I have reached the end of your story, the end of your troubles and misery, at least the end of the beginning. Forever, you will be haunted by these memories. The story you told was unbelievable, truly. Your fathers death was inevitable, as he did not have the same inner fighting spirit that you did. Once he did die, you were put in the children's block. This made me double take because as I was reading your story, I never thought of you as a child, a mere 15, 16 year old boy. Your actions towards your father and the situation forced you to grow up so fast. You didn't really have a teenage life as you went straight from a child to a grown up, a weary adult. At Buchenwald, he was intensely sick and had lost the will to live. When he asked you for water, you acknowledged that it would be the, "worst poison for him," (Wiesel 110). Even though giving in to his wishes and giving him water wouldn't be helpful to his health, you did it anyways because he wanted you too. That decision must have been hard to make because on one hand, you want him to be able to live. On the other, you know that he won't be able to survive mich longer, so you obey him. The loyalty to him is admirable. A few months after your fathers death, you and those remaining are saved. You just barely escaped death for almost the last time when the SS officers were starting to kill everyone left in the camp (the struggle with the poisoning after being free being your last dance with death). After your execution is pushed back more than once, the Americans penetrate the camp and the survivors, you included, are freed. It is still strange to me that you are able to forget about revenge on those that killed your loved ones and put you through so much pain and angst. And it is not only you, but everyone. You say that all you could think about was food, "no thought of revenge," (115).
One last thought that I have on the end of your story is of the last couple of lines you say, "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me," (115). These words are extremely powerful and sum up how you must be feeling all these years later, haunted by your past. The shadow of the past must linger in your mind all the time, making you question humanity and your own actions, but yet you preserve your strong idea that humans have flaws, and we all have these flaws no matter who you are.
Here is a link to an article written by Elie Wiesel himself:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89357808
Dear Nicole,
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you didn't think of me as a child anymore is very interesting to me and also very touching. This is because I myself questioned whether or not I was a child. I mean I had endured so much and I had been so hardened by experiences throughout my time in the camps that I myself refused to believe that I was a child. As you said I watched my Father lay on his death bed and couldn't cry once he was gone because I simply didn't have any tears left. I had cried so many times in the camps and seen such horrid sights that the death of my own father did not affect me. At this moment I had fully convinced myself that I was in fact no longer a child and that my childhood was over. It was taken victim by the horror and terror of the concentration camps and the holocaust in general. I just hope that people like you will help to show and educate others of the horrors of the holocaust and how they robbed so many kids of a normal childhood.
Sincerely,
Eliezer Wiesel