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Survival in concentration camps
Jewish concentration camps
Jewish concentration camps
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In this passage, Elie is on a bed inside the infirmary because of the injury to his right foot. There was a Hungarian Jew next to Elie who was suffering from dysentery, which is an infection of the intestines. The only thing that showed he was alive was his voice. Elie questions “Where did he get the strength to speak?” This is validated as all the pain people were enlightened to within the concentration camp made no sense for any Jew to have the ability to speak. Elie describes the Hungarian Jew as being just a skin and bone with dead eyes, which reflects on his scrawny body and the feeling that he may be dead judging by his eyes. This is also a Metaphor as Elie is comparing the man to just skin and bones. My stance on this situation is simply
middle of paper ... ... After years of extreme and unsanitary conditions, Elie saw his reflection for the first time in years and saw that “from the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating” (115) him. Despite the fact that Elie physically survived Auschwitz, he was emotionally dead.
Physically, the Jews changed very drastically in the story. In Night, Elie says “The SS pushed us in 100 to a carriage, we were so thin.” (pg.92). This shows that they had changed so much because earlier in the story it says they fit 80 people to a carriage. From them being able to fit 100 people into one of these carriages, we see that these people were so thin they looked like corpses, and they probably felt
Before becoming fully integrated into the brutal life of the camp, as a human being, Elie still cares for the wellbeing of others. After arriving at Birkenau, Elie witnesses the burning of children, women, and men alike. He questions the reality of this situation and "How was it possible... that the world kept silent?" (32). For Elie, silence is unthinkable. Although speaking words that will not come becomes tough, Elie himself managed to do that in the creation of this book, Night. At this point in time, Elie has not lost his faith in the power that people hold; there is still hope for the world to save these people, but only if the silence breaks. Combining that with his tone of disbelief, Elie exemplifies one of humanity’s many ingrained emotions: compassion. However, in a camp
“One day the kid wrote on the blackboard: “I see the ball.” And the old man studied it awhile and said, slowly, gingerly: “I ... see ... the … ball.” Maniac whooped, “ You’re reading!” “I'm reading!” Yipped the old man.His smile was so wide he’d have to break it into sections to fit it through the doorway.
...ood drives every decision in Elie’s life in Night. Despite their increasingly shrinking waistlines, the devout of faith spent the Jewish New Year fasting. Elie and his father, on the other hand, broke their faith by “feasting” on their daily allotted soup and coffee. This extra energy easily became the difference between life and death for both Elie and his father. Another physical asset Elie takes advantage of is his golden-crowned tooth, which he saves. “I had saved my gold crown. It might be useful to me one day to buy something--bread or life.” (Night 50) Elie’s resourcefulness strikes again when he injured himself to the point of hardly being able to walk. Once out of the hospital, he found a cloth to wrap around his foot, which recently underwent surgery. He finds the strength to complete the march out of Auschwitz, eventually leading to his salvation.
Immediately after arriving at the concentration camp of Auschwitz, Elie was separated from his mother and sisters. He remained alone with his father, and clung to him, saying, “All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.”(Wiesel 30). As they together went through the interrogation, showers, and the barber, Elie found himself taking care of his father. Being fifty years old, the work was hard for him, and not ideal for a man his age. Elie would look out for him, making sure he got his proper food and rest. Although they did not have the greatest relationship, that was soon forgotten as their need for survival deepened.
When Elie’s father is physically harmed for first time, Elie is“petrified” that his father “had just been struck” and that he “had not even blinked” (Wiesel 39). This demonstrates that Elie is truly taken aback by his change in behavior, indicating that he may not have reacted the same way to this action before he was exposed to the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet, he is not the only one that experienced this alteration, Elie also mentions that he “once saw” a pipel “beat his father for not making his bed properly” (Wiesel 63). The pipel more than likely felt entitled to do this because due to their pretty faces, pipels were often, but not always, treated better in concentration camps than other prisoners. Nonetheless, the marks that the Holocaust left on each of its victims are
Having a positive attitude is the best response to conflict, especially in time of war.
Why do many people become illiteracy when others are in need of help desperately? For obvious reasons such as the courage to stand up for what you believe in, one might not have the essentials to engage in an act of justice ,and lastly they could possibly be in the similar situation. I agree with Elie Wiesel because what if you were in need of help ,you would want someone to back you up with the obstacles you're trying to overcome.
Elie Wiesel once said ’ When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whatever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views,that place must-at the moment-become the center of the universe’. I’m thankful because i haven’t gone through that pain. I can’t compare my own experiences with that.
Physically, Elie basically changes from a healthy human being into a walking skeleton. Jews can be described as “skin and bones”. They were also extremely weak. Being forced to work at their labor camps must have been extremely difficult. The lack of food served at the camps, as well as the poor quality of what is being served, made him that way.
camp had taken Elie’s humanity away from him and left him with a wall of silence and a shadow of himself.
The Hungarian Police were so pathetic and demanding from the beginning which automatically took away any hope left in the bodies of the Jews. The Police “lashed” their clubs at the Jews, commanded them to go “Faster! Faster” and continuously insulted them telling them they are “lazy good-for-nothings!” knowing they are putting all of their strength into running already. The police and Elie barely knew each other but so much hatred arose between them from something neither of them had anything to do with. Other repetition in this quote is the use of “we” and “us”, this is used to foreshadow that soon there won't be much of a we or us anymore between that family, because the author was foreshadowing that he chose to describe how broken his family already is while they are still together. The description of Elie’s mother is how it all starts off.. He relates her face to a mask, and more specifically one without a word to say. This symbolizes how silence is taking over and causes a loss of hope that is so clearly there yet unspoken. He then goes on to his sister and explains how young and fragile she
When Elie learns that the dentist has been murdered and his gold crown is safe for another day, his thoughts immediately turn to the possibility that he can trade the gold for food. "The bread, the soup - those were my whole life. I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring time." (Wiesel, 52). As the conditions Elie was subjected to start to take a toll on his body, he becomes less human and more animal. Without basic necessities it was impossible for him to be concerned with maintaining a positive mindset, all that mattered was having a surviving body, not necessarily a surviving soul. When German enemies bombed a nearby area, the concentration camp went on lock down. Two cauldrons of hot soup were left unattended, easily in view of all the prisoners. Elie recounts the event, saying “poor hero committing suicide for a ration or two or more of soup…” (Wiesel, 59). Although everyone knew that the man would be shot for leaving his block, hunger and primal instincts led him to abandon all rational. First and foremost, humans are animals, and animals want to survive. When most freedoms are taken away the focus shifts back to these animalist rationales and we abandon the part of us that makes us human. Once the camp has been liberated, Elie
During the events of World War 2 the Jewish people would be separated from their families and taken away to be used for labor around concentration camps and some would be chosen to be killed. I agree when Elie Wiesel says we should all stand by when human lives are endangered or when people are being criticized by their race, religion, or political view, we didn’t do anything about the Jews being killed until 1941 that was when we joined the World War 2 but only because of the surprise attack on pearl harbor.