My experience reading Night so far has been one of horror. I have read other books about the Holocaust, but none have taken me so far into the reality of the hellish concentration camp barracks as Elie Wiesel’s memoir. In reading his story, I am so far filled with not only remorse and anger, but with shock. Elie Wiesel was barely older than me when he suffered so much. He and his family were torn apart, and he experienced such misery and pain, physically and emotionally, during his time at the camps, that I cannot imagine how he felt. Most poignant for me is the effect that misery and terror had upon them:
I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded – and devoured – by a black flame. (Wiesel 37)
These times that Elie Wiesel reflects on the change that happened to him within days of entering the concentration camps are the hardest to bear for me. He is practically a child, yet he is facing horrors no one should face in a lifetime, and they are destroying who he was before. Later in the book, Wiesel reveals when he realized what the oppression and terror of the concentration camps has done to him:
I stood petrified. What had happened to me. My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal’s flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast? Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this. (Wiesel 39)
This passage strikes me because of its vividness. Wiesel’s memory of what it felt like to be changed by something he cannot control hurts me to the core. When he speaks of his remorse and how he will never forgive the Nazis for inflicting this change upon him, I feel strongly for him. I would struggle to forgive them too. After destroying my family, my childhood, and nearly my life.
These examples struck me not only with their power, but Wiesel’s incredible word choice and writing. The emotion behind his words is so powerful and the pain so real that no one can read his words without being affected. Between his remarkable words and frightening story, Wiesel’s Night has so far had a profound effect on me and my view of the Holocaust.
Ava,
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said. I found it very interesting that you used anger and remorse to describe what Wiesel went through, instead of common themes like grief and sadness. I like how you made it sound angry. I could tell, from the tone you used to write this, that you truly were infuriated with the Germans and how they treated the Jews.
Ava,
ReplyDeleteOutstanding first blog post! I agree with you 120% on all of the points that you made. To elaborate on the second quote that you inserted into the blog, it is utterly terrible. For the Germans to be so simple minded and just beat a specific group of people as they please disgust me. As you said in the blog as his writing is very vivid, it truly is. As I am reading the novel, it is as if a picture is being painted in my mind of all the horrific things that are happening to the Jews. Overall, wonderful first blog post, and I am just so excited to read more!