Elie Wiesel Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech Analysis

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In Elie Wiesel’s Nobel peace prize acceptance speech, he exemplifies how seeing people in need and not helping them is a crime against humanity and as someone ignoress them more and more people become bitter and truly evil. This is shown in his acceptance speech when Elie states “The world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” (Wiesel) This shows that if you stay quiet and let it happen just as the world did with the holocaust then you are no better than the people who are doing it.

Firstly, Elie's speech called the perils of Indifference illustrates that seeing someone in need and not helping them is a crime against humanity. This point is shown in Elie's Perils of Indifference speech when Elie is talking about people not bothering to stand up against the genocide and he states “In a way, to be …show more content…

This is shown when he states “‘Fire! I see fire! I see a fire!’ There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs. Schächter.” “We felt the abyss opening beneath us. Unable to still our anguish, we tried to reassure each other:” “once again, the young men bound and gagged her. When they actually struck her, people shouted their approval.” (Wiesel 25-26) This shows that people were not willing to help her and let her suffer by herself, and then when she kept going people decided to gag her and strike her. This shows that as people let others suffer they slowly loose their humanity and as they do, it gets worse and worse until they have no remorse for the people around them. This is shown as they wait for her to stop and when she doesn’t they strike and gag