Night

Professor Stewart likes to always quote Elie Wiesel's quote that's about bearing witness. I don't remember if that was in his speech, but I noticed something else that I thought was important in the speech. It was about being heroic during a terrible experience. Wiesel said it was heroic to share bread, to have faith, to be human. When reading Night, I remember him saying how his trip there alone changed him. He felt different over-night. He ended up keeping quiet and looking out for himself instead of trying to help others, and if I remember right, he said he normally would've done something about it. I can understand being in that situation can change people drastically, from being a person to being treated like an animal. I remember there being a friend of the family who would give up a bit of his rations to help Wiesel stay healthy. Wiesel must've really thought he was a hero, especially when he'd say he wasn't that hungry. Chances are he was extremely hungry because they didn't get much food (not enough to feed me, at least). I think it's those who wouldn't let the Nazi treatment change them are the people he considered heroes.

One part I did sort of like was how Wiesel recalled himself and other prisoners running from barrack to barrack grabbing clothes and stuff while naked. He said if it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation they would've been laughing because they looked so funny. It's good to see that there was just a little bit that they could look back on a laugh about. I'm not exactly sure if he actually found it funny looking back on it, but that's how I interpreted it. Or maybe I just want to think that he found it funny, so that there can still be a shred of happiness hidden in there somewhere so the prisoners had at least something to laugh about.