Samantha Lemmer Ms. Alcaraz English 10 p.1 4 March 2024 The Holocaust was a major human rights issue that took place in the 1940’s that killed and oppressed millions of innocent Jewish people. One boy, Elie Wiesel, was fortunate enough to survive this tragedy, and later in life, wrote a memoir to share his harrowing experiences throughout this event in history. He associated his experiences to his Nobel Prize speech, where he discussed human rights. The Holocaust affected so many Jewish lives, which makes it important that we remember this tragedy and honor the innocent lives that were oppressed and lost. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel’s experience during the Holocaust and having to stay strong and faithful, helps teach a lesson that it …show more content…
The real main reason for Elie’s faithfulness and hope, was his father, and the fact that he was alive and on this harrowing journey through oppression with him, and he kept his hope to keep his father alive. For example, “No” is a good word. I yelled at him. He’s not dead, he said. Not yet. And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were all glassy. He was breathing faintly”(Wiesel 99). Even through this tough, near-death experience, Elie remained hopeful that his father could live, and his hope is what kept them together and alive. It was as if the Nazi guards wanted his father dead, but Elie proved them wrong and faced his oppressors. Elie’s hope throughout the memoir kept him alive and in the right state of mind, to survive with his father, as he experienced the death camps and oppression inflicted by the Nazi guards. Through all of Elie’s harrowing experiences whilst living in the Nazi death camps, he was able to learn lessons and make connections to prove how important human rights are, and to never give …show more content…
One of the first key ideas he stated was about how bad it is to forget an atrocity from the past, such as the Holocaust. Wiesel states, “Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices”(Wiesel Nobel Prize Speech). To forget or deny an event like the Holocaust, is basically forgetting or denying all the lives of innocent people that were lost, and all the unnecessary suffering they endured. Another important point Elie made was that it is important to speak up for what is right, and to not endure the suffering of the oppressor. For example, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented, sometimes we must interfere”(Wiesel Nobel Prize Speech). At times it can be very difficult to stand up for what is right against an oppressor, but it can be possible, and although interfering cannot always put an end to something, it can surely expose someone or something. One of the last key points Elie made during his speech was about human rights and how much abuse and oppression still goes on almost all of the time. Wiesel states, “Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free”(Wiesel Nobel Prize