How Does Shukhhov Have The Kindness To Help Another Man

     By the end, the only emotion left among the prisoners is fear. The prisoners desire food more than anything, two cauldrons of soup are there for the taking, “but who would dare?” (66). The prisoners are crushed by the fear of death or pain, and drop their hope and desire, having lost the last vestiges of humanity. Without their humanity, the only thing that matters to them is satisfaction of bodily requirements, and the prevention of

“ I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me…”(54). Life at a concentration is one for himself. It is too much of a risk caring for someone else in those conditions. This form of thinking is what a majority of inmates take on in order to survive. Elie is frustrated at having to take care of his father instead of himself. “He was right, I thought deep down, not daring to admit it to myself. Too late to save your old father…You could have two rations of bread, two rations of soup… It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty.”(111). Immediately he feels guilty at those thoughts but he keeps having them. He doesn’t want to feel glad to stop having to worry about his father yet deep down he would.

The Survivor by Terrence Des Pres discusses how prisoners survived in poor living conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto. He defines a survivor as, “…any man or women striving to keep life and spirit intact – not only those who returned, but the hundreds of thousands who stayed alive sometimes for years, only to die at the last minute.” He describes the experience in the Ghetto where it was possible to survive with the collective efforts of others, which is the opposite of how Primo Levi described it. Survivors experienced help from each other such as gifts of food from friends and family. People were willing to give up their valuables for the better of others. With these little gestures people felt better and more rich about their experience which helped lighten the mood in the Ghetto.

Prisoners during the holocaust normally could do nothing to help family, friends, and stranger who were falling victim to the Nazi regime. Many times they had to watch as their fellow prisoners were beaten and killed but could do nothing about it due to their fear. Elie describe what happened at the gallows when the young boy was hung, “Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving the child, too light, was still breathing…” (Weisel 65). After the execution each prisoner had to walk past the boy, but yet again could do nothing but watch him die. They knew that if they help the child then they would either be beaten or even worse, killed. These prisoners once again fall victim to the bystander effect because they are unable to help someone in need because of their own

The transportation from camp to camp was a horrible experience for Elie. The prisoners were treated with absolutely no respect and piled into train cars with up to a hundred prisoners per car while being transported to Buchenwald. While on the train to Buchenwald Elie states, “We remained lying on the floor for days and nights, one on top of the other, never uttering a word. We were nothing but frozen bodies” (Elie Wiesel 100). One could not begin to imagine the cruel abuse that these prisoners went through. Snow continuously fell as they stacked on top of each other for any sign of warmth. Elie made a powerful declaration when he calls himself along with the other prisoners

means of survival only, family members were turning on each other. The prisoners turn cold

People sacrifice themselves for others because it expresses love at its strongest. The quote, “The only thing that keeps me alive is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up.”(45) This express love at the strongest because the father was keeping himself alive for his family. This can be related to the thesis statement because the father was willing to suffer through the pain and misery that he experienced in exchange for another moment with his family. Another quote is “Two boys came to join our group: Yossi and Tibi, two brothers from Czechoslovakia who parents have been exterminated in Birkenau. They lived for each other, body and soul.” (50) Similar to the first quote, they lived because with each other, so that the others do not die for the other. These two quotes have the similar view of sacrifice, the

When Elie first arrives at Auschwitz, he is completely overwhelmed. He meets another inmate and the three are all very optimistic about their futures. This is not the case for all inmates, though. The very next person Elie meets has adopted an indifferent attitude about his situation, and has become so tauntrimized by the hardships of life in a concentration camp that he does not care if he lives or dies. When he approaches Elie and his father, his only advice is, “You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here” (30). Because of his traumatic experiences, the inmate has become so numb even death seems better than the life he is being forced to live.

People sacrifice themselves for others because it expresses love at its strongest. The quote, “The only thing that keeps me alive is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up.”(45) This express love at the strongest because the father was keeping himself alive for his family. This can be related to the thesis statement because the father was willing to suffer through the pain and misery that he experienced in exchange for another moment with his family. Another quote is “Two boys came to join our group: Yossi and Tibi, two brothers from Czechoslovakia who parents have been exterminated in Birkenau. They lived for each other, body and soul.” (50) Similar to the first quote, they lived because with each other, so that the others do not die for the other. These two quotes have the similar view of sacrifice, the

Throughout, Night and the Holocaust death roams in the air and without consent, it is given to the weak. As soon as, entering the concentration camps, the confused prisoners are cautioned about their awaiting death. They are instructed to manipulate the truth only to survive. When the prisoners arrive at the camp, they are asked about their ages by veterans, and one of them encourages Elie and his father to lie about their ages. The man declared, “No ‘The man now sounded angry.’ You're forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty” (Wiesel 30). As a result, of lying, they able to stay alive longer because once they are deemed unvaluable, they will get no mercy and have the last right taken away from them, which is to live. No one is safe at those camps; a young boy

Jewish prisoners that were alone during the holocaust survived better than being with family. In “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie had to be separated from his family; he never saw them again. Family made the holocaust even harder; Jewish prisoners perturbed about their family every second. On top of Elie worrying about his family, his dad was an old man. There were many times throughout the book Elie had to be a provider for his dad.

In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.

Tadeusez Borowski describes in his many short stories that some victims during the Holocaust had to choose between their one lives or loved ones. In “The People Who Walked On” there’s a situation between a young woman and a camp leader. The young woman and her mother were forced to undress and the camp leader was “struck by the perfect beauty of her body” and asked her to step aside. The man deceives her and tells her to trust him and follow him into the chambers. The woman still worried but hopeful asks “what will they do to us?” The man, in an effort to keep her calm responds “Remember, be brave, come. I shall

The Survivor by Terrence Des Pres discusses how prisoners survived in poor living conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto. He defines a survivor as, “…any man or women striving to keep life and spirit intact – not only those who returned, but the hundreds of thousands who stayed alive sometimes for years, only to die at the last minute.” He describes the experience in the Ghetto where it was possible to survive with the collective efforts of others, which is the opposite of how Primo Levi described it. Survivors experienced help from each other such as gifts of food from friends and family. People were willing to give up their valuables for the better of others. With these little gestures people felt better and more rich about their experience which helped lighten the mood in the Ghetto.

Were it a testimony to the rigors and cruelness of human nature, it would be crushing. As it is, it shatters our perception of man and ourselves as no other book, besides perhaps Anne Franke`s diary and the testimony of Elie Wiesl, could ever have done. The prisoners of the labor camp, as in Shukhov?s predicament, were required to behave as Soviets or face severe punishment. In an almost satirical tone Buinovsky exclaims to the squadron that ?You?re not behaving like Soviet People,? and went on saying, ?You?re not behaving like communist.? (28) This type of internal monologue clearly persuades a tone of aggravation and sarcasm directly associated to the oppression?s of communism.