Chattahoochee River
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Revenge (ch. 8/9)
The last two chapters were definitely the hardest to read. But what caught my attention was the fact that none of the prisoners sought revenge against the nazis when they were freed. Elie does mention that revenge was necessary, but fails to bring up the topic again and instead focuses on something else. I found this odd because of the gruesome experience that the prisoners had while in the concentration camp. As I thought about it, I came to the realization that the prisoners did want revenge, but they knew they could never change what had happened to them. The Jews had experienced a living hell. Their loved ones were killed, they were practically starved and beaten to death, and had been stripped of their humanity. In other words, the Jews may have thought about revenge, but what had happened to them couldn't be erased.
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I think that, in addition to revenge not being able to change what they had experienced, the Jews may not have sought out revenge because they were scared to. They watched tons of people, including their family members, be horribly murdered and the survivors barely managed to escape death. They had every single possession, even their identity, taken from them. They've seen all the horrible things that the Nazi's were capable of and I think that frightened them and prompted them to just walk away from what had happened without trying to engage in any type of revenge or conflict.
ReplyDeleteI agree Celina, and I also think that the reason they didn't seek revenge was because they were so tried of fighting. They had to fight for there lives the whole time they were in the concentration camps and by the time they were liberated they wanted freedom and to live there lives.
ReplyDeleteI believe that they were not ready to seek revenge yet because they were still recovering from all that had happened to them. They did not yet have the strength to bring justice to their oppressors. All the jews could focus on was being free.
ReplyDeleteCelina, I agree with you to some extent, on how the Jews knew that what happened to them could not be erased. But I do not think that that realization is what caused them to not take revenge out on the Nazis. I think it was more from a lack of energy and motivation, as well as a lack of anger. To carry out revenge, one must have anger, and I think the Jews were all to emotionally drained to have such feelings.
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