Trust

It was always a battle whether to trust the soldiers that did all of the commanding.

"Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you. In a few moments, selection will take place. You will have to undress completely. Then you will go, one by one, before the SS doctors. I hope you will all pass. But you must try to increase your chances. Before you go into the next room, try to move your limbs, give yourself some color. Don't walk slowly, run! Run as if you had the devil at your heels! Don't look at the SS. Run, straight in front of you!" (Wiesel 71).

This is one of the events where they were unsure whether to trust him or not. This process seemed to help increase their chances and made them seem like someone to trust. But other times, people doubted their trust. Not only did they distrust the soldiers, but even began to distrust the other inmates as well.

"Don't rejoice too soon, son. Here too there is selection. In fact, more often than outside. Germany has no need of sick Jews. Germany has no need of me. When the next transport arrives, you'll have a new neighbor. Therefore, listen to me: leave the infirmary before the next selection!" (Wiesel 78).

Many people were too frightened by the whole experience to know whether they should trust someone or not. Many just went with what anyone said and didn't take the time to think about it.

Infirmary

Here's a photo of an injured inmate of one of the concentration camps. Many of these people didn't make it out alive, or at least with all their limbs. Elizer was lucky in that he was able to get out before anyone could destroy the camp he was injured in. But, as he found out later, the camp was liberated.

"After the war, I learned the fate of those who had remained at the infirmary. They were, quite simply, liberated by the Russians, two days after the evacuation." (Wiesel 82)

 (http://www.google.com/imgres?...)

Luck

There are many places in this story where luck has been a key factor. This doesn't only mean good luck, though. Looking at the story as a whole, it was very bad luck for anyone to have been through this in the first place. But while going through the camps, some were granted some lucky selection. "'You are lucky, little fellow,' said Hans, smiling. 'You fell into a good Kommando...'" (Wiesel 50). Elizer also tried pushing his luck by pretending to be sick (Wiesel 52). In this part, he used it to keep his gold crown, but was eventually required to remove it.

Along with some good luck, he also found some bad luck. In the middle of January, his foot swelled up and surgery was needed or he would lose it (Wiesel 78). Despite the surgery, he was treated much better than the rest. There were also times where him and his dad would be separated, but he was mostly lucky enough to pull him through until the end (Wiesel 96, 99, 105). Many inmates weren't as lucky as Elizer in these events. Many died every day from lack of food and others gave up because of the conditions. If only everyone survived through this event; if only they were as lucky as Elizer.

Introduction

Night by Elie Wiesel

Prior to reading this book, I've taken classes that discussed the Holocaust. I know all about Hitler and what he did to the Jews. Hitler set up many concentration camps and moved all the Jews into these camps to create a session of racial cleansing. I have seen many videos on his speeches and I have seen pictures of the concentration camps themselves.

This book adds to my knowledge of the Holocaust, along with more knowledge of what it was like to live in one of the concentration camps. I have never been exposed to what it felt like to actually be living through one of these camps, and this book gives a great insight into what the camps were all about. In the pre-read, the author was right: there is not enough words in the world to describe what it was like.