pc:http://isurvived.org/Jarusz_family.html
This week I read Ch. 1 (pg. 1-27) of Night by Elie Weasel. The thing that shocked me the most was how fast everything escalated within the first chapter. In the very beginning, Elie says that in less than three days there were German Army vehicles outside on their streets. I was so shocked about how quickly things were occurring. It was almost immediately one thing after another. Before we started learning about the Holocaust, I did not know a lot about it. But then I did research about it. I researched how Hitler rose to power and how he turned the government into a dictatorship. Everything Hitler did was extremely well planned. Everything he did had a reason and his plan was carried out so well. I find it insane how much he tortured the Jews. In the book, it was sai that they dug their own graves. They dug a very long big ditch and then the soldiers would come and shoot them and they would fall into their graves. I recently studied and researched how life was before the Holocaust and it was very peaceful. They were perfectly fine. Then at an instant, their lives changed forever. I do not know how people still clung to hope. Their lives were constantly at stake and they still had hope. One thing that struck me is what Elie’s mother kept repeating, “We cannot give up, we cannot give up she kept repeating.” (pg. 82) I do not know if I would still have hope that any of us would survive. Another thing that stood out to me was how easily they, the Jews in Elie’s village, moved on with their lives. One of times this happened was right after the army took the foreigners or outsiders away. Elie said that after a few days things went back to normal. I do not understand how after something so tragic, like having friends and family taken away from you, how things could automatically go back to normal. They did not know whether they would return alive but tortured or dead.
I continue to not have the ability to comprehend how cruel people could be. How could human beings, being filled with such hope and dreams, do anything near that cruel. How could you take one’s life and live with theur blood on your hands. How could you shoot an innocent person. How is any of this even possible. We discussed this in class. My teacher told us that after people start looking at other people as animals rather than human beings, they are capable of things that cruel. They are capable of using babies as targets. I could not even believe that they would take babies away from their families just to shoot them. Babies are so pure and innocent. They do not even know what life is and you would just take theirs away from them? I do not know how someone could be that cruel. It is so insane.
I continue to not have the ability to comprehend how cruel people could be. How could human beings, being filled with such hope and dreams, do anything near that cruel. How could you take one’s life and live with theur blood on your hands. How could you shoot an innocent person. How is any of this even possible. We discussed this in class. My teacher told us that after people start looking at other people as animals rather than human beings, they are capable of things that cruel. They are capable of using babies as targets. I could not even believe that they would take babies away from their families just to shoot them. Babies are so pure and innocent. They do not even know what life is and you would just take theirs away from them? I do not know how someone could be that cruel. It is so insane.