Page 250 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

Never Forget, Never again
aCTIvITy 3.15
learning Targets
• Analyze the purpose, audience, and tone of a speech.
• Analyze a speech for the elements of argumentation.
Preview
In this activity, you will read a speech by Elie Wiesel and think about its audience and tone.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the speech, underline words and phrases that help set the tone of the speech.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
My Notes
About the Author
The Nobel Committee called Elie Wiesel a “messenger to mankind,”
stating that through his struggle to come to terms with “his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler’s death camps,” as well as his “practical work in the cause of peace,” Wiesel had delivered a powerful message “of peace, atonement and human dignity” to humanity.
Speech
from The Nobel Acceptance Speech Delivered by Elie Wiesel
in Oslo on December 10, 1986
1 I am moved, deeply moved by your words, Chairman Aarvik. And it is with a profound sense of humility that I accept the honor—the highest there is—that you have chosen to bestow upon me. I know your choice transcends my person.
2 Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. And yet, I sense their presence. I always do—and at this moment more than ever. The presence of my parents, that of my little sister. The presence of my teachers, my friends, my companions ...
3 This honor belongs to all the survivors and their children and, through us, to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified.
4 I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
5 I remember he asked his father: “Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”
Unit 3 • The Challenge to Make a Difference 223
LearNING STraTeGIeS:
SOAPSTone, Close Reading, Discussion Groups, Drafting, Rehearsal, Oral Reading
WorD CoNNeCTIoNS
Etymology
The word deportation derives from an Old French word meaning “to carry off.” When first used, it referred to the way a person behaved or acted. In the 1640s people began using it to mean “banishment.”
humility: modesty
mutilated: damaged beyond repair anguish: agonizing pain deportation: removal to another country
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