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Elie Wiesel Acceptance Speech Essay

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In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Elie Wiesel asserts the following: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented.” This quote means if we don’t speak up when people are being tormented we automatically take the side of the tormentor. “In Indonesia 57,000 People with perceived mental disabilities are shackled in confined spaces.” Like the Holocaust, the world should not remain silent when it comes to abuses against people with mental disabilities in Indonesia. Elie Wiesel lived threw one of the most horrific events in human history, due to this he has a certain philosophy on oppression and remaining silent. For example, Wiesel believes all rules are off when it comes to human suffering he says “when human dignity is in jeopardy national borders become irrelevant.” This emphasises that when humans are endangered we must forget our differences and fight. This also means we must forget about other countries and other races because human life is more important. Wiesel adds on to his belief by saying, “Wherever men or …show more content…

This informs the reader that it does not matter why someone is persecuted we must fight for their rights. To go on, the universe must not turn the other way when someone is being persecuted. Wiesel goes into all the lives that could have been saved by saying, “Every moment one of them dies of disease, violence, famine, some of them-so many of them could have been saved” (Wiesel, “Perils of Indifference”). This quote opens the eyes of the readers to the endless possibilities that could happen if we speak up for people. If we take a stand so many innocent lives can be saved. Living through horrific events changed people, for Wiesel, with suffering came a platform to speak out and end

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