8A Night Blog 2019

One of the major themes in our study of the Holocaust was the idea of faith. It is referenced many times in the memoir Night. I felt that I was impacted by this particular theme because the Catholic faith is a big part of my family’s culture. In my mind, the idea of a person losing faith in the midst of a traumatic experience is one of the most important ideas in this memoir. I think that that is a fascinating topic, and I wonder if the psychology behind it has ever been studied, or if it should be studied. Before reading Night, I had always thought that a person would keep their faith close to them during a time of crisis. This was not the case with Elie Wiesel, who not only abandoned his faith, but questioned why others hadn’t. But then, 40 years later, as part of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he tells the public how he had regained his faith. He tells us that there would be no action without God (speaking of Judaism). I think it is impressive that Elie was able to regain...

While studying the Holocaust, I have seen one important theme showing up in many stories: luck. People had no control over their own lives. Everything that went on around them was all based on luck. For every missed opportunity, they could change nothing. People didn't know what would happen to them, their belongings, or their family. Anything could happen- they could be given extra soup, or be forced to work more, or get sick and die. For example, in One Survivor Remembers, Gerda Weissman’s father makes her wear ski boots when she was taken away, which was silly at the time, as it was summer. However, these boots proved crucial to her survival, as during the death marches, she had warm boots while other girls were wearing sandals. Another example is, in Night, Elie and his father decide to move on in a death march rather than staying in the camp hospital they were in at Buna. However, they later learned that it was liberated by the Russian Army right after they left. Also, Elie ha...

One of the biggest themes we have gone over is faith. In every book, movie, or video that we’ve seen, one of the main threads is the loss or gain of faith. This can be seen in Night. As the memoir progresses, we see Elie slowly start to lose faith in God. His loss of faith stuck with me. It upsets me that someone could be so cruel that they could make someone with Elie’s belief and reliance on God question their faith. It’s striking that someone could be hopeless enough to lose faith in God. Even more striking is when Elie says that he has more faith in Hitler, than in anyone else. His faith in Hitler makes me take a step back. For someone to believe in Hitler more than God makes me downhearted. It means Hitler followed through with his promises to do the awful things he did. To have faith in Hitler is one of the most terrible, yet understandable things during the Holocaust. While Elie still feels regret towards doubting God, his belief in God is supplemented by his in Hitler. He someh...

Studying the Holocaust is an experience I will never forget. I learned that the Holocaust took place during World War ll and was a time period where a name I will not mention basically brainwashed millions of Nazi sympathizers that Jewish people are the minority and they are lesser than Germans. Jewish people were ripped from their homes forced into concentration camps to work or die. The Nazis killed over 6 million Jews and overall 11 million people during this time period which is appalling. This is important because we can’t forget about the past. In school we are getting taught the past and history for one reason, to not forget. To pass it down from generation to generation. If we forget, we might repeat our mistakes like taking over people’s lands, slavery, the Holocaust and more. I can use the knowledge I learned from the Holocaust in my everyday life by not judging people by their looks or the way they act. Germans discriminated against anyone that didn’t look like them. They di...

Before reading Night I did not really understand how horrible the Holocaust was. I knew that millions of innocent people were murdered and tortured, but I did not quite understand why and how someone could do this to other human beings. After reading the memoir Night I really began to understand these things. In Night, Elie explains tells of his time as a victim of the holocaust. The Jews were tortured physically and mentally - yet they kept survival as their goal. One way the Jews were physically tortured was by the Germans limiting their food. The Jews were so starved they behaved like animals when there was a small amount of food to fight over. When Weisel described the death march he was so desperate to live that he thought about leaving his father behind. This shows how much of a toll mentally the Nazis inflicted on the Jews. Wiesel did survive but was a different person when it was over. I learned from reading the book that people were treated as if they were not human and if...

Of the numerous themes that we have identified in Elie Weisel’s ‘Night,’ the one that I found most intriguing or impactful was the sheer atrocity and inhumanity of the Holocaust. How could someone purposely and willfully end the lives of so many innocent people? How could someone order hundreds of children to be burned alive for something that they have yet to understand? How could someone even on the most basic level, think of someone as lesser than themselves for being Jewish? In Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech he says when speaking about his son, “I remember he asked his father, ‘can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the middle ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”  In another survivors’ story, Rachael Gleitman’s, she recalls, “There was the SS in a wool coat” . . . “he was already like 60ish. He must already have a granddaughter; doesn’t it cross his mind that these young girls could be the age of his gran...

Among the experiences that Elie Wiesel writes about, inhumanity plays one of the largest roles as a theme. This, in part, is due to racist propaganda spread during the time of the Holocaust. Many, without the urging of Adolf Hitler and other prominent Nazi party figures, would not have caried these atrocious acts out. In the United States Holocuast Memorial Museum, one of the first exhibits presented to the visitor, is a hall, along which various forms and types of Nazi propoganda are on display. This included “scientific” research and charts about hair, eye color, and nose shape, posters and flyers denouncing the Jewish people along with their art and literature, even going to the extent of school children’s textbooks with anti-semitic propaganda, portraying the Jewish people with almost charicatures. The guards in places such as Buna, Buchenwald, or any of the three of Auschwitz were incredibly inhumane in their actions, treating people as though they are nothing but cattle, as t...

The theme that impacted me the most was faith. Even though the Jews knew they were about to be taken to the crematorium, they still had faith. Even though they knew they were about to be shot, they still had faith. Even though they knew they were about to be put in the gas chambers, they still had faith. I learned that even though you feel like you’re about to give up or it is not working out for you, you need to still have faith. This matters and can connect with the world today because having faith makes everything better. For example, if you are getting ready for a test in a class you struggle. You might feel like you’re not going to do a good job on the test. Have faith. Study. Talk to your teacher. When you have faith and believe you can do it and, you will be shocked by the outcome. You either get a good score or you don’t. All that matters is that you had faith and believed that you could do it. You can try and retake the test and you might just get the grade score you were ho...

I can not really put into words what I have gotten out of our study of the Holocaust. I can try to, but I will not be able to reflect on how much it has affected me. I did a lot of additional research outside of class, and I worked ahead in the course packet as well. But the thing is, I don't know why I am so interested in this. I mean, I'm not Jewish, and I don't know anyone who had relatives who were involved with the Holocaust (not that you have to be Jewish to be interested in the Holocaust, I'm just saying I don't have a direct link to it). I still can not understand why I am so interested in this, but maybe it has to do with a concept that I can not understand. I can not help but think of The Giver by Lois Lowry while I write this. The Giver focuses on the idea of sameness and the Nazis had a concept of a “master race” which had the Germans superior to others because of their race and where they are from. I have ascertained that if we forget these events, then...

It is difficult to fathom the enormity of the Holocaust. So many millions of lives lost. So many stories that will never be told. But it is our duty to struggle with it. It is our duty to wonder how, in the twentieth century, such unspeakable atrocities could occur. We owe it to those who perished and those who survived to do so. If we do not remember the past, then we will repeat our mistakes. History will reoccur. These crimes against humanity still matter because they are a reminder of why we must fight to uphold our ideals and a warning of what will happen if we do not. This unit has given me a new perspective on the Holocaust. When we think of it, we often consider the statistics; 6 million Jews murdered, 1.5 million Roma. But the Holocaust is not just numbers. It also encompasses the stories of millions of ordinary people with aspirations, families and lives. Reading about Elie Wiesel’s experiences in Night helped me approach a difficult topic from a viewpoint that I can empat...

The theme of hopelessness in the Holocaust really impacted me throughout the entire unit. In about 90 percent of the unit I really felt the pain of what the Jews had to go through because of the Nazis. It matters greatly because hope is like your will to live, and when you have no hope, it's like giving in to death. In Night, the man in the hospital lost hope and just gave up, instead of fighting to believe that he would survive. Luckily, the Russian Army came the day after Elie left, but if it had not he would have been perfectly content to die. Wiesel had hope throughout the entire time he was in the camps. He may not have had faith or hope in God throughout that time, but he had hope in getting out and living. In the end, he got out and lived a long life and ended up winning the Nobel Peace Prize and writing over 50 books. “Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.” A quote from Wiesel’s Nobel Speech...

After reading Night, going to the museum, and reading other documents, I really took away the vastness of the Holocaust, as well as how it still affects people today. Before doing our study on the Holocaust, I knew that millions died in concentration camps and that the Nazis had stereotypes against Jews and the disabled, but I never fully understood the lengths to which they went to annihilate entire groups and religions of people. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum had a display on Operation T-4, which was a secret plan run by the Nazis to have doctors kill their patients if they were “unworthy of life.” The Nazis killed over 200,000 mentally and physically disabled children, which is roughly about the population of modern-day Samoa. In Night, Elie pondered, “Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions! (8)” This really opened my eyes to the vastness of Hitler’s goal, and how much effect it would have, even today. Someone who was killed cou...

When we first started to study the Holocaust, i did not fully understand how terrible it was. I didn't get that people had to walk hundreds of miles on a death march. When I thought of the Holocaust, I thought of people like Hitler killing other people, not the concentration camps and ghettos. Now when I go back and I think of all these things. I understand it more, instead of just Hitler I can imagine people running around with machine guns in my head, just like in Life Is Beautiful. I imagine all the terrified Jews, praying that they would not make one wrong move because if they did, they would be shot. This film changed my perspective a lot, even though it did not really reveal how terrible the concentration camps were. Even though it didn't i thought it was a good way of showing what had happened but not overwhelming the person watching. I feel that if everyone was well educated on this topic, there would be no chance of it ever happening again. Because not everyone knows w...

When I started learning about the Holocaust I was relatively familiar with the subject, and I knew it was a terrible thing that had occurred. I knew about the Jews being deported to concentration camps and how the Nazi party also killed people with disabilities or who had a mental illness. The Nazis always seemed to me like terrible people who killed innocent people for no reason and that aspect of my understanding did not change. But what I didn’t know and can never truly know is how the camps affected the people in them and after they were liberated. I never imagined how detrimental and cruel the camps could be, both physically and mentally. It is always upsetting to me when I read or hear a story about the people who survived the Holocaust and when they tell the listener about how they returned to a normal life. The end of the story is always fine, but when they talk about how normal people acted towards them when they first left the camp, it is really stuns me that people don't...

It is not possible to describe the totality of the Holocaust with words. A library would be insufficient to the task. Nor can I find the right words to describe the Holocaust. I have been shown horrifying things that I had known before, yet could not quite visualize. I could scarcely imagine death before this, and now I have images of people snapping off their own toes in my mind. Families were separated, gassed, and then burned. That was the most horrific thing the human race has ever experienced. I can’t possibly compare that to my life today, where I go to school for seven hours, run for 20 minutes, and then sit around and play video games. I probably will never experience something such as the Holocaust. The human race has never seen anything so utterly horrific.  If any person forgets about it, the memories of those who died are lost and that would be the worst thing a person can do. You do not forget the Holocaust. No matter what. The people that have gone through to Hol...

Buna; A good synonym for hell I shall never forget, The pipel: His anger broke out One of thirteen beating his father The old man was crying softly, How could it be possible? I was frightened  So I ran, and ran I thought I had been running for years, It was selection day, I was summoned to the spot I felt so weak You’re too Thin,  you’re too weak, Was I written down? Those whose numbers had been noted stood apart,  Abandoned by the whole world, Weeping in silence, Soon to be forgotten.

While studying the Holocaust, I learned many things. While reading Night , I learned that the Germans took the Jews in railway cattle cars to concentration camps.  At these camps, the Germans would make the Jews work all day or the Jews would be killed. If they could not work at all the Germans sent the Jews straight to the gas chambers. Elie was trying to protect his father the whole time.  His relationship with his father helped Elie stay alive. Family is important to him. My family is very important to me and I would want them there if I were in a horrifying situation like this. When I went to the Holocaust museum it was unbelievable. When we walked through the cart it felt hard to breathe in even though there were two opened spaces, and it felt crowded even though we were only walking through with about 10 people. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that 80 people had to stand in the car for days on end without bathrooms, food, or water.  It must have been dreadfu...

This was the final destination. Where question and answer would become one. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? Only the darkness of the night Could ease the smell of burning flesh. Our terror could no longer be contained. Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire! Our nerves had reached a breaking point. Men to the left, women to the right. Babies! Thrown into the fire! Was I still alive? Was I awake? The anger rose inside me. Face to face with the angel of death, Flames that consumed my faith, This horrible place, Was the final destination.

What Makes Us pray What makes us pray? Who makes us pray? Why did I pray  When you have  Betrayed Allowing them to be  Tortured And Burned But what do they do They praise your name  Why do you go on Troubling  These poor people’s Wounded minds Their ailing bodies The Almighty,  The eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. We believed in you I prayed I felt myself stronger than you Man is stronger Greater than God A thousand times  You consumed my faith But now, I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else.

March On Block 57, forward! March!  It snowed on and on  I had two pieces of bread An icy wind was blowing violently We were no longer marching,  We were running Like automatons My wounded foot no longer hurt The blood flowed more readily in our veins. The night was pitch-black,  Like it had no soul They would shoot us if we stopped Their fingers on the triggers, Ready to shoot If one of us stopped Even for a second, I would not stop One foot in front of the other Left Right Left Right Like a machine. “Don't think, don't stop, run!”

The March of Death The icy wind blew without faltering The road seemed to go on forever Under a looming sky, “March you filthy dogs,” they yelled. The dead remained Hidden under the snow, Yet no one recited kaddish for them. We were not marching anymore We were running The snow continued to fall The death continued around me, This death  Like flames, consumed my faith forever I no longer felt the pain, The pain of the bitter cold My pain was suppressed by the pain of the those around me   The bitter pain of the March of Death.

In the beginning, there was faith Faith-which is childish; trust-which is vain, and illusion-which is dangerous Look at these men whom you have betrayed allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed and burned, what do they do? They pray before you! They praise your name! Why should I sanctify His name? The almighty, the eternal and terrible master of the universe chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for? I was the accuser, God-the accused How could I say to him: Blessed be thou, Almighty, Master of the universe, who chose us to be tortured day and night Bidding farewell to an audience of dying men The child I was had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me 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.  His eyes told of his unfulfilled hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future Never shall I forget those flames t...

Hallucination There are a thousand gates allowing entry into the orchard of mystical truth Yet the weariness had settled into our brains like molten lead Monday went by like a small summer cloud Like a dream in the first hours of dawn But my soul invaded, devoured by a black flame It suffocated me, stuck to me like glue On Tuesday every bomb that hit filled us with joy Gave us renewed confidence In the evening, a concert given before an audience of the dead   We were free at last Or was it a hallucination? Our first act as free men Revenge Our nerves had reached a breaking point Our skin aching A corpse was contemplating me The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me