In this chapter, Wiesel very clearly discusses the idea of humanity, or the lack thereof, that he is introduced to in Auschwitz-Birkenau. One of the first images he has of this place is that of Nazis burning babies in a pit. All at once, he's torn apart from his mother and sister, sees unbelievable atrocities being committed, and learns he has only two paths-- work or death. He thinks it must not be possible, that there is no way humanity would sit back and allow this to happen, to remain silent in the face of evil. At only 16, his faith begins to fall apart, and this is very clearly linked to the lack of humanity that surrounds him. I thought it was interesting, though, that others see this lack of humanity as all the more reason to put their faith in God and in divine redemption. Whereas they see the atrocities being committed as separate from God, I think that Elie saw it as something God allowed to happen, something God didn't protect them from. Obviously they, and others weren't deserving of the violations they were submitted to by the Nazis, and that must've been immeasurably difficult to cope with.
At one point in particular, Elie's father is beaten by the Kapo for asking if he can use the bathroom. It's very clear that Elie was troubled by his silence and lack of action in response to this event. He believes that as recently as the day before, he wouldve done something, but Auschwitz changed him. This silence seems to mimic that of people to the inhumanity of the National Socialist party/Hitler's regime, and I think that the idea of sitting back and allowing bad things to happen will be a major theme of the book as a whole.
Marian, in your comment you mentioned two of the scenes in this book that stand out to me. Every single time I read this book, the part about Elie seeing his mother and sister for the last time shakes me to my core; I hate it. I hate that his mother never got to see him get married. I hate that he and his sister never got to become friends as adults, which is a different relationship than in childhood. I hate that this was also the last time that his father got to see his wife and daughter. I hate that his father did not get to kiss his wife goodbye and tell her how much he loved her, that he didn't get to grow old with her, that they didn't get to happily raise their children and see the fruits of their labor. The second scene you mentioned that makes me cower, is when his father is getting beaten and he does nothing. It makes me feel cowardly and small (even though he was just a boy and had never seen this....and I do not mean that I think he should have felt that way). It makes me think of my own inaction when I have witness injustices that I feel I should have done something about. That is what I love (and hate) about this book: how it makes me look inside myself as a human and question my motives and my compassion.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your post because I think that it really highlights what this chapter was trying to convey to the reader about the struggle that Wiesel experienced inside his own mind when he first entered Auschwitz.
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