The Perils of Indifference

“Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know—that they, too, would remember, and bear witness.”

Wiesel writes here of the American troops’ shock and rage upon seeing the death camp. Though during this time, the boy—who is Wiesel—feels he may never know joy again, he is able to experience gratitude when having his suffering acknowledged. The soldiers’ response is also a reflection of Wiesel’s own duty to serve as a witness to the horrors he saw.

“‘Gratitude’ is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the humanity of the human being.”

Wiesel marks his memory of liberation with gratitude to the United States. This emotion, in contrast to the void of indifference, manifests The Interconnectedness of Humanity. While indifference severs connection, gratitude restores and fosters it.

“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.”

Wiesel spends part of his speech outlining the violent legacy of the 20th century. He views the Holocaust as part of a larger pattern of violence that will come to characterize the century. This framing emphasizes The Relevance of the Past, prompting his audience toward not only reflection but also action, as they gain a fresh opportunity in the new millennium to establish a different kind of legacy.

“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.”

For Wiesel, being indifferent to the suffering of others is a perversion of the human state. Indifference is corrosive, blurring boundaries and encouraging actions of Inhumanity.

“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.”

Compassion, the opposite of indifference, is not easy to practice and observe. Showing compassion means letting the suffering of others interrupt our daily lives. Yet even here, as Wiesel acknowledges that indifference is tempting, his language suggests that asking people to reject indifference is not so great a request: “rude interruptions” hardly compare to the death and suffering he describes elsewhere.

“Indifference reduces the Other to an abstraction.”

The Other, a philosophical term for others and otherness, is held in high regard by Wiesel because compassion for the Other makes our own humanity possible. Showing indifference to the Other casts their suffering as unreal or removed from immediate concern; this is often behind the horrors that we have turned a blind eye to throughout history.

“We felt that to be abandoned by God was worse than to be punished by Him. Better an unjust God than an indifferent one.”

Wiesel draws on his Jewish faith to explain the abject horror of indifference to the victims of the camps. Being abandoned by humanity, even being punished by God, was one thing. To feel abandoned by God was another and something far worse.

“In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative.”

Indifference is separate from other emotions because it negates creativity and severs connectedness with other humans. Even negative emotions like anger and hatred have creative potential and represent engagement with others.

“Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor—never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.”

Wiesel sees the indifferent person as complicit with an enemy who brings pain, suffering, and death to their just opponent. Not standing against the unjust enemy—not showing compassion for victims—is the same as helping the enemy and acting against the victims.

“Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment.”

Wiesel takes indifference very seriously. He sees it not only as wrongdoing against victims but also as a denial of one’s own humanity. It harms both the victims and the person practicing it, as the indifferent person loses their sense of The Interconnectedness of Humanity.

“And, nevertheless, his image in Jewish history—I must say it—his image in Jewish history is flawed.”

Despite mobilizing American troops against the Axis Powers, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at first ignored the Nazi death camps. He also turned away the St. Louis, which was carrying almost 1,000 Jewish refugees from Germany. Despite his audience including the current leadership of the United States, Wiesel acknowledges that Roosevelt is a complicated figure for the Jewish community.

“And yet, my friends, good things have also happened in this traumatic century: the defeat of Nazism, the collapse of communism, the rebirth of Israel on its ancestral soil, the demise of apartheid, Israel's peace treaty with Egypt, the peace accord in Ireland.”

While Wiesel believes that the 20th century will be remembered for how its large-scale indifference enabled bloodshed, he also points to positive developments. These developments give him some hope for the future. They also help him to demonstrate how choosing compassion and remembrance, rather than indifference, can have tremendous impact.

“Does it mean that we have learned from the past? Does it mean that society has changed? Has the human being become less indifferent and more human? Have we really learned from our experiences? Are we less insensitive to the plight of victims of ethnic cleansing and other forms of injustices in places near and far?”

This series of rhetorical questions indicates the uncertainty of the future, pushing the audience to consider their autonomy in choosing between indifference and compassion. Wiesel is highlighting here The Relevance of the Past to the present, emphasizing the importance of remembrance in combatting indifference.