8A Night Blog 2018

The about the Holocaust has made me more aware of how easy it is for us to turn to evil and believe it’s right. When I was first learning about the Holocaust, the word fear seemed to stand out the most to me. The Germans blamed all of their problems on the Jews because of fear, they put the Jews in ghettos because of fear, or they tried to annihilate all the Jews because of fear. I think it is really important to pay attention to people’s feelings especially feelings like fear and desperation. I feel like we, the world let this happen. We allowed this to happen because of our arrogance. We expected that just because we gave Germany a whole bunch of rules to follow and took some of their land, they would immediately become subordinate to us. And even after the Holocaust we in America allowed things like this happen during the civil rights movement. They’re are some people out there that no matter what you do, will not become good people and it is our job to protect people from those h...

Why Why, Children, Traumatized, Forced to live in fear, Their childhood, Their dreams, All robbed from them. And why, Their shtibel, Their synagogues, Their religion, All shattered, Like an ocean does to mere sandcastles. And why, Jews, Expelled from their towns, Thrown into filthy ghettos, And denied their rights as people, Treated like vermin. And why, The Jews, Taken from those filthy ghettos to horrendous death camps, To be slaughtered like pigs, To be gassed, To be burned, To be tortured, An entire people annihilated. Why? Because of jealousy, Because of hate, Because of fear.

I’d say the most prominent theme throughout the book is Elie’s religion. While reading Elie’s biography, you can see how drastically Elie’s faith is diminished because of the Holocaust. At the beginning of the book you can see several examples of his devotion to Judaism, but as he is introduced to the horrors of the holocaust his faith begins to go on and off, and then quickly is crushed. When Moishe asks Elie why he prays he doesn’t directly respond but he writes that it’s pretty much synonymous with breathing. He says it has always been a very strong part of him. “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk… ‘Why do you pray?’ he asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” Elie also talks about being very devoted to Judaism and wanting to get as immersed in it as possible. Elie talked to his father about wanting to learn Kabbalah, but his father refuses. He doesn’t give up, but goes around to find someone who will. He ends up getting...

The holocaust itself, to be honest, is pretty intense, but the way Elie Wiesel just throws you into this memoir is electrifying. In the first chapter I love how the Jews no matter what happens they attempt to stay optimistic about their. Though, I think this is one of the factors that leads to their ultimate destruction. For example on page 11 when the Romanians put the Elie and the other Jews into the ghetto, the Jews weren’t discontented by that, they in fact were joyous about this because they would have their own government: “… we were entirely among ourselves. A small Jewish republic…” (Wiesel 11-12) Wiesel isn’t afraid to give all the details of what happened which is great. In the first to chapters he jumps into the details not giving you time to get a grip. He’s brutally honest the horrible conditions they put into as well as how it affected them. “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never s...