Night (Extra Credit--Fall 2006)
Of all the events associated with the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century, one of the most disturbing is the Holocaust, Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Pick out a passage from Elie Wiesel's "Night" that particularly well illustrates one of the disturbing aspects of the Holocaust.
posted by Ancient Art at 2:23 PM
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Night is a first-hand account of what it was like for a young boy to go through the Holocaust during WWII. The author, Elie Wiesel, who was a Jew, describes both outward and inward struggles as he endures the horror of the Nazi occupation of his land, deportation of he and his family, and his experiences in the ghettos and concentration camps. At first, when he hears that many Jews in a neighboring region are being murdered and thrown into mass graves, he does not believe it to be possible, but soon enough he, too, is facing the terror of the Nazis. Through these terrible experiences, he is separated from his family, except for his father, who stays with him through much of his time in captivity. Many are dying cruel deaths all around him and he almost dies as well. Disease, starvation, hard labor, de-humanization, are part of daily life for him, and as a result, he gives up on faith that was once a vital part of his life. Though these events cover a long period of time, to him it seems, and rightly so, to be one long Night.
Dan McCarlson
What I found most disturbing in this book was how one human being can torture, beat, and kill another. To me this illustrates perfectly how cruel the human heart can become. At one point in the book the author is watching as a brutal scene. Under the supervision of German soldiers the jews had to load diesel engines onto trains. One of the German soldiers, named Idek, was on edge. "You lazy old devil! Do you call that work?" And he began to beat the authors father with an iron bar and watched him crumple and collapse. How is it that one human can think they are so much superior than another that they will beat and even kill another? To me this shows the incredible shortfalls of the human heart.
"One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto.
From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me."
This quote from the book is so eery. It is hard for me to believe that someone who is at all human could inflict so much emotional, and physical pain on another person that they don't even recognize, or feel like themselves anymore. " The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine." This is such a powerful part of how he illustrates the feeling of not knowing who you are inside and out anymore. I loved this book because it emphasized that although people did surrvive the holocaust, such as Elie, they lived essentially dead, and without a soul. Life never went back to the way that it was before the war affected them. Night will forever be imprinted in my mind.
This book has been added to the "Must read" list. Not only is a first hand experience intriguing, but the emotion it brings with is paralyzing. I can't believe there are people who say it never happened. I was most bewildered with how the Jewish people were in "the dark" about what was happening before their turns came. Those that tried to warn them were considered crazy. Even the elderly woman who kept seeing fire-- that was symbolizing being cremated. How could she see that? I cannot imagine the terror Elie Wiesel felt seeing his mother and sister walk towards the crematories or watching the life leave his father one breath at a time (& escaping his own death). The way he went from starving for salvation to feeling so empty inside- was captivating. He saw so much death- babies, children, women- all ages. He even had his tooth pulled out for probably less than an ounce of gold. I could not believe how many things happened in just a short period of time- how fast it moved. They went from their houses to the ghetto and out to the concentration camps- which I assume was strategic to prevent an uprising. I have a difficult time understanding how much the people trusted others. Elie kept waiting for his father to change his mind and go into hiding in the beginning, but he truly trusted that all they were put through could never happen-they believed people were good. The officers that were compelled to treat people that way- and kill for no apparent reason is mind boggling. It took me a long time to read this book because of the emotion, I cannot imagine experiencing- and surviving it.
Kristi L. Lacina
In high school, I read many books like this one where teenagers were victims of the holocaust, but this is the first one where a teenage boy was able to spend most of the time with his father. Unlike the Rabbi's son, Elie was able to go throughout the whole ordeal helping his father. Even when people told him it was a waste of time and he was only killing himself he was still there for his father. I couldn't imagine going through this, not knowing where the majority of my family is. Then on top of it all, the work that people were forced to do and the miles they had to run to get to the other camps. Physically and mentatlly, there would be no way I could survive. A lot of these people all believed in God and still had faith in him, and towards the end they all lost faith. I really can't blame them. I don't see how people can be so cruel to one another, either by just shooting them or making them go into the furnace. And I felt so bad for the older guys that would get blows to the head because they were too weak to get out of bed. I am glad Elie made it through and let everybody know his story.
Leslie Lanz
Night is like no other holocaust story i have ever heard. I have heard them on the history channel but none of those stories get you inside the lives of the victums. "'Praised by Thy Holy Name, Thou Who has chosen us to be butchered on Thine Alter?'" I found this passage to be particularily strong because it was said by Wisel at the Rash Hashanah. It is when in the book Wiesel loses his faith. I find it particullarily disturbing since he was a religious young man that was studying scriptures at a young age that most people don't study until they were thirty.
Eric Viall
This book was was very disturbing to read. How can the Nazi's and others be trained to do this to a fellow human? If they are still alive today, I would like to know how being so inhumaine and cruel during this war, has affected how they live with themself if they are still alive? I guess one of the many passages I found awful disturbing was when Wiesel was on the train ride to Buchenwald, when the bystanders were throwing bread into their wagon train. There was a father who got a piece of bread and was wanting to share it with his son and the son ended up killing the father and then he ending up dying also for a slice of bread. To me this is so heart wrenching to hear how these people had to live and what happens to the human heart when you take away everything and everybody that means something to them. It's all about survival nothing else. Renee Seyer
This was a very intense and interesting read. I knew the Holocaust was bad, but to read a story from a survivor brings out a lot of emotions. Reading this, I got upset that people could actually do this stuff to other human beings. Most Jews are extremely religious, but the majority of them lost their faith as they were forced into concentration camps. I can't say that I blame them. Elie mocks the idea that the Jews are God’s chosen people, deciding that they have only been chosen to be massacred. It would be hard to keep your faith seeing all of the horrible things that are happening around you. This story is different from the others I have read or heard. Most of them don't spend the "journey" with their family. Elie is with his father up until the point where his father becomes too weak to survive. I don't know how anyone could have survived such a tragic time. There is no way that I would have made it through something like this! It's good though because there are people to tell their stories and help us realize how bad it really was!
Lindsay Turbak
I enjoyed reading this particular book. Now, I know full well the atrocities of which occurred during the holocaust. I've seen films and read books in which the horrible events were played out through my mind as if I was there watchign it myself. I found Night to be just like those. It was very descriptive in manner and it's the detail and was able to put across the point it was written to make. Some of the scenes described were hard to take. I was tempted to stop reading a few times because as a christian, it was horrible to read about what was happening to these people for no real reason at all. Throw on top of the fact that it had taken place for real made it all the more harder. But overall, I thought this book was an excellent read and covered what happened in the holocaust very well.
Michael Danski
Reading the book "Night" it was very difficult to see what these people were going through. the Holocaust was a very intene point of time, but I didn't realize it was that bad until I read "Night". Jews were being forced into punishment and were loosing their faith that they had. Being put into concentration camps the men were put through horrible things. Everything that you had was taken away, and you had to wear there clothes, and eat the food that they gave you if they even gave you food. I find it very disturbing by the things that people were doing other people and acting as if they didn't care about anything. It was very interesting realizing what really went on during the Holocaust.
Amanda Lipinski
The book Night was a young mans chronology of his experience in the concentration camp. Nothing in his experience was pleasant. His father and him were seperated from his mother and sister to which they would never see one another ever again. They prayed the prayer of death for themselves when they were still alive. They were beaten, starved and made to feel subserviant but somewhere they were able to find the courage and strength to stick together and help one another; even when other fathers and sons were abandoning one another to ensure their own survival thoughts of which momentarily crossed through his mind but were replaced with guilt and the need to help his father. The thing that would bother me the most was in the end when they could have hid and stayed or moved to another concentration camp they chose to move only later to find out that they would have been saved within a short time; but the decision to leave only inflicted more torture on the two and in the end was too much for his father and he died. That quite frankly angered me because they were so close to help but yet too far.
MacKenzie Bertsch
The book Night is a great example of how horrible the world can be sometimes. Elie Wiesel, who was jewish, explains what he went through while being in a concentration camp during the holocaust. "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed...Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never."
This is a good exaample of what Elie went through and how the Holocaust changed the way people can be thought of. Humans can do horrible things.
Andy Haley
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