REHUGO analysis - history

Tayler Wills

Mr. Soeth

English 3 AP

February 1, 2011

REHUGO Analysis – History- “The Perils of Indifference”

1. Elie Wiesel gave a speech on the perils of indifference on April 12, 1999.
2. Wiesel gives this speech to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, members of congress and people of America. Wiesel survived the holocaust, freed by American soldiers and greatly appreciated it. He gives the speech to show his gratitude for America and to say how unfair everything was in the holocaust years.
3. The speech is effective today and it will remain effective in the years to come, in world history we still learn about the holocaust and we are tested on it, someone like Wiesel would be a great reference and his speech, a good resource to how Jewish people were treated during this time. This speech is also a way for Americans and the people of Germany to look back on and see what could have been done differently and a way to know what to do differently in the case that something like this ever happens again.
1. Wiesel uses repetition with the word ‘indifference’; he uses the word on numerous occasions throughout the speech. He doubt’s people’s judgment in a difficult situation. One may deduce the word how ever they chose but the outcome is most likely the same. He says there are three different types of people in the world “society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders.” Which are you? This catches your attention and opens your mind to understand what he is saying in a more productive way.

2. Wiesel uses purpose strategies to describe the way he felt along with the way other Jews felt in the 1940’s while under Nazi power and during the holocaust. “And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.” This quote is powerful because it’s basically saying that all the bad were happening inside the country and no one in the outside world knew of it. They had no knowledge of Hitler and the horrid things he was doing. Wiesel also thanks the American army because they are the reason for him being free.

5. Wiesel, Elie. “The Perils of Indifference.” Millennium Lecture Series. Washington D.C. April 12, 1999