Reflection Journal for NIGHT

1-3-09

Page: 4

Quote: He told his story and that of his companions. The train full of deportees had crossed the Hungarian frontier and on to Polish territory had been taken in charge by the Gestapo. There it had stopped. The Jews had to get out and climb into Lorries. The Lorries drove toward a forest. The Jews were made to get out. They were made to dig huge graves. And when they finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets. This was in the forest of Galicia, near Kolomaye. How had Moshe the Beadle escaped? Miraculously. He was wounded in the leg and taken for dead…

Reflection: This is the first taste of the Holocaust in the novel presented to me as the reader. It is so brutal that I have a hard time imagining it as something real. It is difficult for me to believe that this novel is all true. I have always read fictional novels and had to use my imaginations, there is no room for that here. Therefore, I can relate to all the people that will not listen to this tale by Moshe the Beadle. Neither they nor I have ever been exposed to anything like this which makes it impossible to believe.


Page: 10

Quote: On the Saturday before Pentecost, in the spring sunshine, people strolled, carefree and unheeding through the swarming streets. They chatted happily. The children played games on the pavement. With some of my schoolmates, I sat in the Ezra Malik gardens, studying a treatise on the Talmud.

Reflection: None of the people believed that anything could happen to them. This illusion ultimately leads to their deportation. It is hard to believe that they all had a chance to get out by getting a travel permit. They had all denied the obvious signs. They all believed that the liberation front was closing in quickly; however, they overestimated their speed. This illusion is demonstrated by their carefree actions in the time before they were deported.


Page: 22

Quote: “There ore eighty of you in this wagon,” added the German officer. “If anyone is missing, you’ll all be shot, like dogs….”

Reflection: The Germans used fear to make sure that the Jews did whatever they asked them. Personally, if I was one of the people in the wagon, and I knew I could get away, I would escape at the cost of the people in the wagon with me. However, I would do this only if I knew that they were taking me to a concentration camp. I would offer others to come with me though. Now that I think of it, Elie is the only one that survives from that cart by the end of the novel anyway; he never talks about seeing any friends from home.


Page: 32

Quote: Never shall I forget that night, that first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little fades of children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath the silent blue sky. Never shall I forger those flames which consumed by faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shill I forger those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

Reflection: This is the turning point for Elie in the novel. He no longer has faith in his beloved God and he no longer sees any value is life. After all the death he has seen, he realizes that it is pointless to live if they can kill so many. He will never forget the horrors that he saw. Hopefully no one will forget these things in order to prevent it from happening again in the future. Anyway, after this point, Elie is no longer a naive little boy. He has become a changed and twisted man, due to his experiences.


Page: 42

Quote: I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.

Reflection: Even after Elie’s God is murdered and he no longer has faith, he still holds high respect to God. I noticed that he always capitalizes God’s name and any pronoun referring to God. To me this shows that Elie knows that God is still there, but doubt the fact that he can do anything at all. He is also frustrated with the fact that God never answers man’s questions and remains silent to the ears. Elie began as a very religious man, I think that if I was in his position I would stop believing in a God and His existence all together, but this is because I have a much smaller religious understanding and enthusiasm that Elie did.


Page: 51

Quote: I felt that she wanted to say something but was choked by fear. For a long moment she stayed like that, then her face cleared and she said to me in almost perfect German: “Bite your lip, little brother…Don’t cry. Keep your anger and hatred for another day, for later on. The day will come but not now…Wait. Grit your teeth and wait…”

Reflection: I thought that this small fragment of the novel was very beautiful. It goes to show that even though Elie had been through so much, he was one of the lucky ones. This part with the young French girl has no large significance in the outcome of Elie’s time in the prison, but I liked it. I can not come up with the correct words to explain why. I just felt that her words were powerful and revealing. I also liked how Elie met the girl many years later on the outside. I am glad that she survived.

Page: 64

Quote: Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and Feast days?

Reflection: This is just another example of Elie’s loss of faith. However, his loss in faith has turned to a rebellious attitude toward his religion in its entirety. I am amazed that he still relates with the Jewish traditions, but old habits die hard. I suppose that it is impossible not to relate to his Jewish traditions because after he has been stripped of everything, it is all that he had left. I believe that these are questions anyone should ask about their faith. Something should be said for those that can find an answer.


Page: 72

Quote: Were there still miracles on this earth? He was alive. He had escaped the second selection. He had been able to prove that he was still useful…I gave back his knife and spoon.

Reflection: As I was reading about how the father wanted Elie to have his knife and spoon before the selection I thought nothing of it. That was until I got to the part where I had a revelation. These meager items were his inheritance. They were the only things that his father could leave behind for his only son, his only family. All of the sudden these objects became very important, they represented Elie’s father. It saddens me that when his father actually died, he left nothing.


Page: 81

Quote: I was putting one foot in front of the other mechanically. I was dragging with me this
skeletal body which weighed so much. If only I could have got rid of it! In spite of my efforts not to think about it, I could feel my self as two entities my body and me. I hated it.

Reflection: It is amazing what these bodies have gone through. Young and old all have been running for miles, yet they keep going. I suppose that the necessity to live can cause a body to overexert itself. These bodies have been turned into the bodies of animals. The only thing I can think of to relate them to being are the infected savage humans from the movie I am Legend with Will Smith. A healthy person could not even do what these malnourished bodies have done.


Page: 95

Quote: One day when we had stopped, a workman took a piece of bread out of his bag and threw it into a wagon, there was a stampede. Dozens of starving men fought each other to the death for a few crumbs. The German workmen took a lively interest in this spectacle.

Reflection: If there was anything that Hitler was really good at, it was speeches. He was able to turn the Jewish people into dogs through his speeches to the Germans. This scene demonstrates his power. Most of the Germans thought that the suffering Jews were vermin. This scene disgusts me. I can just imagine a pack of wolves tearing at a scrap of meat, but these wolves are savage people killing others just for a bite.


Page: 101

Quote: I went to look for him. But at the same moment his thought came into my mind: “Don’t let me find him. If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and only worry about myself.” Immediately I felt ashamed of myself, ashamed forever.

Reflection: I can completely sympathize for Elie. It is impossible to not have these thoughts in a situation like this. I am just glad that Elie had the strength to not abandon his father. I believe that as long as you have family, you have all you need, which is why I was very upset when his father gave up and died so close to liberation. Out of all the devastation in the novel, I think that losing his family was the worst that happened to Elie.