Many people think the worst thing you can do to someone is hate them, but that is not always the case. At the 7th Millennium Evening hosted by the White House on April 12, 1999, the guest of honor was Elie Wiesel, a Romanian-born, Jewish-American writer (CommonLit.org). He has won many awards for his writing, including a Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel was taken to Auschwitz, Buna-Monowitz in January 1945 and was part of the death march to Buchenwald. He lost his mother, father, and one sister during the Holocaust (“The Seventh Millennium Evening”). In 1999 he was invited to the White House to speak to The Presidential Family, Congress, ambassadors, religious leaders, historians, human rights activists, and many other citizens about how their indifference can
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Wiesel uses rhetorical questions to force his audience to think about the dire consequences of indifference, ignited by vivid examples and complex figurative language about the Holocaust and the power of hope. Wiesel uses rhetorical questions to make people think about how indifference has warped kind, loving people into hurting others. He asks his audience what indifference’s “courses and inescapable consequences” are (Paragraph 5). When he asks this question, he lights a feeling of fear in his audience, allowing them to reflect on how indifference influenced them. He later questions why “so few” came and helped the hurting Jews and why even after the war there was a greater effort to “save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war” (17)? This shows how indifference has impacted Wiesel’s life, showing people that he knows the power of indifference. In these questions, he also shows that even good people are sometimes victims of indifference. He also shows hope in the darkness by asking if humanity has “learned from our experiences” and “become less indifferent and more human” (21). Wiesel hopes people will learn from their differences and do what they think is
Wiesel uses rhetorical questions to force his audience to think about the dire consequences of indifference, ignited by vivid examples and complex figurative language about the Holocaust and the power of hope. Wiesel uses rhetorical questions to make people think about how indifference has warped kind, loving people into hurting others. He asks his audience what indifference’s “courses and inescapable consequences” are (Paragraph 5). When he asks this question, he lights a feeling of fear in his audience, allowing them to reflect on how indifference influenced them. He later questions why “so few” came and helped the hurting Jews and why even after the war there was a greater effort to “save SS murderers after the war than to save their victims during the war” (17)? This shows how indifference has impacted Wiesel’s life, showing people that he knows the power of indifference. In these questions, he also shows that even good people are sometimes victims of indifference. He also shows hope in the darkness by asking if humanity has “learned from our experiences” and “become less indifferent and more human” (21). Wiesel hopes people will learn from their differences and do what they think is