Fuhrer - Wiesel: Genocide and Indifference

The notion of Genocide is often depicted as one of the most base and cruel blows humanity could ever inflict upon itself. For someone like me, who is fortunate enough to only have been exposed to it by secondary means, the idea of surviving through one seems unimaginable.

That is why the testimonials of survivors like Eliezar Wiesel is so important. The destruction caused by the Holocaust and those like it, should not be allowed to be forgotten or worse become indifferent to. This what Wiesel speaks out against in his Nobel Acceptance Speech. "Indifference Works for the enemy" He says and it seems this idea of indifference is a central theme in "Night." However, now the indifference no longer concerns the world but rather himself. His traumatic experiences during his capture and imprisonment make him numb to the fear,and pain of the situation.His descriptions of himself become similar to his descriptions of the "Musselmanner" from his Nobel Acceptance speech.

"Unaware of who or where they were, strangers to their surroundings. They no longer felt pain, hunger, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it."

From this quote it becomes clear that Wiesel equates the lack of one's own identity with that of indifference and that being made to feel such indifference in spite of one's circumstances might as well be equated to death because what else is there to live for after that? Having said this, Wiesel's works also bring hope. His own individuality was not destroyed despite what he has suffered and his words and life become sources of inspiration and testimony for generations to come.