Ellie Wiesel shows in the book Night that humans are evil and when they believe what they are doing is right they will stop at nothing to accomplish it. In the book, he uses his life story from the time he was a young boy growing up in Siget, to his troubles during the Holocaust when he was separated from all his family besides his father in the concentration camps. This book is very intriguing to me because it taught me about how awful the life of a Jew was during WWII. In the book, one line that really caught my attention was when Wiesel was going to tell his neighbor in the middle of the night that they were about to begin there "journey". When Wiesel's father returned from the meeting late that night, he told all the people there that they will be forced to journey away from there homes because the Hungarian police said that the front line was coming too close. The people in the town believed them at the time and began to pack food and hide there valuables which they were not allowed to take along. Wiesel's father tells him to go wake the neighbors and tell them what is happening. He then goes to the neighbor's house and wakes up the old man. After he tells him what is happening, the old man asks, "What are you saying? Get ready for the journey? What journey? Why? What is happening? Have you gone mad?" (p.15) The way this man responded with such confusion shows that the people were not aware at all of what was happening and that they didn't know they were going to leave. This is a form of dramatic irony because we as the reader know that they are being taking to a concentration camp where they most likely will be killed, but they believe they are going on a journey for there own safety. This shows the cruelty of Hitler and his followers because they told these people they were going to protect them but in turn sent them to their graves in the camps. Along with the cruelty of how Hitler tricked the people into going to the camps, his ways of choosing whether they live or die was also very inhumane. When Ellie and his family arrived at the Auschwitz, they were lined up with the men on the right and the woman, small children, elderly, and sick on the left. What they didn't know was that they were being chosen for who will live and who will be killed. This just shows the evil savage nature of Hitler and how he would stop at nothing to eliminate all the Jews. This website helped a lot with learning about what happened in the camps: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007714
I agree with your explanation of the quote from page fifteen, but at the same time I disagree. You say that the person who responds questioning Wiesel is confused and doesn't know what is going on and you then use this individual to represent the whole of the Jewish population, his confusion representing that of all of the Jews. Surely, not everyone was confused. Some must have heard stories about what was happening to other Jews, for example those individuals who were already at the camps. They had to get there somehow, and I'm sure that the Germans could not use the coverup story of "relocating for safety reasons" on everyone, especially in cities where groups of minorities and those in the major ethnic groups live together. They can't say, "We're going to move you because it's unsafe, but if you're not Jewish you can stay because it's safe for you." I don't see many people falling for that.
ReplyDeleteHitler was a very prominent political figure at this time and I can assume, hopefully correctly, that everyone knew who he was and his views, as he was their leader (for better or for worse, which ended up being for worse). It must have been common knowledge or at least speculation to many in Germany his immense hate for Jews and other minorities.
I believe that deep down, many knew of their fate but were unwilling to accept it or did not believe it could happen to them. This individual who questions Wiesel must have been worried when the German officers arrived, and when told of the plans for their relocation, been terrified and frantic, trying to block any thoughts of the truth from entering his mind. In fact, right after making this comment, Wiesel states, "Half asleep, he was staring at me, his eyes filled with terror..." (Wiesel 15) proving that ignorance in this topic was nonexistent.
The human mind is very curious, the ability for man to manipulate the truth and what they see is powerful enough to convince even themselves at the surface, but perhaps, deep down, we know the truth, perhaps about everything. But we can convince ourselves of an alternate truth, a falsity that fits our own more 'perfect' view of what is happening and what has happened. A perfect example of this being those who deny the existence of the Holocaust. We may never know to which degree of knowledge the Jewish society had of Hitler's deadly plan for them, but the blinders put up by our own fears and insecurities give the feeling that perhaps all along they knew their fate.
I can see what you are saying Ethan but I don’t know if I can completely agree on the idea that Wiesel showed humans are evil when they believe what they are doing is right. That is because it is wrong no matter what, and everybody has a conscience and someone can’t be blinded by their thought to see that is isn’t bad, in my opinion. Still it is just my opinion but he has credible reasons on his belief. I personally think that if something is wrong, it is wrong to anybody no matter what even if they believe in certain values. Even the article provided showed his thoughts and taught me things I have never heard of. It was very interesting to read because it was a fascinating brutality that was incredible to hear yet gruesome to think of, but these things I seen in this article don’t convince me completely. Put it this way, the majority of the S.S officers were not raised to hate Jews, because Hitler had not came to power yet. They may have agreed to his policies and belief, but they are still human and feel guilt, remorse, and sympathy. They knew it was wrong but they believed what they were doing was the best for the world and was a justice to society not because their beliefs made them evil. What I’m trying to show through this response is that I have a different belief in what this section of Wiesel’s book showed about the aspects of human nature compared to Ethan’s original thought presented in his opening statement.
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