A repeated idea throughout Night is reassurance. From the ghettos to the crematoriums, the inmates always try to reassure each other, tell each other nothing will or can happen. At one point, one of the heads of Wiesel's block tries to reassure those who have been "selected."
" 'What is it now? Perhaps you think I'm lying? I'm telling you, once and for all: nothing will happen to you! Nothing! You just like to wallow in despair, you fools!' " (73) Though no one should buy this argument, some desperate souls still cling to hope. And when the axe ultimately comes down, those poor fellows are actually caught by surprise. " 'Save us! You promised...We want to go to the depot, we are strong enough to work. We are good workers. We can...We want...' " (74) And even when it is beyond question that those who have been selected are headed for the chimneys, still the Blockalteste tries to soothe those who are doomed, but to no avail. "The argument was more than flimsy. He realized it and, without another word, locked himself in his room." (74) The Blockalteste tries to reassure his inmates, even when both sides know those inmates are going to die. And until it becomes brutally obvious that it is not going to end well for them, those prisoners cling to their hope, their delusions.
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I believe that reassurance (even false reassurance) created some of the remaining "flimsy" hope for the Jews. Because we are only human, we must believe that there is still hope in order to go on, and this is the reasoning behind these reassurances, in my opinion. I also feel that as the Jews were stripped of their social class and everything else that had once mattered, they all became more equal in both social class and perhaps in social values as well. After having become equalized in such important aspects of life, the Jews no longer had anything or anyone but each other, and I think this was another great cause for the reassurance that occurred among the Jew themselves.
ReplyDeleteTo add on to Vivian's point, this reassurance came from the Jewish people's need for stability. They were stripped of everything, not only their social class and belongings, but their families and even their belief's. Ordinarily, the Jewish people would look to God for guidance in difficult times, but the Holocaust took this faith away too. God no longer seemed like a good, just Creator, instead He was an abandoner who turned His back on His formerly devoted, Jewish followers. Thus, this reassurance, or false hope, was the only vision that the Jews had to hold on to; and was the sole way that they were able to preserve through the Holocaust. In effect, this reassurance should not be seen as a bad, unnecessary thing, but more of a last resort on the part of a desperate people.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Blockalteste couldn't believe what he was helping get done, and sas trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince the inmates that the selected people would be fine. Even though it ultimatly made the situation worse, the Blockalteste thinks that if he can just convince enough people that nothing bad is happening, then nothing bad will happen and he won't be blamed. As it is, the Blockalteste's attempt at covering up the truth just seems cruel, because why give someone hope when you know that they are right to despair?
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