Delusion

At the beginning of the story, the idea of genocide was seemingly impossible to the eyes of the Jewish people. "Yes, [They] even doubted [Hitler's] resolve to exterminate [them]. Annihilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!"(8) Genocide is something beyond the imaginable. Even now we view genocides almost as if they are from a different reality. If not for the testimonies of several witnesses, we wouldn't have been able to grasp the severity and reality of the situation. The systematic killing of millions of people is so horrific and astounding that our minds cannot register this massive resolve. What can even accomplish such a huge task? Nothing was the answer. The people at that time were no more different from us. If people told us a genocide was going to happen almost randomly, why would we believe such a statement? Why would we even want to believe such a statement? The desire to be oblivious and to hope for the best is what the people of Sighet felt. "[the] elders concerned themselves with all manner of things...but not with their own fate." (8) The Jews of Sighet were dubious of Hitler's serious plan and avoided the problem he might have presented. They firmly believed in their safety because to them Hitler's plan was just impossible and improbable. They were, of course, wrong. Even as things turned for the worse, they were optimistic and thought that all things would pass: the ghettos, the poor treatment, the yellow stars, and the anti - semitism. Being transferred to the ghettos were considered "a good thing"(12) because there, they won't have to see the obvious disdain on others' faces. Was this really what they believed in or was that only an optimistic outlook to improve their current lives? The answer is found shortly afterwards: "The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion." (12) Everything in the ghettos weren't hopeful nor content. It was the delusion that everything will be okay, and the future would be brighter. The reality was that the ghettos were only leading to their terrible fates. Perhaps the Jews created the delusion for themselves. They didn't wish to accept the truth. Therefore the easiest possible way out was to escape, to escape into a belief that their lives will turn out for the better. Delusion was the king at the ghettos; it ruled every men's minds and in turn everyone. Delusion was their comfort; the Jews unconsciously wished for these false realites. So they desperately grabbed onto the one thing that provided comfort, and delusion never left until much later when the truth was forced upon them.