Night by Elie Wiesel was a difficult book for me to read. It's not just that what happened to Wiesel and his family is so horrifying and unthinkable. It's also "pack mentality"--it scares me! I am talking about how the Nazis treated the Jewish people and how the countrymen said nothing. I am also talking about how people turn on each other.
Until the first roundup (in 1942, I think, which is sort of late in the war isn't it?) the people Sighet in Translyvania seemed pretty isolated from the war. They had rumors but not much else to disturb their lives. At the time, Wiesel was just entering his teens and struck up a mentorship with Moishe the beadle, who helped him understand kabbalism. Moishe the beadle was taken away in that first roundup because he wasn't born in the village.
Miraculously, the man came back to his village months later--totally changed. He came back to warn the villagers about what the Germans were doing to the Jews. In his particular case, he and other people taken away were forced out of the trucks and out to a field. They were forced to dig a big grave and then the soldiers began shooting. It was a miracle Moishe the beadle survived and even more miraculous (to me) that he'd return to the village. Here's what got me first: no one would listen to him! Everyone insisted he was imagining things or hallucinating or otherwise crazy! I guess in those days it was too unthinkable to imagine people could do such a thing but ...
About a year later, the Germans arrived in Sighet and Moise the beadle ran from house to house crying, "I told you!" But still no one believed...not until they began to be loaded into cattle cars. Even then, I think that people couldn't accept what was happening to them. I was shocked again by an incident in that unbearably crowded and hot cattle car. A woman began screaming in hysteria that she saw fire, crying out to the people, "Jews, do you see the fire?" The screaming unnerved everyone and they ended up beating her senseless--someone they knew and used to be friendly with!
I won't go on because I wouldn't want to give away all the details. I think it's a very important book for everyone to read. I agree with Simon Wiesenthal--we must never forget this even though we still have genocide occuring around the world. Will it never stop? I plan to give this book to my daughters next.
please describe your favourite.... and why they're your favourite:
1. cuisine (or combination of cuisines, if you cannot just choose one).
I love Chinese food. It's hard to explain why--I love vegetables and there are a lot in the dishes. They're not mushy either and I really like that. Meat seems to be used more like a seasoning so you're not overwhelmed with it. The dishes can be healthier than those of other cuisines--but you have to make the right choices.
2. breakfast.
From healthy to Heart Attack City: eggs over easy, bacon, muffins, and pancakes, waffles or French toast runny with butter and dripping with syrup. Why? Childhood memories I think of nice big breakfasts on Sundays.
3. dessert.
Right now, my favorite is German Black Forest cake because it's so decadently wicked delicious!
4. place to eat lunch or dinner.
I have a new favorite: Anapa's. The service is wonderful and the food is equisite!
5. item to cook.
corned beef & cabbage dinner--so easy & so delicious
6. person to eat dinner with.
TB, of course, my best friend and hubby
7. hot-day treat.
lemonade--so thirst quenching!
8. food when you were younger.
franks & beans--what kid doesn't love hot dogs, especially grilled in the summertime!
Great book.
Posted by: Stephanie at February 27, 2006 05:53 AM