Chattahoochee River
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Chapter 7 - From Beyond the Grave
This chapter was short, but had a lot of details in it that made my eyes water. The thing that had the biggest impact on me was the idea that there are millions of people who died during this time without graves, without their loved ones knowing where they are or what became of them. I think this hit me hard because recently I've lost a lot of my family and if I didn't know where they were or what happened to them, I'd go insane. And then I read about Meir Katz and how "his son had been taken from him during the first selection but only now was he crying for him," and I could really relate to that. When you first lose someone, you don't want to believe that they are gone and then later, little things hit you and eventually you realize what is no longer there and you just break down and can't take it anymore. Then I think about Elie and his father and how far they have made it together, each one fighting for the other, and the terrible pain Elie must feel when he thinks of losing his father during a time of such turmoil. Elie was so close to losing him during that train ride when the "gravediggers" almost threw him out, and I'm sure his father is using every last bit of his strength to stay alive for his son, because that is just what family does.
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The fact that all those people died without graves and without being blessed, or even noticed for that matter, was appalling. I thought that was a prime example of the dehumanization that has been discussed throughout the book. Towards the beginning they would say Kaddish for those who died and pray and whatnot. But now, nothing.
ReplyDeleteExactly. There is hardly any humanity left for them. It's understandable but at the same time, just so hard to imagine. The dead deserve to die as humans, and receive the reading of Kaddish.
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