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Post-1945 World Literature Videos 4 videos
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Night (Wiesel) 48373 Views
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Description:
In this memoir, Eliezer struggles with his relationship with his father during the Holocaust.
Transcript
- 00:00
Night, a la Shmoop. There have been many powerful books written
- 00:08
about the Holocaust.
- 00:10
They remind us of a tragic time in human history...
- 00:13
...and cause us to reflect on our own fears and insecurities.
- 00:19
More than anything though, they remind us that, not only can our bodies be tortured...
Full Transcript
- 00:24
...but our souls as well.
- 00:27
Long-standing beliefs can be rocked to the core...
- 00:29
...and our faith in humanity can be severely tested.
- 00:36
Consider the relationship you have with your father.
- 00:39
You two may have your highs and your lows...
- 00:41
...but imagine having to go through something like what Eliezer and his father experienced
- 00:47
in Elie Wiesel's Night.
- 00:49
Could you choose between helping your ailing father and acting to ensure your own survival?
- 00:56
We can read about what happened to the victims and survivors of the concentration camps.
- 01:01
We can get a general idea of their daily routine, and how their captors treated them.
- 01:06
But can any of us really come close to understanding the utter despair they must have felt?
- 01:12
How can someone continue to believe that humankind is basically good when they see such atrocities
- 01:18
being committed on a daily basis?
- 01:21
And if they give up on humanity, what reason do they have any longer to show mercy, kindness,
- 01:27
or compassion? In Night, one prisoner actually kills his
- 01:32
own father for a loaf of bread.
- 01:34
Certainly, we can't blame something like that purely on hunger.
- 01:38
He had been reduced to an animal, systematically broken down, day after day.
- 01:45
We can imagine that all sorts of beliefs were tested by the unfortunate prisoners of the
- 01:50
camps.
- 01:50
How did their experiences affect the way they viewed their own religion?
- 01:54
Would their God allow such horrors to befall them?
- 02:01
Surely there were many in Eliezer's company at Buchenwald who felt compelled to renounce
- 02:06
their religion after being subjected to such a living Hell.
- 02:10
And what about their feelings toward race?
- 02:12
Clearly the Nazis had their own issues when it came to ethnicity...
- 02:16
...but Jews who previously exhibited no animosity toward others...
- 02:20
...might have suddenly developed resentment, distrust and... plenty of hatred... toward
- 02:25
pretty much every gentile.
- 02:26
This was Eliezer's struggle... to preserve and hold onto whatever shreds of decency and
- 02:32
virtue he could...
- 02:33
...as he fought at the same time to simply stay alive.
- 02:36
So... put yourself in Eliezer's shoes for a minute.
- 02:40
How would you have dealt with the horrors he faced?
- 02:43
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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