Kat - Post #1

Night by Elie Wiesel, at first was not a book I was entirely interested in. I was interested in it’s content, but I was worried that it would be like the other non-fiction books I read, in that it would be facts, after facts. Instead, what I read was much different. The part I read was definitely challenging to read because everytime I read something about their hardships, my heart lurched in a terrified way. I am really enjoying this book though, because it is someone’s true experience and it is unlike anything I have ever read before.

In the beginning of the book, there are rumors of people trying to destroy the Jews, most people believe this will never happen, but some have taken the precaution of leaving. Elie too asks to leave:  “I asked my father to sell everything, to liquidate everything, and to leave. ‘I am too old my son, he answered…’” (Wiesel pg. 9)  

I was really heartbroken while reading this because I could tell that this was probably one of the many reasons why so many Jews ended up staying in their homes, and eventually ended up being taken. I understood why they would want to stay, especially because in the beginning they saw no real threat from Hitler and couldn’t believe that it would be possible to annihilate an entire race of people. There are two examples from the book that really stood out to me about how they originally thought there was no threat.

Sooner than later, they realize that the threat is real and it is going into effect faster than any of the Jews could have imagined “First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death.” (Wiesel pg. 10) This is a perfect example of how the Nazi’s took away basic human rights from the Jews. They treated them as if they were different from other people, which I have a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around. I literally just don’t understand how one group of people can be so cruel to another. Sure they make up pathetic excuses and try to give reasons why the Jews “deserve” this, but in reality it is insane and my mind hurts trying to come up with any sane backing to it.

The way Elie Wiesel used language to describe these events was really on point. He has an amazing selection of words and I was able to visualize what he was describing. He also was very particular in the formatting of his paragraphs. Each paragraph was supporting detail of a specific event or instance, similar to the format we used when writing our analytical essays in that each paragraph had a subject and support of that subject.