Neutrality In Night By Elie Wiesel

Six million people, or two-thirds of the Jewish people living in Europe were killed during the Holocaust (Dosomething.org). The Nazis’ goal was not to just isolate Jewish people from society, but to kill them off to create a “pure race.” Although the Nazis made huge efforts to kill all Jewish people, some did survive the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is one of those people, who made a point to educate others on the atrocities by writing books, his most famous being Night, so that the Holocaust was not forgotten. One of Elie Wiesel’s strongest beliefs was to avoid neutrality. In fact, he once stated, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” He means that when one does not take sides, they end up hurting the oppressed,

Although both sides have a good point, Wiesel’s belief that neutrality supports the one in the wrong is correct because neutrality allows the oppressor to continue in their actions and it hurts the victim’s efforts to stop the oppression.

To begin, Wiesel is correct that neutrality is hurtful to the oppressed because when all people remain neutral the oppression does not stop. According to the article “Malala’s Story” on malala.org, Malala “spoke out publicly on behalf of girls and our right to learn. And this made me a target.” One day Malala rode home from school after girls were banned from school, and “a masked gunman…shot me on the left side of my head. I woke up 10 days later.” After lots of recovery and time in the hospital, Malala moved to the UK with her family, and realized she “had a choice: [to] live a quiet life or…make the most of this new life I had been given. I determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school.” Girls rights were taken away, so many people were too scared to take a stand because they did

According to the article “Workers United: The Delano Grape Strike and Boycott” on nps.gov, the new Mexican union had to decide to “join the strike or break it.” However, the employers “hired replacement workers…from elsewhere…[and] the harvest ended without the farmworkers achieving their objectives.” Although the Mexicans sided with the Filipinos, many others did not and chose to work, so the strike went unnoticed. The workers who stayed neutral made it take longer for the Filipinos to achieve their objectives. Therefore, when people stay neutral, it decreases the victim’s efforts, once more proving Wiesel correct. Similarly, in the Disney movie, Race, two Jewish boys, Marty and Sam, are part of Team USA in the 1936 Olympics, even though it is in Berlin, and there is already a lot of prejudice. Upon arrival in Berlin, Marty and Sam specifically show their Star of David necklaces to prove that they are going against injustice. Hitler and the Nazis are mad that Team USA brought along both Black and Jewish people and ask for them to be removed. Instead of keeping Marty and Sam in to take a stand with them, they remove them from their event. Marty and Sam take a stand by going to Nazi Germany, but their efforts are immediately stopped by removing them from their event. Although they take the Jewish members along with them and are not