Foreward Night

“’Where is God? Where is He? Where can he be now?’” (x).

            This quote was written in the Foreward originally but was also repeated later on in the book.  This quote, I felt, was significant because one of the Jews could not believe that God would ever let something like this happen.  Since it was happening, he was looking for God to help them.  When we read this quote, it really spoke to the reader about how the Holocaust really was.  This man is calling for God thinking that he will get them out of this.  Thinking about feeling this man’s pain and fear is awful. 

            If we were talking to someone from the Holocaust, and they were explaining how they felt the whole way.  Unless we were actually there, we would not be able to say “I know how you feel.” Even today people listen to others problems and they say that but really, they haven’t always experienced the same thing.  It’s not the same unless you have been there. 

“’Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night.’” (ix)

            Elie Wiesel said this quote because he felt like it was never going to end.  The torture was the same all the time and he was constantly seeing people die.  I think watching people die would have done it for me.  Especially seeing kids my age being killed; knowing that kid could have been me.  I would probably feel like Wiesel in this case because if we were constantly getting abused, it would feel like time is going by slower.  With everything they were being put through, they felt like it was never going to end. 

Chapter 6 Night-

This was the chapter of the death march.  The death march was when all of the Jews had to run very far and they were not allowed to stop.  If they stopped or slowed down, they were shot immediately.

            I felt this was just cruel because all of these Jews suffered a long time already and have not eaten.  How could they be expected to run several miles at the same pace?  When they slowed down and were shot, the people behind them just ran right over them.  I couldn’t believe that.  If I was running behind them, I would probably be the next one to be shot because I would have stopped and stared in shock and fear. 

            It’s really crazy how most of these soldiers have no problem at all just killing people.  It seemed like they didn’t even care and felt pride in it.  I would never feel proud if I killed someone.   There were only a few soldiers that actually had a conscious and felt bad for the Jews and tried to save some of them. 

            I couldn’t believe that they would even shoot someone if they seemed to be going to slow.  These people haven’t eaten so they have practically no energy at all to complete this run. 

When they shot them, they just left the bodies there.  I don’t really know why but that part bothers me a lot.  Like don’t leave them in the middle of the streets or anywhere people go.  Also the part where the Jews had to dig the graves for some of the bodies.  I feel like what they did to the bodies after was just as harsh as the actual killing.  It just makes no sense in the way of why someone could just want to kill a large amount of people just because of who they are. 

Sophie's Choice

            The scene we watched in the movie was the scene where Sophie was standing in line at the concentration camp with her two kids.  A German soldier comes up to her and starts asking her questions.  She didn’t know how to respond to these questions because she didn’t want them to have any excuse to kill her. 

            The soldier told her she had to give them one of her kids to be killed.  She said that she could not choose and she wanted to keep both of them. I couldn’t imagine having to choose which one of my kids I would want to stay alive. Since the soldier was yelling at her, she could not even think straight so she just gave the soldier the one she was holding.   

            I was really upset when I saw this clip because Sophie was put in an extremely uncomfortable situation having to decide which of her kids she wanted to keep alive longer.  If I was in her situation, I would not be able to choose.  I honestly would not know what to do. 

            The soldier threatened to take both of her kids away if she did not give them one of them.  I guess when she realized it was either save one for now or loose them both in the beginning.  I think her decision was effected by the soldier yelling at her.  Also, we were not able to tell this, but it could have been that she felt the older one was stronger and had more of a chance of surviving because of his strength. 

            Still, I would never be able to make a decision like that.  I would have probably just told them to take me too because I would never be able to live with knowing I picked one of my kids to die.

Life is Beautiful

I liked this movie because it helped show the Holocaust effecting Italians.  The father and the son were Jewish but the mother was not.  One day, the mother came home and found out that her husband and her son were taken away to the concentration camps.  The mother said that she wanted to get on the train with them.  I think that shows how passionate she is for her family.  We don’t know whether or not she knew it was a train to get killed but she wanted to stay with her family.  The mother was not able to stay with them throughout their time at the camp because they split the families Males in one line and Females in the other. 

The father was with the son majority of the time.  The son was about 5 years old and was told by his father that everything happening was all part of a game.  The winner of the game gets a brand new tank.  I thought that this was a great way to keep the boy calm because if I was in that situation and knew what was going on I would be terrified.  I liked how everything bad that they witnessed was “part of the game and they were just eliminating players.” 

I also thought it was amazing that when the Germans came to take the kids to shower, the boy hid longer and told his father “I’m not taking a shower.  I took one Friday.”  He thought it was an actual shower but turns out it was the gas showers.  Those kids that went didn’t come back.  Speaking to a kid about going to the showers, they think it is an actual shower.  They are so naïve in a way that they don’t realize they are being taken to be killed. 

  Also when the father puts the boy in that box to hide and tells him to not come out until it is quiet.  When the soldiers came with the dog and the dog was barking at the box, the father distracted the soldiers and he ended up being taken to an alley way.  He was still making a game out of it as he was walking by the box.  That time he walked by the box was the last time the son saw his father. 

The Pianist

When I was watching The Pianist, I felt that everything that the Jews were going through was awful.  I couldn’t believe how a group of Germans could just go and kill any Jew they wanted and however they wanted.  Also how some of the Nazis were nice and actually helped some people survive. 

            One part that really upset me was the part when the Nazis came in and told the Jews to stand up.  The one old man who was in a wheel chair couldn’t get up.  His punishment was death by getting thrown over the balcony.  I thought that this was cruel because the man physically couldn’t do something and he had to get punished.  Also, anything the Jews said during a time they weren’t supposed to speak, they were killed.  I thought it was unfair that when the lady asked the German Nazi “where are you taking us” she got shot in the head.  When they killed people, they just left them there.  There were dead bodies everywhere.  This didn’t seem as bad of an idea because it helped some Jews that were in hiding stay alive.  When some of the Jews were lined up and then few were selected to get shot, that was really scary to watch.  Especially when the Nazi ran out of bullets on the last man and the waiting for him to load the gun.  I couldn’t imagine being that guy and having to wait even a second longer.  It must have been better to just get it over with. 

            I also couldn’t believe his will to survive.  He lost everything.  His family, friends, house, everything.  That man really wanted to stay alive.  Even going through starvation and dehydration, he still made it through.  When he was out that one night alone and he heard the Germans running down the road, he realized that he needed to hide fast.  I thought it was brilliant that he would just lie on the ground blending in with the rest of the dead bodies on the road.  I would never be able to come up with something like that in a matter of seconds.

Chapter 3 Night

“They were burning something.  A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load- little children.  Babies!  Yes, I saw it- saw it with my own eyes… those children in flames”(p. 30)

            When I read this quote, I was shocked.  The way he described what he saw happen to these children was disturbing.  When I read this quote, I kept thinking of a wheelbarrow full of kids and babies being dumped into a fire.  Thousands of kids were burned right in front of you is a scary thought.  I thought it was terrifying enough that adults were being beat to death and burned.  Finding out that this kind of stuff happened to kids is terrible.  I could never imagine being a child during this time and watching other children being burned.  Elie could have been one of the kids that were getting burned.  He got lucky when the soldier told him and his father to lie about their age.  If they didn’t lie they would have both died very early on into it. That one lie saved their lives.  Elie and his fathers new age was in the age range of being able to work.  Their original ages would have killed them. 

            Also when the family got hung and everyone was forced to walk by and look at the two adults dead and the one child fighting for his life.  The child did not die right away because he was so light that his weight didn’t pull him down hard enough.  I would never want to see a little kids struggling to stay alive.  Even though he wouldn’t survive, he had to suffer longer and die slowly and painfully.  If I was in the death camps, I would much rather be killed in a way that it would be sudden, not suffering.