After reading the first forty pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night I have read and almost experienced what it was like for a Jewish person to go through a concentration camp. There were many times were I felt sick to my stomach, hopeful, and most times just sad or angry. Elie and his father are still moving through the concentration camp, and the Germans are still doing “selections”. They had done well in the previous ones and at this point all the men in their group were without clothing in a room.
“My father thought the opposite. Better not to draw attention. (We later found out that he had been right. Those who were selected that day were incorporated into the SonderKommando, the Kommando working in the crematoria. Béla Katz, the son of an important merchant of my town, had arrived in Birkenau with the first transport, one week ahead of us. When he found out that we were there, he succeeded in slipping us a note. He told us that having been chosen because of his strength, he had been forced to place his own father's body into the furnace.)”. (Pg. 35)
This made me feel particularly angry just because the Germans used Jewish people to do their own disgusting labor, their own dirty work. To make someone become the tool of their friend’s or people’s destruction is a terrible and disgusting action for any person. This man was forced to burn his father’s body because he was Jewish, and this is just outrageous to me. Later on they get through the selections and are getting closer to the working camps. As they get closer the Germans keep putting them through these steps that prepare them for the working camps; such as giving them clothing and shoes.
“In the afternoon, they made us line up. Three prisoners brought a table and some medical instruments. We were told to roll up our left sleeves and file past the table. The three "veteran" prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.”.(Pg. 42)
The Germans are very systematic about their killings and concentration camps. By giving the inmates numbers and not using names it make it easier to kill them because it takes away the last remaining human aspect. They take away human qualities just by using such a simple strategy such as this. On any animal this would be acceptable, just a normal thing, but these are not cows or pigs or birds but real human people with feelings, emotions and needs so they can not be referred to by a number and then killed and burned. It is just inhumane. Elie’s diction choices are very interesting and bring the piece to life. They create such vivid pictures and make it so easy for me to almost be alongside Elie and experience the Holocaust with him.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteI really like what you did when you described the people, and how they are real people. After reading your post I think you should go more into detail about your feeling and emotion.
How does it actually make you feel? How does the number aspect contribute to your feelings and emotions?
Alex
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely with your powerful and eloquent post. Your quotes transported me back into some of the exact moments that struck me too. Your explanation of how the tattoos remove the Jews last aspect of humanity and how you relate it to their systematic murder was very powerful and poignant. When you mention how the Germans forced the man to burn his own father's body and connect it to the Germans making the Jews do their dirty work, I also thought of the idea of divide and conquer. I was especially moved when you explained how you felt during the reading. That struck me because I felt very similarly.
Alex
ReplyDeleteI really thought that the way you portrayed your emotions was very elaborate and powerful, and I also thought that you really meant what you said about the sickness you had when they talked about the Nazis and the Jews. What other themes did you pull out of the section we read? What themes do you think will happen next? Overall I'd say it's nicely done but with some room for improvement.