Throughout history there have been many people noted for their place in shaping the world around us. These people were noted because he or she had the perseverance, confidence, and integrity to pursue what they believed to be the correct course of action for the good of all. Integrity is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; incorruptibility. This integrity and these values will not only shape the future of a person’s life, but it will shape the world around them. I agree whole-heartedly that “One person – a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King, Jr. – one person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death.” but they’re not required to.

As stated in Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Raoul Wallenberg was a man of great integrity. During Hitler’s Holocaust Raoul Wallenberg tried to save as many Hungarian Jews from death camps like Auschwitz. He used many unconventional methods for diplomacy, anything from bribery to blackmail, in order to save the lives of the innocent. Another way of protecting the Hungarian Jews was to issue Swedish Passports to as many people as he could, this would normally prevent deportation to the death camps. Everything Raoul Wallenberg underwent was at great personal risk and loss. Thanks to his selflessness, persistence, and integrity, Raoul Wallenberg, saved the lives of over 100,000 Jews. He chose to be the difference between life and death.

Another man noted for his integrity by Elie Wiesel was Albert Schweitzer. Albert Schweitzer was a highly distinguished musician from a young age. Through his musical profession he earned enough money to fund his education and later medical schooling.    After deciding to go to Africa as a medical missionary instead of a pastor, Schweitzer began to study medicine at the University of Strasbourg in 1905. In 1913, upon obtaining his Medical Doctorate, he founded a hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa. Soon after, in 1917, he and his wife were sent to a French internment camp as Prisoners of War. After being released in 1918, he spent the next six years giving medical lectures, music concerts, preaching, and studying medicine throughout Europe. Finally in 1924 he returned to Lambaréné. For the rest of his life he used the funds from donations, his personal appearances, and  royalties to expand his hospital to seventy buildings that could care for over 500 patients at once. On December 10, 1953, Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for all of his many contributions to humanity. Additionally he started a leprosarium at Lambaréné with the $33,000 of Nobel Prize money. Albert Schweitzer was a man of great integrity whose efforts resulted in the saving of thousands of lives. He made the difference between life and death.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably one of the most well known humanitarians in history. He is most well known for civil rights movement against the segregation of whites and blacks. Because of this activism he was arrested, his home was bombed, and he and his family were subjected to personal abuse. King endured through all of this by following the nonviolent protest methods of Ghandi. He was elected the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to lead the civil rights movement in an even more progressive direction. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. When he learned this he announced that he would give all $54,123 to further the civil rights movement. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. This man of perserverance, strength, and integrity, had his life taken from him because he made the difference of life and death for all African Americans in the United States.

I believe a man of integrity can make the difference between life and death even though they are not required to. There have been many people in history who have made this difference. They made the choice to do something to change what they belived to be wrong instead of staying silent, for better or worse. All the people of integrity who didn’t make that difference aren’t mentioned in the history books because they didn’t alter history and make the difference between life or death. I agree with Elie Wiesel, “One person – a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King, Jr. – One person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death.” Yet just because they can make that difference doesn’t mean they will.