Summary
After the required quarantine and medical inspection, Eliezer is chosen to serve in a unit of prisoners, counting electrical fittings in a civilian warehouse. His father, serves in the same unit. Eliezer and his father are to be housed in the musicians' block, which is headed by a kind german Jew. Not long after Eliezer and his father arrive (in Buna) Elie is summoned to the dentist to have his gold crown pulled. He delays claiming illness and postpones having the crown removed. Soon after, the dentist is condemned to hanging for illegally trading in gold teeth. Eliezer does not pity the dentist, because he has become too busy keeping his body intact and finding food to eat to spare any pity.
Eliezer's father then falls victim to one of the Nazi's rages. Painfully honest, Eliezer reveals how much the concentration camp has changed him, he is concerned, at that moment, only with his own survival. Rather than feel angry at the Nazi, Eliezer becomes angry at his father for his inability to dodge the blows. During an Allied air raid on Buna, during which every prisoner is supposed to be confined to his or her block, two cauldrons of soup are left unattended. The man reaches the soup, and after a moment of hesitation lifts himself up to eat. As he stands over the soup, he is shot and falls lifeless to the ground. A week later, the Nazis erect a gallows in the central square and publicly hang another man. Eliezer then proceeds to tell the tale of another hanging, that of two prisoners suspected of being involved with the resistance and of a young boy who was the servant of a resistance member. Although the prisoners are all so hardened by suffering that they never cry, they all break into tears as they watch the child strangle on the end of the noose. One man wonders how God could be present in a world with such cruelty. Eliezer, mourning, thinks, as far as he is concerned, God has been murdered on the gallows together with the child.
Quote:
"But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing..."-page #65Reaction:
It is difficult to imagine what emotions would play through your body, under the conditions of Auschwitz. IT is even more difficult to imagine a child being hung. What would it the, feel like, if these two crimes against nature were together? Even the appointed executioner refused and the SS had to step in. ANd now as a reader it seems that events in Elie life at this point roller coaster, going good for a while the suddenly getting worse, then again the situation lightens and then he's cast even more sharply, deeper down in to the horrors of Auschwitz
Video:AUSCHWITZ ,THE NAZIS AND THE FINAL SOLUTION
Kazimierz Piechowski, a former concentration camp political prisoner narrates how he escape in the most dreadful German concentration camp Auschwitz.
This is a great post. It shows that you put a lot of effort into it. You have meaningful quotes and even a video. You also included links that go along with the book, great job.
ReplyDeleteGreat I loved the video. You have great depth. You also have good insight into what goes on in the concentration camps
ReplyDeleteGrat job. Nice video, it gives you a lot of information. Nice quote and summary. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteKirk, nice post. i really like the video and quote.
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