] In February 2012, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performed a posthumous baptism for Simon Wiesenthal's parents without proper authorization.[96] After his own name was submitted for proxy baptism, Wiesel spoke out against the unauthorized practice of posthumously baptizing Jews and asked presidential candidate and Latter-day Saint Mitt Romney to denounce it. Romney's campaign declined to comment, directing such questions to church officials.[97] Death and aftermath[edit] Wiesel died on the morning of July 2, 2016, at his home in Manhattan, aged 87. After a private funeral service was conducted in honor of him at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, he was buried at the Sharon Gardens Cemetery in Valhalla, New York, on July 3.[48][98][99][100][101] Utah senator Orrin Hatch paid tribute to Wiesel in a speech on the Senate floor the following week, in which he said that "With Elie's passing, we have lost a beacon of humanity and hope. We have lost a hero of human rights and a luminary of Holocaust literature."[102] In 2018, antisemitic graffiti was found on the house where Wiesel was born.[103] Awards and honors[edit] Prix de l'Université de la Langue Française (Prix Rivarol) for The Town Beyond the Wall, 1963.[104] National Jewish Book Award for The Town Beyond the Wall, 1965.[104][105] Ingram Merrill award, 1964.[106] Prix Médicis for A Beggar in Jerusalem, 1968.[104] National Jewish Book Award for Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters, 1973.[107] Jewish Heritage Award, Haifa University, 1975.[106] Holocaust Memorial Award, New York Society of Clinical Psychologists, 1975.[106] S.Y. Agnon Medal, 1980.[106] Jabotinsky Medal, State of Israel, 1980.[106] Prix Livre Inter, France, for The Testament, 1980.[104] Grand Prize in Literature from the City of Paris for The Fifth Son, 1983.[104] Commander in the French Legion of Honor, 1984.[104] U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, 1984.[108] Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Worship, 1985.[109] Medal of Liberty, 1986.[110] Nobel Peace Prize, 1986. Grand Officer in the French Legion of Honor, 1990.[86] Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1992 Niebuhr Medal, Elmhurst College, Illinois, 1995.[111] Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, 1996, presented by Awards Council member Rosa Parks at the Academy's 35th annual Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.[112] Grand Cross in the French Legion of Honor, 2000.[113] Order of the Star of Romania, 2002.[106] Man of the Year award, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2005.[106] Light of Truth award, International Campaign for Tibet, 2005.[106] Honorary Knighthood, United Kingdom, 2006.[63] Honorary Visiting Professor of Humanities, Rochester College, 2008.[114] National Humanities Medal, 2009.[115] Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement, 2011. Loebenberg Humanitarian Award, Florida Holocaust Museum, 2012.[116] Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, 2012[117] Nadav Award, 2012.[118] S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards, 2013.[119] John Jay Medal for Justice John Jay College, 2014.[120] Bust of Wiesel was carved on the Human Rights Porch of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., 2021.[121] Honorary degrees[edit] Wiesel had received more than 90 honorary degrees from colleges worldwide.[122] Doctor of Humane Letters, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1985.[123] Doctor of Humane Letters, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, 1997.[124] Doctorate, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, 1998.[125] Doctor of Humanities, Michigan State University, 1999.[126] Doctorate, McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland, 2005.[127] Doctor of Humane Letters, Chapman University, 2005.[128] Doctor of Humane Letters, Dartmouth College, 2006.[129] Doctor of Humane Letters, Cabrini College, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 2007.[130] Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Vermont, 2007.[131] Doctor of Humanities, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, 2007.[132] Doctor of Letters, City College of New York, 2008.[133] Doctorate, Tel Aviv University, 2008.[134] Doctorate, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel, 2008.[135] Doctor of Humane Letters, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 2009.[136] Doctor of Letters, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2010.[137] Doctor of Humane Letters, Washington University in St. Louis, 2011.[138] Doctor of Humane Letters, College of Charleston, 2011.[139] Doctorate, University of Warsaw, June 25, 2012.[140] Doctorate, The University of British Columbia, September 10, 2012.[141] Doctorate, Pontifical University of John Paul II, June 30, 2015[142][143] Doctorate of Humane Letters, Fairfield University, May 22, 1983[144] This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (November 2011) See also[edit] The Boys of Buchenwald – documentary about the orphanage in which he stayed after the Holocaust Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism Elie Wiesel bibliography Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania Genesis Prize God on Trial – a 2008 joint BBC / WGBH Boston dramatization of his book The Trial of God Holocaust research List of civil rights leaders List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities List of Jewish Nobel laureates References[edit] Informational notes ^ In 1940, after the Second Vienna Award, Northern Transylvania, including the town of Sighet (Máramarossziget) was returned to Hungary. Citations ^ "Elie Wiesel Timeline and World Events: 1928–1951". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Archived from the original on March 10, 2023. Retrieved March 10, 2023. ^ "Elie Wiesel Timeline and World Events: From 1952". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Archived from the original on March 10, 2023. Retrieved March 10, 2023. ^ "Audio Name Pronunciation | Elie Wiesel". TeachingBooks.net. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2016. ^ "NLS Other Writings: Say How, U-X". National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2017. ^ "Wiesel, Elie". Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Archived from the original on November 16, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2023. ^ "Winfrey selects Wiesel's 'Night' for book club". Associated Press. January 16, 2006. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2011. ^ "Elie Wiesel was a witness to evil and a symbol of endurance" Archived January 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, US News & World Report, July 3, 2016 ^ "Remembering Elie Wiesel" Archived July 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Jewish Standard, July 7, 2016 ^ a b "The Nobel Peace Prize for 1986: Elie Wiesel". The Nobel Foundation. October 14, 1986. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2011. ^ a b c Corinne Segal (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, dies at 87". PBS. Archived from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2023. ^ a b Carrie Kahn (July 2, 2016). "Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate, Dies At 87". npr. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2023. ^ "Elie Wiesl". Human Rights Foundation. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2016. ^ "Human Rights Foundation Lauds OAS Discussion on Venezuela". Latin American Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016. ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Elie Wiesel". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. ^ "The Life and Work of Wiesel". Public Broadcasting Service. 2002. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved August 15, 2010. ^ "Elie Wiesel Biography and Interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. Archived from the original on October 5, 2010. Retrieved April 15, 2020. ^ Fine 1982:4. ^ Wiesel, Elie, and Elie Wiesel Catherine Temerson (Translator). "Rashi (Jewish Encounters)". ISBN 9780805242546. Schocken, January 1, 1970. Web. October 27, 2016. ^ "Elie Wiesel — Photograph". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on November 15, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2022. ^ a b c d e f "Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel Dies". HuffPost. July 2, 2016. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2023. ^ "Inside Auschwitz" Archived August 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Oprah Winfrey broadcast visit, January 2006 ^ "Night by Elie Wiesel". Aazae. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2016. ^ Donadio, Rachel (January 20, 2008). "The Story of 'Night'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved May 17, 2011. ^ "Eliezer Wiesel, 1986: Not caring is the worst evil" (PDF). Nobel Peace Laureates. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2010. ^ Kanfer, Stefan (June 24, 2001). "Author, Teacher, Witness". Time. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011. Retrieved May 17, 2011. ^ See the film Elie Wiesel Goes Home, directed by Judit Elek, narrated by William Hurt. ISBN 1-930545-63-0 ^ Niven, William John (2007). The Buchenwald Child: Truth, Fiction, and Propaganda. Harvard University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-1571133397. ^ Schmidt, Shira, and Mantaka, Bracha. "A Prince in a Castle". Ami, September 21, 2014, pp. 136-143. ^ a b c Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Beating the Odds: A Teen Guide to 75 Superstars Who Overcame Adversity, ABC CLIO (2008) pp. 154–156 ^ Sternlicht, Sanford V. (2003). Student Companion to Elie Wiesel. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 7. ISBN 0-313-32530-8. ^ Wiesel, Elie; Franciosi, Robert (2002). Elie Wiesel: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi. p. 81. ISBN 9781578065035. Interviewer: Why after the war did you not go on to Palestine from France? Wiesel: I had no certificate. In 1946 when the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel, I decided I would like to join the underground. Very naively I went to the Jewish Agency in Paris. I got no further than the janitor who asked: "What do you want?" I said, "I would like to join the underground." He threw me out. About 1948 I was a journalist and helped one of the Yiddish underground papers with articles, but I was never a member of the underground. ^ a b c d e f g "Elie Wiesel". JewishVirtualLibrary.org. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2014. ^ Fine, Ellen S. Legacy of Night: The Literary Universe of Elie Wiesel, State Univ. of New York Press (1982) p. 28 ^ Wiesel, Elie. 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Speeches and interviews Elie Wiesel Video Gallery Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel Examines 'Building a Moral Society' in Ubben Lecture, DePauw University, September 21, 1989, archived from the original on June 26, 2011, retrieved February 3, 2012 "Facing Hate with Elie Wiesel". Bill Moyers. November 27, 1991. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2012. "Elie Wiesel Biography and Interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. June 29, 1996. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019. "Perils of Indifference" Speech by Elie Wiesel Archived January 19, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Washington, D.C., Transcript (as delivered), Audio, Video, April 12, 1999. "Perils of Indifference" Speech by Elie Wiesel Archived November 6, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Washington, D.C., Text and Audio, April 12, 1999. The Kennedy Center Presents: Speak Truth to Power: Elie Wiesel Archived October 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, PBS, October 8, 2000. An Evening with Elie Wiesel Archived November 28, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Endowed Symposia in Jewish Studies. UCTV (University of California). August 19, 2002 Elie Wiesel: First Person Singular Archived December 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, PBS, October 24, 2002. Diamante, Jeff (July 29, 2006), "Elie Wiesel on his beliefs", The Star, Toronto, archived from the original on June 2, 2008. Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Elie Wiesel from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, May 24, 2007. "'We must not forget the Holocaust'". Today (BBC Radio 4). September 15, 2008. BBC. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2012. "A conversation with Elie Wiesel". Charlie Rose. June 8, 2009. PBS. Archived from the original on June 13, 2009. "Unmasking Evil – Elie Wiesel, featuring Soledad O'Brien, 2009". Oslo Freedom Forum 2009. 2010. Oslo Freedom Forum. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved July 4, 2016. "Elie Wiesel on the Leon Charney Report (Segment)". The Charney Report. 2006. WNYE-TV. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2013. "Elie Wiesel on the Leon Charney Report". The Charney Report. 2006. WNYE-TV. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2016. Further reading[edit] Berenbaum, Michael. The Vision of the Void: Theological Reflections on the Works of Elie Wiesel. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8195-6189-4 Burger, Ariel (2018). Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1328802699. Archived from the original on November 14, 2018. Retrieved November 13, 2018. Chighel, Michael (2015). "Hosanna! Eliezer Wiesel's Correspondence with the Lubavitcher Rebbe" (online book). Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2015. Davis, Colin. Elie Wiesel's Secretive Texts. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1994. ISBN 0-8130-1303-8 Doblmeier, Martin (2008). The Power of Forgiveness (Documentary). Alexandria, VA: Journey Films. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Downing, Frederick L. Elie Wiesel: A Religious Biography. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-88146-099-5 Fine, Ellen S. Legacy of Night: The Literary Universe of Elie Wiesel. New York: State University of New York Press, 1982. ISBN 0-87395-590-0 Fonseca, Isabel. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey. London: Vintage, 1996. ISBN 978-0-679-73743-8 Friedman, John S. (Spring 1984). "Elie Wiesel, The Art of Fiction No. 79". The Paris Review. Spring 1984 (91). Archived from the original on October 28, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2010. Rota, Olivier. Choisir le français pour exprimer l'indicible. Elie Wiesel, in Mythe et mondialisation. L'exil dans les littératures francophones, Actes du colloque organisé dans le cadre du projet bilatéral franco-roumain « Mythes et stratégies de la francophonie en Europe, en Roumanie et dans les Balkans », programme Brâcuşi des 8–9 septembre 2005, Editura Universităţii Suceava, 2006, pp. 47–55. Re-published in Sens, dec. 2007, pp. 659–668. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elie Wiesel. Wikiquote has quotations related to Elie Wiesel. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Elie Wiesel's acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize (Archived 23 October 2023 at archive.today) Works by Elie Wiesel at Open Library Appearances on C-SPAN Biography on The Elie Wiesel Foundation For Humanity Elie Wiesel on Nobelprize.org The short film Elie Wiesel on the Nature of Human Nature (1985) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film Conversations with Elie Wiesel (2001) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film Anti-Semitism Redux (2002) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film Anti-Semitism ... "the worlds most durable ideology" (2004) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film "The Open Mind – Am I My Brother's Keeper? (September 27, 2007)" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film "The Open Mind – Taking Life: Can It Be an Act of Compassion and Mercy (September 27, 2007)" is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. "Free At Last: Elie Wiesel, Plainclothes Nuns, and Breakthroughs – Or Witnessing a Witness of History", pp. 19–21 in 'Spirit of America, Vol. 39: Simple Gifts', La Crosse, WI: DigiCOPY, 2017, Essay by David Joseph Marcou about his meeting Mr. Wiesel and being official Viterbo U. Photographer for Elie Wiesel Day at Viterbo U., 9-26-06, in Book by DJ Marcou on Missouri J-School Library Web-page of David Joseph Marcou's works [1] Elie Wiesel, Nobel Luminaries - Jewish Nobel Prize Winners, on the Beit Hatfutsot-The Museum of the Jewish People Website. vteElie Wiesel Bibliography Non-fiction Night (1960) The Jews of Silence (1966) Novels Dawn (1961) Day (1962) The Gates of the Forest (1964) The Oath (1973) The Testament (1980) The Fifth Son (1983) Twilight (1988) The Forgotten (1992) Plays The Trial of God (1979) vteLaureates of the Nobel Peace Prize1901–1925 1901: Henry Dunant / Frédéric Passy 1902: Élie Ducommun / Charles Gobat 1903: Randal Cremer 1904: Institut de Droit International 1905: Bertha von Suttner 1906: Theodore Roosevelt 1907: Ernesto Moneta / Louis Renault 1908: Klas Arnoldson / Fredrik Bajer 1909: A. M. F. Beernaert / Paul Estournelles de Constant 1910: International Peace Bureau 1911: Tobias Asser / Alfred Fried 1912: Elihu Root 1913: Henri La Fontaine 1914 1915 1916 1917: International Committee of the Red Cross 1918 1919: Woodrow Wilson 1920: Léon Bourgeois 1921: Hjalmar Branting / Christian Lange 1922: Fridtjof Nansen 1923 1924 1925: Austen Chamberlain / Charles Dawes 1926–1950 1926: Aristide Briand / Gustav Stresemann 1927: Ferdinand Buisson / Ludwig Quidde 1928 1929: Frank B. Kellogg 1930: Nathan Söderblom 1931: Jane Addams / Nicholas Butler 1932 1933: Norman Angell 1934: Arthur Henderson 1935: Carl von Ossietzky 1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas 1937: Robert Cecil 1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944: International Committee of the Red Cross 1945: Cordell Hull 1946: Emily Balch / John Mott 1947: Friends Service Council / American Friends Service Committee 1948 1949: John Boyd Orr 1950: Ralph Bunche 1951–1975 1951: Léon Jouhaux 1952: Albert Schweitzer 1953: George C. Marshall 1954: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1955 1956 1957: Lester B. Pearson 1958: Georges Pire 1959: Philip Noel-Baker 1960: Albert Luthuli 1961: Dag Hammarskjöld 1962: Linus Pauling 1963: International Committee of the Red Cross / League of Red Cross Societies 1964: Martin Luther King Jr. 1965: UNICEF 1966 1967 1968: René Cassin 1969: International Labour Organization 1970: Norman Borlaug 1971: Willy Brandt 1972 1973: Lê Đức Thọ (declined award) / Henry Kissinger 1974: Seán MacBride / Eisaku Satō 1975: Andrei Sakharov 1976–2000 1976: Betty Williams / Mairead Corrigan 1977: Amnesty International 1978: Anwar Sadat / Menachem Begin 1979: Mother Teresa 1980: Adolfo Pérez Esquivel 1981: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1982: Alva Myrdal / Alfonso García Robles 1983: Lech Wałęsa 1984: Desmond Tutu 1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War 1986: Elie Wiesel 1987: Óscar Arias 1988: UN Peacekeeping Forces 1989: Tenzin Gyatso (14th Dalai Lama) 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev 1991: Aung San Suu Kyi 1992: Rigoberta Menchú 1993: Nelson Mandela / F. W. de Klerk 1994: Shimon Peres / Yitzhak Rabin / Yasser Arafat 1995: Pugwash Conferences / Joseph Rotblat 1996: Carlos Belo / José Ramos-Horta 1997: International Campaign to Ban Landmines / Jody Williams 1998: John Hume / David Trimble 1999: Médecins Sans Frontières 2000: Kim Dae-jung 2001–present 2001: United Nations / Kofi Annan 2002: Jimmy Carter 2003: Shirin Ebadi 2004: Wangari Maathai 2005: International Atomic Energy Agency / Mohamed ElBaradei 2006: Grameen Bank / Muhammad Yunus 2007: Al Gore / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2008: Martti Ahtisaari 2009: Barack Obama 2010: Liu Xiaobo 2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf / Leymah Gbowee / Tawakkol Karman 2012: European Union 2013: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons 2014: Kailash Satyarthi / Malala Yousafzai 2015: Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet 2016: Juan Manuel Santos 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 2018: Denis Mukwege / Nadia Murad 2019: Abiy Ahmed 2020: World Food Programme 2021: Maria Ressa / Dmitry Muratov 2022: Ales Bialiatski / Memorial / Center for Civil Liberties 2023: Narges Mohammadi 2024: to be announced vte1986 Nobel Prize laureatesChemistry Dudley R. Herschbach (United States) Yuan T. Lee (United States) John Polanyi (Canada) Literature (1986) Wole Soyinka (Nigeria) Peace Elie Wiesel (United States) Physics Ernst Ruska (Germany) Gerd Binnig (Germany) Heinrich Rohrer (Switzerland) Physiology or Medicine Stanley Cohen (United States) Rita Levi-Montalcini (United States/Italy) Economic Sciences James M. Buchanan (United States) Nobel Prize recipients 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 vteLaureates of the Prix Médicis1958–1975 1958: Claude Ollier 1959: Claude Mauriac 1960: Henri Thomas 1961: Philippe Sollers 1962: Colette Audry 1963: Gérard Jarlot 1964: Monique Wittig 1965: René-Victor Pilhes 1966: Marie-Claire Blais 1967: Claude Simon 1968: Elie Wiesel 1969: Hélène Cixous 1970: Camille Bourniquel 1971: Pascal Lainé 1972: Maurice Clavel 1973: Tony Duvert 1974: Dominique Fernandez 1975: Jacques Almira 1976–2000 1976: Marc Cholodenko 1977: Michel Butel 1978: Georges Perec 1979: Claude Durand 1980: Jean Lahougue (declined award) 1980: Jean-Luc Benoziglio 1981: François-Olivier Rousseau 1982: Jean-François Josselin 1983: Jean Echenoz 1984: Bernard-Henri Lévy 1985: Michel Braudeau 1986: Pierre Combescot 1987: Pierre Mertens 1988: Christiane Rochefort 1989: Serge Doubrovsky 1990: Jean-Noël Pancrazi 1991: Yves Simon 1992: Michel Rio 1993: Emmanuèle Bernheim 1994: Yves Berger 1995: Vassilis Alexakis and Andreï Makine 1996: Jacqueline Harpman and Jean Rolin 1997: Philippe Le Guillou 1998: Homéric 1999: Christian Oster 2000: Yann Apperry 2001–present 2001: Benoît Duteurtre 2002: Anne F. Garréta 2003: Hubert Mingarelli 2004: Marie Nimier 2005: Jean-Philippe Toussaint 2006: Sorj Chalandon 2007: Jean Hatzfeld 2008: Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès 2009: Dany Laferrière 2010: Maylis de Kerangal 2011: Mathieu Lindon 2012: Emmanuelle Pireyre 2013: Marie Darrieussecq 2014: Antoine Volodine 2016: Ivan Jablonka 2017: Yannick Haenel 2018: Pierre Guyotat 2019: Luc Lang 2020: Chloé Delaume 2021: Christine Angot 2022: Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam Authority control databases International FAST ISNI VIAF National Norway Spain France BnF data Catalonia Germany Italy Israel Belgium United States Sweden Latvia Japan Czech Republic Australia Greece Korea Croatia Netherlands Poland Portugal Academics CiNii Artists MusicBrainz People Deutsche Biographie Trove Other SNAC IdRef

ELIE WIESEL’S “THE PERILS OF INDIFFERENCE” SPEECH

Buchenwald concentration camp" by Private H. Miller is in the public domain

Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress, Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends:

Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again. Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion. Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know - that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.

And now, I stand before you, Mr. President - Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of thousands of others - and I am filled with a profound and abiding gratitude to the American people. "Gratitude" is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being. And I am grateful to you, Hillary, or Mrs. Clinton, for what you said, and for what you are doing for children in the world, for the homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of destiny and society. And I thank all of you for being here.

We are on the threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered in the new millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged severely, in both moral and metaphysical terms. These failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of assassinations (Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Sadat, Rabin), bloodbaths in Cambodia and Algeria, India and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia, Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the Gulag and the tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence; so much indifference.

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. What are its courses and inescapable consequences? Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a glass of wine, as the world around us experiences harrowing upheavals?

Of course, indifference can be tempting more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless. Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest. Indifference reduces the Other to an abstraction.

Over there, behind the black gates of Auschwitz, the most tragic of all prisoners were the "Muselmanner," as they were called. Wrapped in their torn blankets, they would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into space, unaware of who or where they were - strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.

Rooted in our tradition, some of us felt that to be abandoned by humanity then was not the ultimate. We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one. For us to be ignored by God was a harsher punishment than to be a victim of His anger. Man can live far from God - not outside God. God is wherever we are. Even in suffering? Even in suffering.

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony. One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it.

Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor - never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, 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. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.

And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps - and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance - but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.

And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies. If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once

And now we knew, we learned, we discovered that the Pentagon knew, the State Department knew. And the illustrious occupant of the White House then, who was a great leader - and I say it with some anguish and pain, because, today is exactly 54 years marking his death - Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April the 12th, 1945. So he is very much present to me and to us. No doubt, he was a great leader. He mobilized the American people and the world, going into battle, bringing hundreds and thousands of valiant and brave soldiers in America to fight fascism, to fight dictatorship, to fight Hitler. And so many of the young people fell in battle. And, nevertheless, his image in Jewish history - I must say it - his image in Jewish history is flawed.

The depressing tale of the St. Louis is a case in point. Sixty years ago, its human cargo - nearly 1,000 Jews - was turned back to Nazi Germany. And that happened after the Kristallnacht, after the first state sponsored pogrom, with hundreds of Jewish shops destroyed, synagogues burned, thousands of people put in concentration camps. And that ship, which was already in the shores of the United States, was sent back. I don't understand. Roosevelt was a good man, with a heart. He understood those who needed help. Why didn't he allow these refugees to disembark? A thousand people - in America, the great country, the greatest democracy, the most generous of all new nations in modern history. What happened? I don't understand. Why the indifference, on the highest level, to the suffering of the victims?

But then, there were human beings who were sensitive to our tragedy. Those non-Jews, those Christians, that we call the "Righteous Gentiles," whose selfless acts of heroism saved the honor of their faith. Why were they so few? Why was there a greater effort to save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war? Why did some of America's largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler's Germany until 1942? It has been suggested, and it was documented, that the Wehrmacht could not have conducted its invasion of France without oil obtained from American sources. How is one to explain their indifference?

And yet, my friends, good things have also happened in this traumatic century: the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland. And let us remember the meeting, filled with drama and emotion, between Rabin and Arafat that you, Mr. President, convened in this very place. I was here and I will never forget it.

And then, of course, the joint decision of the United States and NATO to intervene in Kosovo and save those victims, those refugees, those who were uprooted by a man, whom I believe that because of his crimes, should be charged with crimes against humanity.

But this time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene.

Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far? Is today's justified intervention in Kosovo, led by you, Mr. President, a lasting warning that never again will the deportation, the terrorization of children and their parents, be allowed anywhere in the world? Will it discourage other dictators in other lands to do the same?

What about the children? Oh, we see them on television, we read about them in the papers, and we do so with a broken heart. Their fate is always the most tragic, inevitably. When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine.

Some of them - so many of them - could be saved.

And so, once again, I think of the young Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains. He has accompanied the old man I have become throughout these years of quest and struggle. And together we walk towards the new millennium, carried by profound fear and extraordinary hope.

Current Page: 1

GRADE:9

Additional Information:

Rating: A Words in the Passage: 960 Unique Words: 673 Sentences: 131
Noun: 547 Conjunction: 174 Adverb: 110 Interjection: 3
Adjective: 135 Pronoun: 170 Verb: 280 Preposition: 215
Letter Count: 8,203 Sentiment: Positive / Neutral / Positive Tone: Neutral Difficult Words: 392
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