Monday, November 16, 2015

When Eliezer arrives at Auschwitz in "Night", what were some things he will never forget?

The smell of burnning flesh, the night sky, the smoke from the towers, as well as the realization that everything that was denied was actually true all represent the elements that Eliezer will never forget upon his arrival to Auschwitz.  The physical elements are already well described.  Yet, one element that lingers and does not leave Eliezer was the denial and cruelty of the victims'.  Recall that everyone in the village discredited Moshe the Beadle when he tries to express what the Nazis will do and are doing.  Eliezer recalls the "dismissiveness" of the townspeople and what a terrible miscalculation that was when he sees Auschwitz because it confirms that Moshe was right.  The treatment of Madame Schacter is another such image that will never seem to leave Eliezer.  On the way to Auschwitz, she becomes hysterical and is beaten to keep her silent, with others supporting such treatment.  She is dismissed as crazy in her descriptions of what she sees, what will happen to the Jewish people, and what Auschwitz is.  Yet, like Moshe, she is proven right.  Indeed, the physical elements will remain- the beatings, the shootings, the sound, smell and feel of death that had to have permeated the air- but Eliezer will also never forget the emotional elements of denial and silence.

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