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I was very moved and inspired as I read Elie Weisels Nobel Peace Prize
acceptance speech Hope, espair and !emory"# $s a s%rvivor o& the holoca%st, the
most horri&ic thing to happen in o%r recent history, and wo%ld be a strong contender &or
most horri&ic in all o& history, !r# Weisel has a very %ni'%e perspective# In this speech the
main rhetorical tool %sed is repetition# He repeats the idea o& the importance o& memory
thro%gho%t this entire speech#
!r# Weisels &irst words, his opening, the part o& his speech that will set the tone
&or the rest o& the speech, is a story abo%t the mystical power o& memory"# (Weisel
online) It is a story o& a banished *abbi and the *abbis servant# While their memory is
gone they are trapped on the island o& their banishment# +here is no escape, no
progression# ,%t as they slowly regain their memories %ntil the *abbi regained his
memory, and there&ore his memories#
+his is an entertaining Hasidic legend# ,%t its symbolism is power&%l# +he lac- o&
memory e'%aled imprisonment &or these two men# ,%t the power o& remembering sets
them &ree, gives them the ability to escape the island# !r# Weisel stated that Witho%t
memory, o%r e.istence wo%ld be/li-e a prison cell into which no light penetrates/ it is
memory that will save h%manity"# (Weisel online) Weisel is demonstrating that memory
is what will give %s power#
He ne.t recalls his time a&ter the war, a&ter being &reed &rom the death camp, as a
yo%ng man in Paris# He p%shes himsel& to not live in despair, to have a li&e &or all those
whose lives were c%t tragically short# $nd while he attempts to move &orward &rom his
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horri&ic e.periences, he believe1s2 that the memory o& evil will serve as a shield against
evil"# (Weisel online) He ma-es the point here that o%r best de&ense against evil is the
memory and realization o& what we are capable o& as a species#
3or one paragraph on page two, !r# Weisel tal-s abo%t what it was li-e in the
camps# +he type o& tho%ghts he had while there# +his is to me the most power&%l e.ample
o& why memory and remembering are so important# We have all heard the history o& what
happened in these camps, we have been told the %nbelievable n%mbers o& the massacred#
We have had related to %s by a teacher the methods %sed to e.ec%te this massacre# ,%t to
hear, not the n%mbers or cold &acts, b%t the &eelings o& a man who was there ma-es yo%
begin to tr%ly %nderstand what happened in these death camps# +o hear a man say things
li-e +he $lmighty himsel& was a sla%ghterer" or endless processions vanished into
&lames" or 4hildren loo-ed li-e old men, old men whimpered li-e children" (Weisel
online) allows %s to partially &eel and e.perience what it was li-e in these camps#
He disc%sses the temptation that is there to &orget# Why contin%ally bring
yo%rsel& pain &rom the memory o& yo%r horri&ic e.periences5 He then says that 3or %s,
&orgetting was never an option# *emembering is a noble and necessary act"# (Weisel
online) !r# Weisel tal-s abo%t the need to remember both the good and the bad in o%r
lives, no matter how bad the bad is# +he conse'%ence o& re6ecting memory is a divine
c%rse, one that wo%ld doom %s to repeat past disasters, past wars"# (Weisel online) +he
point is made here that we can only learn &rom o%r mista-es as a species by remembering
them# I& we hide o%r mista-es, i& we try to hide &rom them, then we will never move on
and learn &rom them#
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!r# Weisels &inal arg%ment &or the need o& memory and the power that
remembering holds is the evidence we have in the world today a&ter decades o& trying to
hide &rom the &%ll tr%th o& what happened, re&%sing to ma-e it personalized, decades o& %s
ta-ing the emotion and h%manity o%t o& this event# In !r# Weisels words, I& someone
had told %s in 189: that in o%r li&etime religio%s wars wo%ld rage/ that tho%sands o&
children wo%ld once again be dying o& starvation/that racism and &anaticism wo%ld
&lo%rish once again, we wo%ld not have believed yo%/How to e.plain this de&eat o&
memory#" (Weisel online) He says here that the s%rvivors who all &elt the need to tell their
stories so this wo%ld not happen again, tho%ght they wo%ld be heard, they tho%ght that
people wo%ld listen#
We need to remember what o%r species did, what the h%man race did# It is easy to
say how evil these people were, and the people at the top were tr%ly evil# ,%t lets not
&orget the people at the bottom, the general p%blic# $dolph Hitler convinced an entire
people that all o& their problems wo%ld be solved by the removal o& select gro%ps o&
people# While the average citizen didnt -now how they were being removed at these
camps, they say their neighbors ho%ses being ransac-ed as their neighbors, incl%ding
children were dragged o%t o& their homes and ta-en away# It was the average citizen that
allowed this to happen, beca%se it made their lives easier, it gave them a scapegoat# We
m%st never &orget, and never allow o%r society to &orget#