Early in the book when Moshe the Beadle returns to warn the people of the ghetto about the Holocaust itself. After he say this, the people of the ghetto say “He’s just trying to make us pity him. What an imagination he has…poor fellow.He’s gone mad”(page 17). This is a good example of indifference because the people of the ghetto did not listen to him.Moshe had just returned from the germans with a injuried leg and he told them about the crimes the Germans were doing, but the people of the ghetto didn’t believe him. Moshe was someone in the ghetto who wasn’t listened to often, so when he returned and warned the people they displayed indifference.This afeected those people as individuals and as a soceity because as individuals, Moshe couldn’t
“The old man mumbled something, groaned, and died. Nobody cared. His son searched him and took the crust of bread”. But then two men saw the boy and killed him to for the crust. The people in the cattle car were no longer people, but animals who only cared for food. The people outside the cattle car also painted a dark picture of human nature. People gathered around the cattle car to have a glance at the fights happening over the piece of bread. Soon the spectators continued to toss bread inside the cattle car and watched the effects of their action with great interest. They observed those monsters who were ready to kill for a crust of bread. The circumstances that allowed this dark side of human nature to emerge was the instinct to survive. The Jews did everything to survive and no longer cared about anyone else. They went through so much suffering that they didn't listen to their conscience and didn't care if they killed somebody. The people outside revealed their dark side too because they enjoyed watching people kill each other for food and they encouraged the fight instead of stopping it. They watched in awe because at that time Germans didn't see Jews as humans. They enjoyed seeing the Jews
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.
Understating Hitler, denying the media, and not realizing the depth of Hitler’s evil, were all the motifs shown above and is proof on how the Jews of Sighet deny their warning signs of an upcoming holocaust. Heeding these signs may have granted many of them life in a place that manufactured death. And when the race toward death began, it was the village idiot that came out to be the smartest.
to the dehumanization of the Jews. He uses descriptive adjectives to shed light on what is truly happening. He also uses irony to help the reader understand the cluelessness of himself and the Jews. Wiesel’s way of writing in the book demonstrates the theme of dehumanization through false
Speeches are given for a purpose. Whether it is for persuasion, or education, or even entertainment, they all target certain parts of people’s minds. This speech, The Perils of Indifference, was given by Elie Wiesel with intention to persuade his audience that indifference is the downfall of humanity, and also to educate his audience about his conclusions about the Holocaust and the corresponding events. He was very successful in achieving those goals. Not only was the audience enlightened, but also President Bill Clinton, and the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, themselves were deeply touched by Wiesel’s words.
In the eyes of Elie Wiesel, author of Night, indifference whether it be in relationship abuse or another problem, is mentally damaging and needs to be eliminated. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel illustrates how indifference can harm the mind of the victim when he says, “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live,” (Night 34). In this, Wiesel is speaking of his first night in Auschwitz. When he mentions silence he is referring to the indifference that the Jews in concentration camps faced from the rest of the world. Wiesel refers to that night as the time he lost his desire to live because he saw so much indifference toward the suffering of the inmates and the horrific things that were happening to them. After this, his desire to stay alive was destroyed because he watched as the world stood by, indifferent to the senseless murder of millions. Throught this, Wiesel illustrates that indifference will impact people for the rest of their lives. Because indifference
Wiesel recounts the cramped living conditions, the Jewish life and the design and purpose of the Sighet ghettos from its conception to its liquidation. His recount demonstrates the hardships and the dehumanization experienced by the Jewish people starting with their isolation and containment within the
To the people in the concentration camps, apathy is a “harsher punishment” (Wiesel) than anger or rage, because anger has feelings in it, while indifference just makes a suffering person feel even smaller and more insignificant. Indifference in humans potentially goes against religion, because it blurs the lines between “light and darkness” (Wiesel). Throughout his speech at the Millennium Lectures, Elie Wiesel both enlightens on the consequences of apathy towards those who need help, and inspires hope for a better future.
“The Perils of Indifference” is a speech that Elie Wiesel delivered in Washington D.C. on April 12, 1999, exactly 54 years after his release from the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald by American troops. Both Congress along with President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton were present to hear the speech. Wiesel spoke briefly about what it was like in the concentration camps, but he focused mostly on the topic of Indifference. His speech was effective in its use of rhetoric to convince the audience that as individuals and as a world culture we cannot afford to become indifferent to the suffering around us.
For example, Elie watches the discrimination in this quote, “They struck her several times on the head-blows that might of killed her. Her little boy clung to her; he did not cry out; he did not say a word. He was not even weeping now” (Wiesel 17). Elie gives us the image of one being beaten to death, yet no one does a thing. Instead, everyone joins in to persecute her and watch. As her son just sits there, silent. His response to cling and watch without emotion laments an indifference driven by fear and naivety, yet still screams mediocrity, a lack of feeling. The crowd, or beaters and scoffers, reveal a different side of indifference. The absence of feeling, the most destructive indifference. It suggests a hardening of the soul or spirit, the heart. In this situation, the indifference is displayed differently being delivered by strangers and loved ones. this situation is not only shown from
On their way to the concentration camp, a German officer said, “’There are eighty of you in the car… If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot like “dogs” ”’ (Wiesel 24). This shows that the Germans compared the Jews to dogs or animals, and that the German have no respect towards the Jews. Arrived at the concentration camp, the Jews were separated from their friends and family.
When Wiesel first met Moshe the Beadle, he would chant and sing. He was a poor man who made people feel comfortable around him. “...my fellow townspeople, though they would help the poor,were not particularly fond of them. Moshe the Beadle was the exception.”(Wiesel 1) He was deported to polish territory that had been taken over by a secret police group. He escaped back to Sighet after being wounded and taken for dead to tell everyone what happened there. “..... he went from one Jewish house to another,telling the story of Malka, the young girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias ….who had begged to be killed before his sons….”(Wiesel 4) Moshe the Beadle desperately tried to warn the Jewish people their fate but they chose to ignore and pity him. “Moshe had changed.There was no longer any joy in his eyes. He no longer sang. He no longer talked to me of God or of the cabbala ….People refused not only to believe his stories, but even to listen to them.”(Wiesel 4) His exposure to the criminal acts of his oppressors changed his whole personality. All he cared about was protecting the other Jews from experiencing the same things he did.
Some of the Jewish population was aware of what ghetto life meant for their futures whereas others were living under a delusion. Sighet’s population, easily influenced early on by the Germans courteous behavior, believed through blind faith that no harm would come to them. However, Hanna Berliner Fischthal best states the truth, “the ghettos into which they [the Jews] are forced are temporary holding grounds enabling the Germans…to easily round up the residents for the final solution.” If only they had known about the final solution, they could have escaped. Instead, the majority was murdered and the rest endured years of pain and misery that forever haunts them.
After Moshe the Beadle escapes the Nazis, he returns to Sighet to warn the Jews of the atrocities being carried out by the Germans, hoping that they will flee and procure refuge. Instead, the townspeople rebuke his warnings. Moshe is not only a foreigner but is also a poor, humble, holy caretaker of a synagogue, therefore the Jews ignore his stories thinking that he’s just a simpleton. They say “He’s just trying to make us pity him. What an imagination he has!” or “ Poor fellow. He’s gone mad,” (5). Even Wiesel himself does not believe Moshe. In reality, all of the people’s justifications for the disregard his alerts are just excuses for their denial. The Jews are too stubborn, unwilling to believe humans would do such horrible crimes to others. They are fearful of the possibility that Moshe’s accusations could be true.
Strangeways, Al. "'The Boot in the Face': The Problem of the Holocaust in the Poetry of