Hope, Despair and Memory

In “Hope, Despair and Memory,” Wiesel aims to persuade listeners of the importance of hope and memory in the face of despair. All three terms feature in the speech’s title and recur several times throughout it.

Wiesel employs the first-person plural throughout this speech, sometimes referring to himself as part of the Jewish community and at other times to himself as part of humanity in general. The technique highlights The Jewish Experience as Reflective of Human Rights, implicitly linking the Holocaust to the oppression of other groups. Wiesel later enumerates some of these groups—e.g., Black South Africans under apartheid—but he also draws out lessons for humanity broadly. In addition to sharing identity, Wiesel says, humanity shares a destiny—one that Wiesel argues is up to humanity itself to decide.

The speech begins with an anecdote about Rabbi Baal-Shem-Tov, also known as the Besht, who struggles with the loss of his memory during exile. Wiesel uses this anecdote as an analogy. Like the Besht, humanity’s hope relies on memory—a memory communicated via language, as evidenced by the fact that reciting the alphabet restores the Besht’s memory and powers.