The Perils of Indifference

Children symbolize both hope and the depth of the consequences of indifference. Wiesel’s call to protect them is not only a primal appeal to pathos but also a stark representation of The Inhumanity of Indifference. For Wiesel, children are the ultimate victims of war: “When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes” (Paragraph 23). The violence of the Holocaust was unspeakable for adults but even more so for children, who lacked even adults’ inadequate resources to comprehend it. Wiesel asks of children of war, “Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony? Every minute one of them dies of disease, violence, famine” (Paragraph 23). The plight of children is a rallying cry to action.

At the same time, the Jewish boy—the young Wiesel—is a dual representation of trauma and hope. This boy represents what can be accomplished if people combat and resist indifference. Not all children of war have the chance to grow into adults. But because enough people chose “be involved in another person's pain and despair” (Paragraph 6), this Jewish boy from the Carpathian Mountains did survive. Wiesel’s life since that childhood has not been easy.