There is something that caught my attention In the beginning of the first chapter as Elie describes how Moishe was “expelled from Sighet” due to the fact that he was a foreign Jew. Then Elie conveys how “ days went by. Then weeks and months. Life was normal again. A calm...homes...good business...lived among books...children played…” His life once again became normal as Moishe’s life, as we soon find out, changes completely into a living nightmare. As I read this, I remember hearing and reading something similar and familiar to what Elie implied. Hopefully, many of you fellow readers can remember the famous statement “First they came for… then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak for me.” As Elie describes how life came back to normalcy after the foreign Jews were taken away, I realized that Elie and many other Jews did not care to the extent of taking action in order to help Moishe and the other foreign Jews. He even said that he cried as Moishe was taken away but his empathy only stretched to a certain length because he didn’t take an action to stop this expulsion. Then after days, weeks, and months he gradually forgot about it (to an extent) because he and the rest of his community went back to normalcy. However, when the Germans eventually came for him and the rest of his Jewish fellows that’s when he had hoped for a way to be saved and helped, but no came to help- not for a long time. You see when someone has never experienced a similar injustice in their lives it can become difficult for them to sometimes empathize with the other party, especially if they have never been in the similar situations. So, as I pondered even further into the famous statement and of how Elie felt in the beginning I came to realize that even though nothing can ever justify the atrocities that Hitler conducted towards millions of Jews and many other ethnicity. I have come to also realize that the Jews, who died and suffered, before all madness came down upon them, were once just like many other people: mean, cruel, and selfish too. My justification is because they (like all of us at one point in our life, I think) didn’t care about what happened to the other party just as long as they were well, they didn’t care to what happened to the foreign Jews since it did not affect them, however, things changed as the Germans came for them, therefore they too were imperfect.
I think this is an interesting perspective. I agree that it is not possible to view every single person of the Jewish race as a kind, compassionate person. This is not to say that because some of the Jews were terrible, selfish people (possibly even criminals) that they automatically deserved death. I wonder if the same theory can be applied to the German Nazis....were ALL of them terrible people who were killing Jews mercilessly or might some of them have been brainwashed or dehumanized themselves so that they were killing in order to preserve themselves??? Interesting thought.
ReplyDeleteJ.Schulz, thank you for your insightful comment. I wondered the same thing about the Nazis as I was writing my perspective. Truthfully, I was going to say at first how horrible the Jews were conducted by the Nazis party. However, as I scrolled through the other posts I realized that many of my similar thoughts were already conveyed through my fellow classmates. That's when I started thinking that even though throughout the years, I have always felt sorrow and petty towards all Jews that underwent the humiliation and atrocities from the Nazis, I came to realize that after reading what you said about rereading books and forming different perspectives towards them such as when: Coyotito died in The Pearl, you said that at first you didn't think much about it, but when you reread the book again as a mother your heart ached for Coyotito's mother because you too are a mother who would hate to think that your child could be...well you know...anyways as I read more about the Jews and the Nazis I came to realize that I had forgotten that the Jews were once humans with both positive and negative feelings too. Then, when I finally finished my thoughts that are posted above, I realized that I finally treated the Holocaust Jews as humans by implying that they too were imperfect. The reason is because all these years, until yesterday, I always thought that all Jews were kind, nice, and good people who didn't do any harm or wrong, but I was wrong. As for your other comment about whether the "selfish people...deserved death", well it's very hard to answer because that is another argument. However, when I think about it in modern days there are people who commit many crimes, some crimes are minor but some are major crimes. I think that many people would feel that those who commit minor crimes should not deserve automatic death, however, those who commit major crimes-well, many people would want them to be killed or executed. So, if you think about it, maybe this is how some or many people would view the Jews who were criminals. Yes, perhaps the same theory can be applied to the Nazis. Perhaps not all Nazis who were raised or forced to become Nazis. Perhaps not all of them were evil as it is implied. Let me put it this way, I don't think it is possible for one race to be all evil or all good and this is because there will always be good and evil people in a race and in all races. Perhaps, they were brainwashed. It is a great possibility since-well, they could have been taught at in an early age to be mean and cruel to their 'inferiors'. Aside from all this, it is still really sad how history turned out to be.
DeleteMy dear friend Hermelinda, unfortunately I cannot completely agree with you, despite people people being human what Hitler did was wrong no matter whether those who died deserved to or not. He tried to set himself as a god deciding which race lived or died and that's not right. People who commit crimes will face judgment but we don't need to take justice into our own hands.
DeletePriscila, thank you for your comment. However, I suggest rereading my opinion once more and think very carefully what I said. I used specific words that may help all fellow readers understand what I said. Of course it is not right for one person to decide whether someone lives or not but that wasn't my argument at all. My argument was that I realized that not all Jews were innocent such as not all one race of people are. I didn't stress religion into this because I understand that not everyone is religious and/or have different religion.
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