Section 2

This section was really hard to read, because it described in detail the Jews being tormented by nearly unbearable conditions. There is almost no air to breathe, the heat is unbearable, it is too crowded, and prople are becoming extremely hungry and thirsty. In their fear, the Jews begin to lose their sense of public decorum. The train finally arrives at the Czechoslovakian border. A German officer takes over the train, threatening to kill any Jew who refuses to give him their possesions. He also threatens to kill everybody in the car if anybody escapes.

The Jews realize they have no idea what is waiting for them when they arrive. A woman named Madame Schachteren begins to scream that she sees a fire in the darkness outside the car. Although no one sees a fire, she scares everyone on the train. They all decide she is physcho, just like they did with Moishe the Beadle. They tie her up and gag her so that she cannot scream. She breaks out of her bonds and continues to go on about the fire she sees. Some boys beat her, while nearly everyone else on the train cheers them on.

The train arrives at Auschwitz station. They are all confused and scared, so they begin to bribe people for information They find out that it is a labor camp where they won't be tortured and get to stay with their family. Madame Schachter wakes everyone up by yelling again, and they once again beat her. The train passes Birkenau and there is a terrible smell. They soon find out that the smell is the smell of of burning human flesh.

This last part really got to me. Imagining what burning human flesh smells like is bad enough, but it must have been extremely difficult being scared and not knowing what was going to happen to you. People were beaten just for saying what they thought might happen. Instead of sticking together, the Jews were beating one another, and i found that interesting.

Section 1

The main character's name is Eliezer. We learn that he is twelveyear old and lives in the Transylvanian town of Sighet. His family is a very stroct Jewish Orthodox family. He has two older sisters, Hilda and Bea and a younger sister named Tzipora. His parents are shopkeepers, but his dad seems to be respected throughout town. Eliezer studies Jewish law, under the teacher Moishe the Beadle. After a little while, the Hungarians banish all foreign Jews. One of the people banished is Moshe. After several months, Moishe returns and tells how the trains were taken over by the Gestapo at the Polish border. He says how the Jews were forced to dig graves for themselves and were killed by the Gestapo. No one believes him, and many call him insane.



In the spring of 1944, the Fascist German armies control the Hungarian government. The Germans soon move into Sighet. The Jewish leaders are arrested, Jewish valuables are confiscated, and all Jews are forced to wear yellow stars. Soon, the Jews are stuck in small "ghettos", crowded together behind barbed-wire fences. The Nazis begin to deport the Jews and Eliezer’s family is one of the last to leave Sighet. They are first forced into a smaller "ghetto.' A few days later, the Nazis and the Hungarian police, force the last Jews in Sighet onto cattle cars that are heading for Auschwitz.


For me, the most powerful quote of this section was: " Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets". (6) Just thinking about this happening is terrible. The descriptions in this book are very graphic, and Wiesel doesn't leave anything out. It really adds to the horror of the story, and helps me to connect with the emotions of the characters.