Response 3

Dear Elie Weisel,
 

  While reading the part three of your novel from pages 85 to 120,  I felt astonished that you were able to survive the journey from Buna to Buchenwald. Also, I was stunned when you said " These words of

encouragement, even coming from our assassins, were of great help"(92). If I were in that position I would still be mad at the Nazis, because they were the ones that told me to run in the first place. In

addition I would have given up since I would be running to jail, not away from it. This contradicted my views of the world because it is not human to be driven like cattle by the SS. I would not want to be

treated like an animal.
     While I was reading, I wondered why you put in "They had orders to shoot anyone who could not

sustain the pace. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of the pleasure"(85). Did you add the quote to the memoir to show that many people died on the way to Buhenwald, or did you

want to emphasize how brainwashed the Nazi soldiers were during the holocaust? I then wondered how many Jewish people were killed by the SS. I did some research and found this website Number of Jews 

that died.

                         Alexander Ho

Reader Response 2: How Does it Feel to Be Human?

Dear Reader,

     At this point of the memoir Elie, his friends, and his father must make decisions that could change their lives. One quote that struck me while I was reading was "He commanded four prisoners to  mop the

floor... "For the liberating army" he told us. "Let them know that here lived men and not pigs" So we
were men after all?"(84). Continuing from the last post, the Germans stripped the identities of the Jews,

and people such as Elie, did not believe he was human because of the way the Jews were being treated. When I read the passage I, I was furious because the SS had degraded the inmates so much that they did

not feel human anymore. Also, I think Wiesel added this too his memoir to emphasize the horrible
conditions of the camps, and what the concentration camps did to the prisoners. The author makes the

reader notice the detail by telling the reader about the dehumanization of the detainees, then telling about what happened to the Jews, in a single, powerful quote. Yet, I wonder if the SS actually convinced Elie to

believe that he was an animal. Also, if everybody felt like a lifeless shell, what drove the Jews to
continuing living. What it the possibility of being liberated, or the possibility for them to see their families

again. Elie and his father have each other, and Tibi and Yossi have each other, but why do many of the inmates continue to suffer in the camps? Although I was shocked at this, the execution of another Jew felt

normal.

     Today in the class discussion about Night I was intrigued by the idea that the reader adapts to the environment much like the characters in the book have to. I thought about reading the night before and it

was true. At the beginning of the book, I was awestruck by how the SS treated the Jews, but later I was
calm when "executioner had completed his work"(62) by decapitating Reichsfüherer Himmler. I was

surprised that I felt this way. Reading this book was dehumanizing me too, just like how the Jews were being transformed into animals. When I realized this today, I was ashamed that I did not feel, angry at the

Germans. I also felt angry at myself for not feeling sympathetic towards the Jewish. These executions clashed with my views of the world. In addition to believing that all people equal, I believe that killing is

wrong, yet after adapting to the text, the execution of a Jew was quintessential. I realize that if reading the book dehumanizes one, then being there must be fifty-times worse, then being at the camp for 2 months

makes one a soulless case in the concentration camps.

                                                                                       ,Sincerely Alexander Ho

Reader Response 1: A Letter to Wiesel

Dear Elie Wiesel,

     Surviving in the Auschwitz concentration camp must have been a horrific nightmare for you. While
 reading the first forty-seven pages I could feel the fear and uncertainty. I can not imagine what it would

be like to undergo such a painfully agonizing experience.  For example, you saw "children thrown into
flames"(32), and I was speechless, after I read the passage. How can one human commit such an

inhumane action to another? Adding this detail into the memoir exhibits how brainwashed the SS were
during the Holocaust. The detail attributes to Night because it also engraves a picture into the reader's
mind, making the reader think about the terrors of Auschwitz.

     While I was reading about the train ride too the concentration camp, I thought about the middle
passage and how the Jewish population compared to the Africans being shipped across the Atlantic
Ocean. In the middle passage the Africans were in a cramped space on a boat. In the Holocaust, Jewish

people were confined on a train. While on the train "lying down was not an option, nor could [the Jews]
all sit down. [The Jews] decided to take turns sitting. There was little air"(23). The Jews and the Africans

were treated in similar ways during the Holocaust and slavery. The two races were not treated as human
beings because the Jews were shot, if they did not follow orders and the Africans were whipped during if
they misbehaved.

     The views of the Nazis as portrayed in this book clash with my views of the world and what i consider
right and wrong. First of all, while you were in Auschwitz, you were stripped of your identity. The SS
had "barbers [shave] every hair on [your] bodies"(35), they replace your clothes, and took away your

name. This clashed with my views because the you were treated unjustly, and mercilessly. I consider this
very wrong. I believe in Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. All of which are taken away in the

camps. Furthermore, I believe that everybody in the world should be treated equally. The Holocaust
opposes this belief because the Jewish population because the Germans believed that their
Aryan race trumps every other human being that existed on the earth. Yet, I hold to the belief that the best

people work the hardest and they do not give up. Many Jewish people such as yourself did not give up
and eventually survived the Holocaust. Although you think Chance allowed you to live, I believe that it
was your qualities that let you live on to tell the tale of Auschwitz.


                                                                                                                Sincerely Alex