Night Blog 2

Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

          In Night Elie's beliefs in God are very strong before the Holocaust. At the beginning of the story he says, "Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?" This shows how he was so into his religion, that it was like second nature to him. He is saying how you breathe unconsciously, like there's something telling you to breathe all the time, and for him it was the same, however with his religion and praying as well. However, as he is taken to each of the concentration camps, his faith in God starts to become less and less, until to him, God is non existent. In the book he says, "I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. He meant that by seeing all the horrors around him, the harsh labor, the kids and adults being put into the crematories, all of it had made him doubt that there was no god.

        Also in Night Elie's values of family become, stronger. For example in the story it says, "And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were glassy. He was breathing faintly." This shows how throughout his experiences leading him to that moment, they were always together. However when he thought his father was going to die, like all children they get scared. As to the reason why he hit his father so hard until he woke up, so they wouldn't have to separated. Since his father was Elie's sole reason for continuing to live.

*Spoilers*

        After all of these experiences and changes Elie goes through, he ends up mentally and physically dead. At the end of the book he says, "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." This shows how after everything he had been through, there was no way he would ever be the same. How seeing so many die, how knowing his father had died, but not even saying goodbye, knowing that his mother and litter sister had also died with out him saying goodbye must had crushed him in a way I hopefully will never know.

         

Night Blog

             In the book Night Elie, the narrator's point of view on god changes as he is transferred from camp to camp. In his earlier days, Elie was very religious. In the memoir he had stated, "I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night." This represents how he was so devoted that he spent both night and day studying the religion. However once Elie was transferred from camp to camp, being dehumanized made a very large hole in him. While all the other men in the camp think God's challenging them, Elie just gets mad at God for not helping them escape living hell. As in the later chapters, Elie had said, "I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames." This meant that he didn't believe in God anymore. With all the horrid events that surrounded him day and night he stopped believing that God would help them as when ever they looked to him for guidance, nothing ever happened.

             One emotion Elie, had felt would be fear. He, as most of the other men of the camps all felt fear. The fear of having your loved one killed, the fear of being burned in the fires, there was always fear around them, one way or another. As when Elie's father had been chosen to stay back for the second selection, Elie had said, "I was afraid of finding myself alone that evening. How good it would be to die right here!" I would say that Elie's greatest fear would be losing his father. As he's the only family he has left, after being separated from him mom and sister.

             Another emotion Elie had felt would be anger. This anger was not directed at the SS guards, well some of it was, but who it was directed at was God. As explained earlier, Elie was very angry at the fact that God didn't help these people. How he didn't stop children being thrown into the fires. Or how he didn't stop that young boy from dying during those hangings. Elie is starting to reject that God is even there. For example when the men were praying to God as the new year approached and Elie has thought, "My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God..." With everything happening around him, nothing would ever be the same. His total faith in God and been destroyed. For a person to be so religious, and then turn to say he lived in a world without God, it truly shows how horrid that time period was. Not just for Elie, but for all of the Jewish people in concentration camps.

Holocaust Aow Impression Blog

          When seeing all the different articles based off the Holocaust, many emotions hit me. Sadness, horror were many. One thing that seeing all these articles made me realize, was that even if the Holocaust was in the past, it still manages to appear in peoples lives in some way or another. For example, my specific article was on how many concentration camps there was in total. Which researchers had only discovered the full number in 2013. It was only three years ago, but many years ago to the actual happenings of the Holocaust.

          An article that caught my attention was Devin's article on a man who had been a former SS guard, and was being put to trial for 300,000 assisted murder charges. The article had been posted on July 15, 2015, which again shows how the Holocaust in general is still around today. The article had said how the man was morally sorry for what he had done, but legally, it wasn't decided yet. The article also had talked about his experience as an Auschwitz guard, and how he was assigned to guard the area from the cattle carts, to the gas chambers. This caught my attention because normally those guards wanted to cause harm to the Jews, that they had purposely requested that position. However, this man said he had no clue of what the job was going to be like, and once he got there, he couldn't back out.

         Another article that caught my attention was Evie's article on a man who was a Holocaust survivor, and teaches kids based off of his experiences. The article had been recently updated as of January 2016, which also shows how the Holocaust is still around. The article talked about how he has been educating kids for over 25 years, and how he has been receiving letters from the kids he speaks to every week. I thought this was special, because I feel like if he were to speak with me, I would probably send him a letter as well. It made me wonder just what did these kids write about in their letters to him, and what he had even told them as he has been educating various kids for again, 25 years. Had this man told the same story he always talked about?

Oskar Gröningz, former SS guard put to trial for committing 300,000 assisted murders.

Butterfly Project

I commented on: Jared's Blog, Omar's Blog, Mia's Blog and Michael's Blog

Berlin Memorial Activity

          I learned that there were many laws that were passed in order to make Jewish people's lives miserable during the Holocaust. For example how in 1942 Jewish families with pets could no longer have them. Or how in 1940 Jewish people could only buy groceries from 4pm to 5pm, which left many hungry since they where usually still working at that hour. Hearing everyone read out the laws they were given was making me feel more sympathetic as the laws were read one by one. There's many of these laws that hit me very hard, and I couldn't imagine the lives of these poor people, that had to live with these laws. Many for a good portion of their entire lives. It's just so sad.

          I think this memorial was built as a reminder of what had happened during the Holocaust, and to commemorate those who died. Even if the memorial is small in comparison to the many Jews that had lost their lives, it does its purpose and helps us remember the tragic events of that time. It's also a huge reminder of how such a massive genocide should never repeat itself in the years to come. I think that this monument was also built as a way to put those who died, at rest. I'm sure many are still angry for their deaths, and the families that were seperated afterwards were probably angry as well. This helps those people be at ease, as they know they won't be forgotten. 

          I noticed how many of the laws where created during certain events. For example how twelve laws were put into play in 1933, more specifically the year Hitler and come into power. Which could be a reason as to why so many laws where placed. Another example would be in 1942 when another sixteen laws were added. Which was also in the middle of WWII, so that's probably one of the reasons why more laws were added. 

          One of the laws I think would of affected me the most would have been the one where Jews couldn't have pets. I say this because I have a kitten that I've barely had for about eight months and I know I would never give her up. She's my world, and I love her very much. Even if it meant going to jail or dying, I wouldn't give her up because she's apart of my family now, and everyone loves her. It would be so hard imagining a life without her, as she's the one that usually makes my whole family all laugh when we're at home.