In this chapter, our attention was drawn largely, again, to the dehumanization the Jews of Sighet were subject to at the hands of the German soldiers. However, rather than just show the ways in which the Jews were dehumanized, Wiesel used this chapter to really highlight the effects of their experience on the group as a whole. Clearly, the entire group had just abut reached their breaking point, and when faced with even more stress, such as that inflicted by Mrs. Schächter's hysterical screams, they lashed out. Stress, even on a small scale or as a result of the motions of daily life, causes significant mental and emotional damage in people, and I can't even imagine having to face such a situation as the Jews of Sighet have up to this point in the book. Knowing that their situation will continue to worsen makes me wonder how the group will interact later on, how the effects of their increasingly traumatic experiences will change.
On another note, part of me believes that this breaking down of the Jews' sanity, for lack of a better word, was a deliberate facet of Nazis' overall mission. I noted this in a comment on another post, but I feel the German soldiers, under the National Socialist party, definitely acted in such ways so as to incrementally break downt the Jews and dehumanize them, to prolong and intensify their suffering. This probably also helped the Nazi party to become as horribly successful as they were, because it would delay intervention by the Allied Powers.
I am also interested to see how the Jews treat other moving forward. Will they lash out at each other and forget who the real enemy is? Or will they find a way to be strong together and hopefully get through it? I also agree that the Germans were trying to break them down, and get them to turn against each other. That would make their job easier if the will of the Jews was already broken by the time they reached the camps. Do you think Elie will give in or break down during the course of the book?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that caught my attention was how irritable the people in the train car had to have been. There were 80 people crammed in a car not able to sit, people were hungry, sad, and the smells in the car must have been awful. These some things they are already battling and then throw in the screaming woman and of course they lost their cool. I don't know if they could have handled another thing.
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