Night Litblog Pages 21-43

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 5
3-12-13

 

Pages 21-43

 

Summary: Elie and his family depart in a train car with 80 other people on a long journey, dying of thirst. They then arrive at their destination: Auschwitz. The crazy mad-woman in the car kept yelling about flames and when the train rolled into the camp at Birknaeu, she was right. They were forced from the trains and Elie was separated from his mother and sisters. An inmate told him and his father to lie about their ages. Elie and his father were almost two steps from the crematorium and then they were told to turn left. They were sent to barracks and met up with some of their friends. The next day, they had to get new prison clothes and run to different barracks and were lectured by an German officer. Elie's father was slapped. They were then transferred to the actual Auschwitz camp, Elie became number A-7713 and was forced to run to different barracks again and met a family friend of theirs during daily roll call.

Quotation: "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminals flesh. Had I changed so much? So fast? Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this"(39).

Quotation Significance: Elie's father is slapped when asking to use the bathroom when they are at the gypsy camp and Elie was very surprised and shocked that he barely reacted at all. If he had been at home and this would have happened, Elie would have attacked the man who struck his father. But he had changed. Elie had seen too much and knew that if he resisted in any way, he would have been beaten down too. Elie was learning that to survive in this terrible place, you had to do your work and keep silent.

Reflection: Elie and his family have arrived at Birknaeu and eventually Auschwitz. He was separated from his mother and sisters and he had no idea that this would be the last time he ever saw them. Elie and his father walk towards the crematorium and almost believe that they are going to be burned, but the men in their convoy are turned away from the flames in the last second. This scarred Elie and later when his father is struck, he feels an immeasureable anger towards the Germans and knows he will never forgive them. Elie and his father also get a identification number tattooed on their left arms and he will be now be known as only a number. Elie talks in the book about how the barracks and the concentration camp changes him forever. He sees babies been thrown into fires, and women and their husbands burning in the flames. He wonders how humans could let this all happen? He wonders how no one stood up for them? Elie even begins to doubt his own faith. He doesn't think that if there was a God, that it would let something like this happen to his family.

Discussion Question: Why does Elie begin to doubt his own faith?