Remember Who You Are

“The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded-- and devoured-- by a black flame.” -Night Pg. 37

As I read this part of the book, I couldn’t help but wonder how hard it must have been for the Jewish people to stay true to themselves and to their individuality before they went to the concentration camp... even after being beaten and tortured. I know that some people had lost their identity, their knowing of who they really are, because of the petrifying things they saw, the brutal beatings, and tortures they endured. In Night, Elie and Elie’s father were in a barrack with a Gypsy inmate in charge of them both and a bunch of other Jewish people. When Elie’s father had asked the Gypsy where the toilets were and he got slapped so hard he landed on the ground, Elie didn’t as much as blink, and that terrified him. Elie was afraid of what he was becoming of how quickly he had changed in that short period of time, that he did not even do anything, as he said he would have a had it been a couple days ago. It has to be extremely difficult to know deep down who you are, to not be changed after seeing what they had seen and gone through what they went through, to deep down know the identity of yourself.

Slowly through time, the rights of the Jewish people were being taken away from them, little by little. The first law against Jews, was they weren’t allowed to enter shops or businesses, and then Jews got their health insurance taken away from them. They didn’t fully understand how to live anymore because they’ve slowly over time gotten their rights taken away. Soon, Jewish children weren’t allowed to go to school, when they had gone to school everyday for their whole lives. Suddenly, then one day they weren’t allowed to go anymore because of what religion they were apart of. It’s like saying you can’t eat lunch because you were having trouble sleeping the night before. The Jewish people were having trouble remembering and acting like who they were as did in the story, The Bear That Wasn’t. In that story instead of being tortured, and beaten, the bear was repeatedly told that he wasn’t in fact a bear, soon he began to believe it, and was starting forget who he truly was. And with that both the Jews and the bear lost their identities.