Remembering the Past

Joschka Fischer, Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered a speech commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps on January 24, 2005. In his speech he recounts the horrors of the Auschwitz and the effects of Nazi Germany’s "racist ideology" not only on the Jews but also on history as a whole. The persuasion of his speech relies heavily on events of the past in order to direct his audience to a place of mutual understanding—a shared feeling of the need for continued peace in the present and future; of a goal that must be "[aspired] to together." It has been 60 years since the tragedy, and Fischer admits that it is "difficult to find words for the suffering, the pain and the humiliation of the victims." In this sense, Fischer sees that the things he comes to say must go beyond words because words fail to capture the harsh and heart-breaking realities of the Holocaust. Fischer’s encourages his audience not to forget the "barbarity of which humankind is capable." He says that it is the memory of the Holocaust that unites them in a common goal.

Lloyd F. Bitzer makes a key statement in his "The Rhetorical Situation": "…a work of rhetoric is pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself; it functions ultimately to produce action or change in the world; it performs some task" (219). Bitzer’s point, in light of Fischer’s speech, is clear. The reason for Fischer’s address "came into existence for the sake of something beyond itself"—it reached beyond words, it reached beyond a present moment in time when words were needed but could not do. It reached back in the past to bring into existence the memory of the Holocaust; to place into the hearts and minds of people today what was lost then but what can be gained now and in the future. Through discourse he becomes a "mediator of change"; the speech itself becomes a "mediator of change"—stirring the memory in order to stir and change the future towards "peace and mutual respect."