The Holocaust
The Holocaust (Shoah) was a unique event in 20th century history. It evolved slowly between 1933 and 1945. It began with discrimination; then the Jews were separated from their communities and persecuted; and finally they were treated as less than human beings and murdered.
During the Second World War the Nazis sought to murder the entire Jewish population of Europe and to destroy its culture. In 1941 there were about 11 million Jews living in Europe; by May 1945 the Nazis had murdered six million of them. One-and-a-half million of these were children.
We now call these events the Holocaust.
Whilst the Jews of Europe were the Nazis’ primary target, many millions of other people were also imprisoned, enslaved and murdered. These people included Roma, those with mental or physical disabilities, homosexuals,Jehovah’s Witnesses, trade unionists, political opponents, Poles and Soviet prisoners of war.
The Nazis did not act alone. They were supported and assisted by people from within the countries they occupied across Europe. Most countries stood by while the Nazis and their accomplices carried out the mass murder of the Jewish people.
Here is a link to a video of Oprah and Elie at a concentration camp that was running during the holocaust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FONfCP4NyQ4
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Synopsis
Regardless all the warnings about German intentions towards Jews, Elie’s family and the other Jews in the small Transylvanian town of Sighet, fail to flee the country when they have a chance. As a result, the entire Jewish population is sent to concentration camps. There, in a camp called Aushwitz, Elie is separated from his mother and younger sister, but remains with his father.
As Elie struggles to survive against starvation and abuse, he also grapples with the destruction of his faith in God’s justice and battles with the darker sides of himself. Forced into a desperate situation, Elie feels a conflict between supporting his ever weakening father and giving himself the best chance of survival.
Over the course of the book, Elie and his father are sent from Auschwitz to a new concentration camp called Buna and then, as the Allies (the British and American troops) approach, deeper into Germany, to Buchenwald A few months before the concentration camps are liberated by Allied soldiers, Elie’s father dies. Though Elie survives the concentration camps, he leaves behind his own innocence and is haunted by the death and violence he has witnessed.
Relent
While reading this novel, one part really stood out for me. Which was the part when Elie finally saw himself in a mirror after the tragic experiences he has been put through, Elie says, “One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto.
From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.
The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me.”
Elie indicates that even though he has survived the war physically, he is essentially dead, his soul killed by the sufferings he had experienced. Yet, when Elie says, “the look in his eyes, as he stared into mine,” he indicates a detachment between himself and the corpse. His language, too, indicates a detachment between his sense of self and his identity as a Holocaust victim—as if he has become two distinct beings. The corpse-image reminds him how much he has suffered and how much of himself—his faith in God, his innocence, his faith in mankind, his father, his mother, his sister—has been killed in the camps. At the same time, he manages to separate himself from this empty shell. The image of the corpse will always stay with him, but he has found a sense of identity that will endure beyond the Holocaust. As dark as this passage is, its message is partially hopeful. Elie survives beyond the horrible suffering he endured by separating himself from it, casting it aside so he can remember, but not continue to feel, the horror.
Would you have survived ?
- I remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to swing irrevocably between horror and malediction. –Elie Wiesel
- There were millions of deaths in those short years during the holocaust, many families were hurt and still are till this day because of losing their loved ones. Would you have survived during the holocaust ? because it was really difficult for the Jewish people to fight through the harsh experiences they were put through.
Night by Elie Wiesel 