Blog Post #1 - Ellie

So far, Elie Wiesel’s Night has provided me with a different perspective of what happened in the Holocaust: “The synagogue resembled a large railroad station: baggage and tears. The altar was shattered, the wall coverings shredded, the walls themselves bare. There were so many of us, we could hardly breathe. The twenty-four hours we spent there were horrendous. The men were downstairs, the women upstairs. It was Saturday--the Sabbath--and it was as though we were there to attend services. Forbidden to go outside, people relieved themselves in a corner.” (22) I knew prior to starting to read Night that the Jews were treated horrifically, but it had a different impact on me when I heard it from a first-person point. Elie Wiesel’s decision to write in first person made his writing that much more powerful. It is almost unfathomable to think that these horrible things happened to people just like us not so long ago. It makes me sad and ashamed to hear the torture people suffered: “They passed me by, one after the other, my teachers, my friends, the others, some of whom I had once feared, some of whom I had found ridiculous, all those whose lives I had shared for years. There they went, defeated, their bundles, their lives in tow, having left behind their homes, their childhood.” (17) This quote particularly moved me. When I imagined putting myself in Wiesel’s shoes and seeing my friends, neighbors, teachers, and everyone in my life and childhood march to their death, it pained me. Wiesel’s writing so far has helped me better understand what it was truly like for the Jews who suffered in the Holocaust. Writing about the perspectives of people who didn’t have a voice really enlightened me on how horrific the Holocaust was.