Night: 3/23/15

Prompt: Describe what was either believable or unbelievable in your reading. Defend your opinion.
Pages Read: 1-47
Author: Elie Wiesel
Translation editor: Marion Wiesel

     Throughout my reading some things took a while for them to settle in. The reason for this being is because some things are beyond terrible that I find it hard to believe. Of course, in a way I do believe them it just takes me a while to adjust to them. All this happened in real life. The fact that it actually happened takes it a while to settle in. If this book were to be fictional I would accept it faster because I know its fiction, fake. This book is not fake, it is real. The Holocaust was and still is a real deal because sit was the first major genocide.

     In the beginning of the book it is mentioned that babies are used as target practice. Moche the Beadle tells Wiesel everything he saw. Which includes shooting babies. "Infants were tossed in the air and used as targets for the machine guns." Why would someone want to kill babies when they barely had time of life? This was on of the things that seemed strange to me but later on I have considered this event true. Another event is when an inmate comes up to Elie Wiesel and asks him and his father for their age. After a small discussion back and forth the inmate forces them to accept their fake age. "'No.' The man now sounds angry. 'Not fifty. You're forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty." The reason they are given a different age is because if they are too young or too old they wi immediately be sent to the gas chambers. This I found shocking because they are not even given the chance to prove themselves.

     I find this whole situation hard to believe at first but then it sinks in. All I could really think of is how thankful I am that the Holocaust is over. Even though it does not pertain to me, I know if I were put in a Jew's shoes or any other Holocaust victim's shoes I would die of fear and pain.