Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech by elie Wiesel

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Lesson Standards

8.1(A)

8.2(A)

8.2(B)

8.3

8.5(E)

8.5(F)

8.5(G)

8.6(A)

8.6(C)

8.6(D)

8.6(E)

8.6(G)

What will our lesson look like?

Language Objective

Learning Intention

Success Criteria

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:Identify at least three rhetorical devices used in Wiesel's speech.Explain the impact of Wiesel's speech on the audience.Describe the historical events that influenced Wiesel's message.

The intention of this lesson is for students to critically analyze and understand the significance of Elie Wiesel's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, both in terms of its rhetorical elements and its historical context.

I will use academic vocabulary related to rhetorical devices and human rights when discussing and writing about Elie Wiesel's speech.

Do Now:

• Read the quote be Elie Weisel to the left
• What do you think this means?
• What does it mean to you?

Introduction

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) was a survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald Nazi concentration camps and went on to write 57 books about the Holocaust and other subjects. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work and accomplishments in 1986. The Nobel Committee heralded Wiesel as one of the world’s “most important spiritual leaders” at a time when “terror, repression, and racial discrimination still exist in the world.” The following is an excerpt from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.*Watch StudySync Video

Vocabulary

anguish

bestow

bewilderment

noun confusion; state of being baffled Patty’s friends looked at her in bewilderment when she said she was moving in a week.

verb to give or present as a gift or honor The principal bestowed diplomas upon the graduates.

noun severe suffering or distress The anguish I felt after twisting my ankle was unbearable.

Vocabulary

integrity

persecute

noun the quality of being honest or having strong moral principles She questioned his integrity after she caught him in a lie.

verb to treat unfairly or cruelly The cruel leader will persecute anyone who opposes his rule.

Summary

In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explained what fueled his work. He began by asking whether he had the right to speak for all those who perished. He concluded that he didn’t but swore that he felt their presence, especially that of his parents and younger sister. Wiesel clearly remembered the horror and anguish of the ghettos and the deportation of Jews via cattle cars. He remembered that as a child he asked his father how this could happen in the twentieth century. Wiseil informed the audience that he continued to speak to his younger self, asking him to keep these memories alive so that no one ever forgets. Wiesel dedicated his life to speaking out against injustice, and implored people to intervene when others are persecuted on the basis of their race, religion, or political views.

And it is with a profound sense of humility that I accept the honor — the highest there is — that you have chosen to bestow upon me. I know your choice transcends my person. Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. And yet, I sense their presence. I always do — and at this moment more than ever. The presence of my parents, that of my little sister. The presence of my teachers, my friends, my companions… This honor belongs to all the survivors and their children and, through us to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified. I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. I remember he asked his father: "Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?" And now the boy is turning to me. "Tell me," he asks, "what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?"

And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices. And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe... There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person — a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Jr. — one person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately. *Watch StudySync TV

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