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“That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death." (Wiesel, pg. 19)

This marked the first thoughts of hatred from Eliezer to the Nazis after the Nazis had forced all of the Jews out of their town, then to the ghettos, and finally to the camps.

This is a major moment in the book shows the Nazi's "true colors," and what they really were, it shows what Eliezer began to realize how unkind, and horrible the Nazis were. This moment connects to the theme of state-sponsored violence because the Nazi's were treating the people horribly when it was time for them to get shipped off to the camps, and nobody was doing anything about it, not even the authorities in Eliezer's town were doing anything about it.

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"We stared at the flames in the darkness. A wretched stench floated in the air. Abruptly, our doors opened. Strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets, and black pants jumped into the wagon. Holding flashlights and sticks, they began to strike at us left and right, shouting." (Wiesel pg. 28)

Through all of the screaming that Eliezer heard, and the endless nights in the freight car with Mrs. Schachter, she had turned out to be right about the flames, this also marks the arrival of the train to the camp.

This event is important because it gives us an idea of what Eliezer saw, smelled, physically felt, and how he felt upon his arrival at the camp. State-sponsored violence best describes this experience for Eliezer because all the horrible things committed in the camps: the experiments, murders, humiliation, gassing, and beatings, were all sponsored by the Germans, this means that there was nobody there to do anything about what the Germans had been doing to the people in the camps, there nobody to stop the Germans.

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"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed." (Wiesel pg. 34)

After arriving at the barracks, Eliezer describes the process of his first day; the selection, he and his father had been told to lie about their ages, and occupations.

This moment in Eliezer gives us a vision of how the inmates were treated, and how life was like in the camp. Individual survival best describes what happens in the passage because the way you act, think, or what you do can affect your life in the camp, it can make it, or end it. In the beginning, if you said that you were sick, that alone could get you killed by gassing, or you could get thrown into the fire pits.

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"To hang a child infront of thousands of onlookers was not a small matter." - "And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes." (Wiesel pgs. 64-65)

This event brings out humanity, and all the emotions the prisoners had left, this brought out what little emotion that Eliezer and the prisoners could all collectively spare for one person as a group.

This shows that through all that they have suffered, they can still show emotions for others after developing to be apathetic to everything that has happened to them. This moment in the book connects to the theme state of sponsored violence because the Nazis were a cruel and ruthless group of people, and would kill just to warn the people in the camp so they would behave "better."

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"It's over. God is no longer with us

And as dryly, he added in his broken voice, 'I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited, to even try to comprehend God's mysterious ways, But what can someone like myself do? I'm neither a sage nor just a man. I am not a saint. I'm a simple creature of flesh and bone I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God's mercy? Where's God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of mercy?'" (Wiesel, pgs. 76-77)

This event really shows how religious people, specifically Eliezer, could struggle with their beliefs in God.

People often ask how could God let this happen, or why hasn't God made it stop, but the real answer is us, meaning that we have the power to make whatever it is to stop, but sometimes, that isn't always the case, but for Eliezer, it was only fair for him to question God. A theme being shown here is the struggle with religious faith because it's dark times as shown here when Eliezer started to doubt God.

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"I was putting one foot infront of the other, like a machine. I was dragging this emaciated body that still had such weight" (Wiesel pg. 85)

After all of the suffering that Eliezer had undergone in the camps, the starvation, exhaustion, witnessing murders, and all of the torture that had happened, Eliezer had to endure this next challenge of the march to Gleiwitz.

This event is important because it signifies the use of the theme of individual survival because the prisoners couldn't rely on each other, they just had to have the willpower to keep moving, and to try to live and see the next day. This gives us an idea of how Eliezer still wanted to live so badly, he ran for 20 kilometers non-stop in fear of being shot by the Nazis, and to live after the war ends.

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Eliezer Recounts His Traumatic Memories in the Car

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Eliezer Recounts His Traumatic Memories in the Car

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“The days resembled the nights, and the nights left in our souls the dregs of their darkness.” (Wiesel pg. 100)

Eliezer describes how undesireable it was to live in this period of the book as nobody had any strength left and they were dropping like flies.

Each and every one of the prisoners were reduced to their animal instincts, fighting over pieces of bread like wolves, fighting over their prey. Individual survival best describes this moment in the book because Eliezer was on his own to care for both himself, and his father, and he must do what he can to ensure their survival.

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"He had become childlike: weak, fightened, vulnerable. 'Father,' I said, 'you cannot stay here.' I pointed to the corpses around him; they too had wanted to rest here." (Wiesel pg. 105)

In this breif, touching, emotional moment in the book, Eliezer paints a picutre in our minds, pleading his father to keep on moving, he did not want to lose his father.

Eliezer's father had the option to live, and keep moving, or to rest and die, but sadly, Eliezer's father had made up his mind and chose death. Family loyalty and obligations best describes this situation because Eliezer demonstrates through his actions that he was afraid to lose his father, and so he is obligated to help him, and try and nurse his father back to health with more rations of food and water.

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"The resistance movement decided at that point to act. Armed men appeared from everywhere. Bursts of gunshots. Grenades exploding. We, the children, remained flat on the floor of the block. The battle did not last long. Around noon, everything was calm again. The SS had fled and the resistance had taken charge of the camp. At six o'clock that afternoon, the first American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald." (Wiesel 115)

Eliezer recounts a memory of a short battle that breaks out and causes the SS to be disoriented and flee from the camp, causing the underground resistance, to overtake leadership of the camp, until it was liberated by American forces.

The SS were about to evacuate the prisoners until sirens sounded, disorienting the SS, and signifying an end to an era for Eliezer, who had lost all hope. What the resistance did showed the theme of individual survival vs. the collective good, but this time it was for the collective good of the entire camp, this action made Eliezer a free man, free from whatever troubles might've been caused by the Nazis if they weren't overthrown, and more importantly, free from the weight of the war.