The first thing that strikes me about Wiesel’s writing is his stark, simple language. Although he is considerably descriptive and gets the job done, he is extremely succinct. He does not waste words. His sentences are straightforward and to the point. To me, this reflects his attitude towards life now. He is not frivolous or wasteful. He is beaten and battered by life – and death. To be superfluous is unimaginable by his tortured mind. All he needs to do is describe the horrors simply – he doesn’t need to say “I was terribly horrified by the event.” He knows that his words speak for themselves and he need not elaborate.
The true horrors begin when they arrive at Auschwitz . This was the promise of Hitler – to eliminate an entire race from existence. The entire purpose of the camp was to systematically murder all those who could not be useful any longer; the final purpose was to murder them all. As they arrived at the selection, terrible ambiguity and unsurety surrounded them. They had all heard different stories and they didn’t know what to believe. Were they going to modest work camps? Were they going to be brutally slaughtered like the stories of Moshe the Beadle? One event of this time that specifically hurt me was the babies being thrown into the fire. Living children were simply tossed into a flaming ditch. Wiesel simply cannot understand the magnitude of horror that was occurring. He couldn’t grasp the sick evil that went on all around. I sympathize – I just cannot imagine.
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