"Night" Significant Changes

Throughout the novel "Night", both the main character and author Elie Wiesel, experienced some large changes in personality, and his viewpoints or mindset on certain topics.  These changes were related to several different topics or aspects of Wiesel's life, such as religion, personal bonds with other people, or his reaction to the actions of others.

One way that Wiesel changed in a result to what he experienced in the book, was shown on page 113.  Wiesel stated, "I spent my days in total idleness.  With only one desire: to eat.  I no longer thought of my father, or my mother.  From time to time, I would dream.  But only about soup, an extra ration of soup."  This shows how the treatment of the Nazis to the Jews completing erased and corrupted their minds, feelings, and thoughts.  They truly weren't functioning, being treated, or living as human beings anymore.  After having gone group such tragedy in losing his mother, sister, and then father, all Wiesel could think about was food.  However, I do know this mindset has changed since the times of the Holocaust, and Elie has regenerated his ability to be human, but this shows how a whole race was transformed, treated as animals, and changed in a time period.

Elie's beliefs were also changed in a way that provided him with different opinions on violence and peace.  One section of the book said, "...let hatred and danger be removed from their horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land...if you could remember what I remember, you would understand."  (Page 120).  This excerpt is proof of how Elie has seen so many atrocities and horrors in his time, and it is these awful memories that have molded his peaceful and generous lifestyle.  Because of his memories at these camps, and his remembrance of all the death, and brutality, Elie has a strong opinion and idea for what is right and what we need to do to get there.

"Night" Maintaining Humanity 2-18

Based off where we are as a class in the book "Night", I've decided to focus this blog on Elie's struggle and efforts to maintain his humanity and identity as a person, during his life at the concentration camps.  While Jews stayed at these concentration camps, they were stripped and torn from any piece of their identity.  Clothes, names, hair, and any other personal possessions (watches, pictures, jewelry, etc.) were forcefully taken from them.

Elie realizes that he must be strong and keep life in him for not only himself but for his father as well.  We can understand how any feeling and emotion can be drained from someone when you're literally taking away what makes them who they are, and this begins to have an effect on Elie too.  We see part of this vacancy after the first hangings when Elie thinks the soup tastes really good, and doesn't hardly seem to be giving the hangings a second thought.  This goes to show how the mass destruction, and devastation was thrown into the Jews' lives and they became used to it and insensitive or immune to the thousands of deaths around them.

However, after the second hangings, Elie experiences a different reaction.  He thinks that the soup tastes like corpses and this tells readers that these deaths do have some sort of effect on Elie.  In the first hanging, readers are shown the hope and emotion in Elie's body depleting and draining, but we do see that there is hope left and the fight to remain sane and human will continue.  I can predict that this struggle will become much more harder in the future as his father becomes weaker and weaker, and probably closer and closer to death. 

 

Holocaust AOW Impressions Blog

On Friday when our class participated in an Article of the Week gallery walk, I learned a lot of really cool things relating to the Holocaust, and I also provided my peers with information on that topic as well.  One of the coolest realizations that I came to was the fact that information, discoveries, and events pertaining to the Holocaust are still being encountered to this day!  For example, one of my classmates was displaying an article about how Holocaust survivors could possibly have a greater chance of developing Schizophrenia which is a brain disorder), than average people.  My article also is connected to our modern day world, and it is about President Barack Obama's recent acknowledgments to some of the heroic actions that occured during World War Two, and he recognizes one of the great men in particular who did something amazing to save up to 200 lives.  (You can find this article by clicking on the link below)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/world/middleeast/obama-honor-americans-effort-to-save-jews-the-holocaust.html?_r=0

There were also several other interesting stories about current events relating to the Holocaust.  One of which was an article on 14 Holocaust survivors who are suing Hungary in the US court.  The country of Hungary is being sued for three different reasons.  Their collaboration with the Nazis, their compliance and agreeing to deporting over 500,000 Jews, and their indifferent attitude towards the huge amounts of unfair confiscated belongings.  This is also the first time Hungary has been taken to court for their affiliation with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

After completing the gallery walk, I am now really grateful for the opportunity to learn not only about one article, but a whole class full.  I look forward to becoming involved in more events such as the gallery walk or events similar to it in the future.  

Berlin Memorial Activity

Throughout this activity in class and the events and laws that we explored, I learned all kinds of new information and facts.  Restrictions were placed on Jews and other groups such as gypsies, or homosexuals.  I was also able to make the realization that many of the laws established within this time period didn't hardly affect anyone of Non-Jewish heritage anyway, and it was simply unnecessary, not to mention unjust and unfair, to make them.  For example in 1942, a law was created that stated Jews were not allowed to have pets.  Every single law passed during those times were unfair, however some like these would have absolutely no effect rather than taking away entertainment and happiness from some people.  In no way could it benefit (fairly or not) anyone else.  I learned that all freedoms and rights as humans were being stripped from people of Jewish religion, and they were no longer able to make big decisions for themselves or control themselves.  At one point in 1941, they weren't allowed to emigrate.  Therefore, they were trapped and controlled.

I think that the lampposts with the laws displayed on the back were created as a reminder to Jews of what their limited and unfair place was at the time.  I believe that these signs and posters were a way for the Arayan race to remind not only the discriminated groups of that time period who was in power, but to also boast to themselves and have the regulation of their desired and forced superiority be publicly known to Germany.  

I noticed that there were certain years where over a dozen laws were published, and then there were years where close to if not zero were created.  For example, in 1942, 16 laws were established that limited Jewish citizens of Germany and their rights, but in 1944 there were none.  I thought maybe Hitler had released a bunch of his new ideas and plans to Germany in certain years, and then attempted to carry them out by constructing these new laws, and they could've come more frequently in these specific years.  I also considered the possibility that these laws would come in numbers that related to the condition that Germany was in during a specific point of the war.  So for example, maybe Germany was being really challenged in battle and they didn't have time, power, or whatever they needed to execute their plans for these laws in some years.

Personally, I think I would have the most trouble dealing with the rule that stated, "Jew's last will and testaments are no longer valid."  I feel this way because this law is literally taking away one's ability to decide where and who their belongings will go to after they die.  This law is explicitly saying that any Jew's personal belongings will go to the German government after death.  This is not to say that every other rule that was created and that we studied in class isn't completely unfair, evil, and cruel.  I'm positive extreme struggle and difficulty was experienced because of the other laws as well, but this is one that astounded me the most.