Lindsay's Second Reader Response (Pages 47-84)

As I have continued reading Night, I find myself equally disturbed as well as thoroughly interested and intrigued. As horrendous as the Holocaust was, it's a fascinating subject. I found it very difficult to release the book from my clutches and force myself to stop reading. However, I feel as if the first portion of the novel was more eventful than the second. While the Jews were still treated terribly, I think Buna was a better environment than Auschwitz. As far as concentration camps go, it was probably one of the better ones. I was confused as to why some of the officers were German Jews. Sure, they were German, but they were Jewish nonetheless. Why did Hitler and his Nazis allow other Jews, the very group they were trying to exterminate, dominate high positions in rank? Why were they not thrown into the crematoria like so many others? It was also puzzling because the Jeish Blockalteste was German as well as Jewish. Weisel states that, "It was good to have a Jew as your leader. He was totally devoted to defending 'his' block. Whenever he could, he would 'organize' a cauldron of soup for the youg, for the weak" (51).  Why did the other officers allow these Jewish officers to treat their prisoners more humanely? The issue is never explained, but the issue confused me as I was reading.

When Wiesel was residing in the infirmary, his bedside neighbor uttered two sentences that took a long time for me to wrap my head around. He said, "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people" (81). At first, I was absolutely stunned and appalled. How could this seriously persecuted man have faith in the monster that is Adolf Hitler, after everything he did to the Jewish people? How could he say such a thing, especially in the company of other Jews? However, I now understand what he was truly saying, and I believe he has a valid point in one sense or another. I don't think it is right that he has faith in Hitler necessarily, but he is right in saying that Hitler has kept his word. He followed through on everything he said and promised to do. If one could count on someone to follow through on their words and actions, one could count on Hitler to get the job done, no matter how heinous it may truly be. Therefore, I don't believe the man meant to use "faith" in a positive manner; rather, he was showing how certain he was of Hitler's accountability. Overall, I didn't think this section was necessarily as enthralling as the last, but I cannot wait to continue reading it nonetheless.