How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
Though he did not understand their language, their eyes told him what he needed to know—that they, too, would remember, and bear witness. (7)
You've undoubtedly seen the images from various concentration camps throughout Europe. They're unbelievably difficult to look at, and the part of your brain designed to protect you from unpleasant things probably has you wondering if the pictures could really be real. Because how could something so horrible have actually happened to millions of innocent people?
But they were real, and Elie Wiesel understood better than anyone the consequences of underestimating those images. He and millions of Jews throughout Europe had suffered for years because the rest of the world didn't want to believe the rumors of death camps in Nazi-occupied countries. But when the Americans liberated Buchenwald in 1945, Wiesel could see their horror as they realized the rumors were true, as they realized just how many millions of people had suffered and died. And he knew they'd help him tell the story, to be sure future generations would never try to deny the Holocaust.
Quote #2
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. (13-16)
They say hindsight is 20-20, and it's a cliché for a reason. The 20th century was filled with all sorts of horror, and Elie Wiesel asks his audience to take a moment and consider how history will look back on it. Millions of innocent people died in concentration camps throughout Europe, but genocides were occurring in Rwanda and Kosovo. Millions more were killed in World War I, World War II, and Vietnam, and still countries were using violence to solve their problems.
According to Wiesel, our very humanity depends on doing whatever we can to help people suffering around the world, to protect them from governments and groups of people intent on erasing their existences simply because they are different. History is going to judge us for our actions, so we better be sure the legacy we leave is the right one.
Quote #3
And yet, my friends, good things have also happened in this traumatic century [...]. This time, the world was not silent. This time, we do respond. This time, we intervene. (100, 104-106)
Elie Wiesel does acknowledge that the 20th century wasn't all bad. The century saw peace treaties, the collapse of totalitarian governments and communist regimes, and major social progress.
Wiesel wants to be clear that, in some cases, people did learn from the Holocaust and World War II. They acted when they saw bad things happening around the world, and even though it didn't put a stop to all the trauma and suffering, taking action, on a small scale or on a large scale, will always be incredibly important.