8A Night Blog 2018

Learning about the Holocaust has had a great impact on me. Previously I had little knowledge of its existence, now I know of its horrific impact on our past and present. It's difficult to comprehend the suffering these people went through. Even though it's devastating to process we have to understand so that we don't make the same mistakes. Nadia Murad’s article filled me with empathy as well as anger. Our world is still infected with thriving hatred, people are truly suffering. As citizens of a free country, we must take action, support survivors and give them justice. We need to stop squabbling over the small things and fight for human rights.

Vulnerable Faith Thousands of lips repeated the benediction, bent over like trees in a storm. Where is merciful God? We felt the abyss opening beneath us My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, as he felt the first chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight. and opened the door to death. God the accused. You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, I no longer accepted god’s silence God is no longer with us.

In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, many Jews began to question their faith. Thousands of men stood outside praying in the cold dark, begging to a god that yields no response. Elie is suddenly engulfed with fury for his God: “ You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise your name!”(68). He was baffled that for committing to a belief he was brutalized, and his faith provided no aid. He then truly began to distrust his beliefs and questioned the intention of his God: “ I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone in a world without God, without man”(68). He felt stronger for his doubt, but in a crowd of men, he was isolated. In the days of Yom Kippur, the Jewish traditionally fast. Elie was further conflicted by the idea that in the midst of starvation one is asked to fast. Elie did not participate and broke away from his religious restraints: “ I did not fast. First to ...

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1109561 Members of Kibbutz Nili hachshara (Zionist collective) in Pleikershof, Germany, sit around tables in the dining hall.

Elie Wiesel’s Night is a captivating memoir that portrays a pure relationship between hope and despair. During the war, Elie’s hometown remained optimistic despite the global misfortune occurring. However, a sharp turning point in the autobiography acknowledges the progression of concern in the community: “ On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community… The race toward death had begun.” (10) I was disheartened by my knowledge of their fate, and how it continued undetected until it was too late. It pains me that the human race is repeatedly burdened with this horrific plot, often caused by disbelief or miscommunication. The population was rushed into ghetto’s, but the mentality of the Jewish inhabitants kept the soldiers from gaining full authority: “ The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion.” (12) I grieve for the people who were too intimidated to run or weren’t able to. It’s unclear w...