quotThePerilsofIndifferencequot
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quotThePerilsofIndifferencequot
Elie Wiesel: "The Perils of Indifference"
Mr. President, Mrs. Clinton, members of Congress,
Ambassador Holbrooke, Excellencies, friends:
Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy
from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up,
not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of
eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free,
but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never
would be again. Liberated a day earlier by American
soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And
even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be
grateful to them for that rage, and also for their
compassion. Though he did not understand their language,
their eyes told him what he needed to know -- that they,
too, would remember, and bear witness.
And now, I stand before you, Mr. President --
Commander-in-Chief of the army that freed me, and tens of
thousands of others -- and I am filled with a profound
and abiding gratitude to the American people. Gratitude
is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the
humanity of the human being. And I am grateful to you,
Hillary, or Mrs. Clinton, for what you said, and for what
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you are doing for children in the world, for the
homeless, for the victims of injustice, the victims of
destiny and society. And I thank all of you for being
here.
We are on the threshold of a new century, a new
millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing
century be? How will it be remembered in the new
millennium? Surely it will be judged, and judged
severely, in both moral and metaphysical terms. These
failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity: two World
Wars, countless civil wars, the senseless chain of
assassinations (Gandhi, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King,
Sadat, Rabin), bloodbaths in Cambodia and Nigeria, India
and Pakistan, Ireland and Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia,
Sarajevo and Kosovo; the inhumanity in the gulag and the
tragedy of Hiroshima. And, on a different level, of
course, Auschwitz and Treblinka. So much violence; so
much indifference.
What is indifference? Etymologically, the word means
"no difference." A strange and unnatural state in which
the lines blur between light and darkness, dusk and dawn,
crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, good and
evil. What are its courses and inescapable consequences?
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Is it a philosophy? Is there a philosophy of indifference
conceivable? Can one possibly view indifference as a
virtue? Is it necessary at times to practice it simply to
keep one's sanity, live normally, enjoy a fine meal and a
glass of wine, as the world around us experiences
harrowing upheavals?
Of course, indifference can be tempting -- more than
that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from
victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude
interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is,
after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in
another person's pain and despair. Yet, for the person
who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no
consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless.
Their hidden or even visible anguish is of no interest.
Indifference reduces the Other to an abstraction.
Over there, behind the black gates of Auschwitz, the
most tragic of all prisoners were the "Muselmanner," as
they were called. Wrapped in their torn blankets, they
would sit or lie on the ground, staring vacantly into
space, unaware of who or where they were -- strangers to
their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger,
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quotThePerilsofIndifferencequotElieWiesel:"ThePerilsofIndifference"Mr.President,Mrs.Clinton,membersofCongress,AmbassadorHolbrooke,Excellencies,friends:Fifty-fouryearsagototheday,ayoungJewishboyfromasmalltownintheCarpathianMountainswokeup,notfarfromGoethe'sbelovedWeimar,inaplaceofeternalinfamycalledB...
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