The Themes Of Awareness In Ordinary Men By Elie Wiesel

Kaitlyn Barker Question 2

Imagine you’re eating dinner with your family on a quiet, normal night in your small town. Suddenly, a seemingly mad man comes to warn your family that millions of people of your race are being slaughtered. He advises that you immediately pack everything you own, and leave the place that has been your home your entire life. You probably wouldn’t take his warning very seriously, would you? Living in the twentieth century it was hard to imagine that such a barbaric act was actually occurring. Not adhering to this warning, however, cost millions of Jews their lives. Night by Elie Wiesel lets us into the minds of the Jews who were victimized, and Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning offers us the point of view of the

The Germans arrived in Sighet seemingly peacefully, and even billeted with some Jews who lived there. They were polite and a German officer even bought a box of chocolates for the woman of the house he billeted in (Wiesel, 10). This made them even more skeptical of the stories of horror floating around, because no brutality was shown during those beginning days. When they were first put into the ghetto’s they were almost happy to be “entirely among ourselves”, as if it were a small Jewish republic (Wiesel, 11). When the deportations began they tried to convince themselves it was only because the war front was getting closer. They also assumed the situation would resolve itself – there was no point in actually fighting back. They were confused, overwhelmed, but

Their skepticism of the entire situation due to their modern thinking, their denial of the horrors occurring, and holding onto their religious beliefs caused them to react as passively as they did. Wiesel’s novel gives us examples of how skeptical the Jews were of the circumstances and how they tried to hold onto their religion in their worst hours. Browning’s novel also shows us the lack of resistance found during the deportations, and the rare cases in which Jews resisted. The Jews held onto their humanity and self-worth in their darkest moments, demonstrating that even in the most horrendous of circumstances we are still able to hold onto our humanity and identity to push forward to a better future. It is also a reminder that violence is not always the best way to fight