¨‘A-7713?‘ ‘That‘s me.‘ ‘After your meal, you‘ll go to see the dentist.’ ‘But... I don't have a toothache...’ ‘After your meal. Without fail.’¨ -page 51, Night, Conversation between Elie and the Dentist.
This quote shocked me because it shows how a person will stick to someone else’s rules even if it means that they basically lose their identity. I felt that ¨A-7713¨ and all of the other people should be able to be called by their name and not some bunch of random numbers that the SS officers can qualify as a name. Elie getting called ¨A-7713¨ made me think that having a number for a name actually makes everybody in the camp more and more like each other because all of the numbers can be so similar to each other, and I feel that it makes the people feel that they are not themselves anymore. It is saying that the Jewish population will have to just abide by what a person they have never met before is telling them to do. They had to listen to the SS officers no matter what the task at hand was. It made me wonder how the Jews thought of things like that, how did they deal with everything that was ordered towards them? An order like that would make me want to tell the SS officer that I was not going to go because there was nothing wrong with my teeth right then. Something like that would spark questions in my head that I know that I would not be able to ask the officer because if I did, I would get into some trouble.
Blind obedience can be very powerful. This quote demonstrates blind obedience because the first part shows that Elie listened to the person in charge on the first day of coming to a concentration camp who said that he would have to take a new name (A-7713). He had to listen to them no matter what, he obeyed what they had told him to do, and that was to take a new name instead of his own. The second part of the quote shows blind obedience because the SS officer told him that he will go to the dentist ¨without fail¨ and then by the tone of how that was said, A-7713 will go to the dentist after the meal. He obeyed what the officer told him to do even though he knew that he didn't need to go the dentist because his teeth were fine. Blind obedience can overpower people’s feelings for certain things because it is blind so it is not known during the time the person is obeying the task at hand.
I'm not sure that A-7713's following orders here was "blind obedience". The person in charge held all the power, and A-7713 had none. And if he disobeyed, he would suffer.
ReplyDeleteI think that the followers of Hitler are better examples of blind obedience. Of course, at some point they had no choice, either, since the SS, Gestapo, or SA threatened many Germans.
Bob Spielman
I agree that the people being assigned numbers instead of names can make people more similar to each other, but I don't think that that was the real reason for why the Nazis gave the Jews numbers. Throughout the Holocaust, World War II and even before then, the Nazis sought to dehumanize the Jews. They wanted the German people to think of Jews as inferior as if they were animals. I think that the assigning of numbers was another way for the Nazis to say that "You are not human, so you don't deserve to have a name." The whole number thing reminded me of another Holocaust book "The Devil's Arithmetic". Although this book is a work of fiction, I think it does a great job of showing how to the Nazis the Jews were just numbers, statistics. I think that in the book "Night" Elie said that the numbers were reused after the previous owners were "disposed" of. This was another way for them to show that the Jews were worthless. I think that many government agencies keep track of people using numbers such as Social Security or the Alien Number assigned to all legal immigrants,(I have one) instead of or in addition to names, althought the Nazi use was purposefully meant to hurt.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the people being assigned numbers instead of names can make people more similar to each other, but I don't think that that was the real reason for why the Nazis gave the Jews numbers. Throughout the Holocaust, World War II and even before then, the Nazis sought to dehumanize the Jews. They wanted the German people to think of Jews as inferior as if they were animals. I think that the assigning of numbers was another way for the Nazis to say that "You are not human, so you don't deserve to have a name." The whole number thing reminded me of another Holocaust book "The Devil's Arithmetic". Although this book is a work of fiction, I think it does a great job of showing how to the Nazis the Jews were just numbers, statistics. I think that in the book "Night" Elie said that the numbers were reused after the previous owners were "disposed" of. This was another way for them to show that the Jews were worthless. I think that many government agencies keep track of people using numbers such as Social Security or the Alien Number assigned to all legal immigrants,(I have one) instead of or in addition to names, althought the Nazi use was purposefully meant to hurt.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Tomasz, the numbers that the Jews were given symbolized them as not human. The Nazis didn't care about the Jew's names since the plan of the Nazis' was to destroy their kind. Jews' names were stripped from them and once they were dead there was no way to figure out whom they were. I also have to agree with Bob, he wasn't blindly obedient. He had no power and if he rebelled and didn't do what the SS wanted, he was going to suffer. The SS had more power than Elie so he had to obey them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Tomasz, the numbers that the Jews were given symbolized them as not human. The Nazis didn't care about the Jew's names since the plan of the Nazis' was to destroy their kind. Jews' names were stripped from them and once they were dead there was no way to figure out whom they were. I also have to agree with Bob, he wasn't blindly obedient. He had no power and if he rebelled and didn't do what the SS wanted, he was going to suffer. The SS had more power than Elie so he had to obey them.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the fact that the Jews were issued numbers to subjugate them as Hitler described them as inferior. Almost as though they were animals in a sense. These numbers made it easier for the Nazis to identify and organize the Jews but at the cost of scarring the Jews for life. Almost all the Holocaust survivors have those same tattoos til this day.
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