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Humans Must “Choose Hope” and “Oppose Brutality,”
Elie Wiesel Says in Speech
By
Andrea Weaver
 Elie
Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, delivered a heartfelt
speech at Meredith College on Sept. 17, and earned a standing
ovation from the audience that packed McIver Amphitheater’s
seats and overflowed onto nearby hillsides.
His speech, “Against Indifference: The Urgency of Hope,”
touched on many powerful themes, including his experience
as a Holocaust survivor, the ongoing conflict between Israelis
and Palestinians, and global terrorism.
“Indifference and hope are incompatible… Why is
indifference important? It is so seductive… Indifference
to evil is evil,” he said, adding that indifferent people
do not concern themselves with the plight of others.
Caring humans want to help others but often feel powerless
to assist victims of war, terrorism, sabotage and murder,
he said. “Where can you start? What can you do?”
Wiesel said. “One thing we can do is tell them (the victims)
we care.”
As part of their torture plans, the Nazis told concentration
camp victims that no one cared about them, he said. Wiesel,
a native of Transylvania (Romania), and his family were deported
by the Nazis to Auschwitz when he was 15. His mother and younger
sister perished there; his two older sisters survived. Wiesel
and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where
his father died.
Humans must also have hope, and offer hope to others, he said.
“The soul cannot live without hope.”
To offer hope, humans must possess the courage to take action
against the people who victimize others. “Neutrality
never helps the victim. It only helps the aggressor.”
 Wiesel,
the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston
University, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He has received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S. Congressional
Gold Medal, and numerous other awards and honorary degrees.
(To learn more, visit http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org).
Before the speech, Meredith President Maureen Hartford presented
him with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. Wiesel is
the first man in College history to receive such a degree
from Meredith.
Education offers a solution to global conflict, Wiesel said.
The more one group of people learn about another, the less
they hate each other. “My passion is teaching because
my passion is learning,” he said.
He is concerned that the lessons humanity learned from the
Holocaust will be lost after the last death camp survivor
dies. He noted that more than 200 works written by Euripides
and Sophocles, master dramatists from ancient Greece, have
been lost.
“So many writings have been forgotten, but we know if
we forget (about the Holocaust), it will be a betrayal. It
would be to kill the victims a second time,” Wiesel said,
adding that he and other death camp survivors have made many
efforts in recent years to record their experiences in the
hope of helping “humanity to protect itself from the
ghosts of evil, the seduction of fanaticism.”
Wiesel described himself as “the son of an ancient people”
and spoke passionately about establishing peace in Israel.
He said: “What is it about that little land that costs
so many lives?”
He urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to establish and
observe a three-month moratorium on action against each other.
“It is possible. Miracles exist,” he said.
Despite the existence of many conflicts worldwide, Wiesel
said he has hope for humanity. During World War II, many Germans
risked their own lives to save Jews from the death camps.
Wiesel has since asked some of them how they found the courage
to take such action. They told him courage wasn’t required;
they simply helped neighbors, or friends, or children in need.
“It was enough to be human to be a hero,” he said.
“It is not difficult to choose hope. It is not difficult
to oppose brutality.”
Meredith’s
Art Gallery is a Busy Place This Fall
By
Erin Hege ’04
 This
semester, Meredith hosts three major art shows in the three
different art galleries on campus. These shows will celebrate
a wide span of educational projects, from biomedical communications
to women's colleges in the South.
The Science and Math Building Gallery will exhibit “Biomedical
Communications: Visually Depicting the Biological, Natural
and Medical Worlds Using Techniques of Art, Design, Photography
and Video.” This exhibit features works by NC State College
of Veterinary Medicine biomedical communication department
staff members Brenda L. Bunch, Philip Ruckart and Wendy Savage.
Meredith will also work with NC State’s College of Design
to co-host a joint meeting of the Southeastern College Art
Conference and Tri-State Sculptors. Two exhibitions are on
display at Meredith until November 2. The “Tri-State
Sculptors Annual Members Exhibition” is being held in
the Frankie G. Weems Gallery, and the “Tri-State Sculptors
and Southeastern College Art Conference Members Outdoor Exhibition”
is located on the grounds of Meredith’s Gaddy-Hamrick
Art Building.
The exhibition in Johnson Hall’s Rotunda Gallery celebrates
the works of students from southern women’s colleges.
Meredith art students started the “Southern Women’s
Colleges Art Exhibition” in 1996 in order to create a
stronger relationship among women’s colleges in the Southeast.
The current version of this exhibition, which will run through
November 23, includes paintings, drawings, photographs, digital
prints and mixed media works from artists from Meredith College,
Agnes Scott College, Bennett College, Brenau University, Columbia
College, Converse College, Hollins University, and Salem College.
All exhibitions are free and open to the public Monday through
Friday from 9 a.m.–5p.m. and on Sundays from 2 p.m.–5
p.m. For more information, call Meredith’s Art Department
at ext. 8332.
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A
Sept. 10 service in Jones Chapel included a time of remembrance
for victims of the attacks. The Music Department presented
a student and faculty program that included a time of meditation
and remembrance on Sept. 11.
