Chapter 2 starts out with Eliezer and the rest of the jewish town members crammed in a cattle car. The conditions were inhuman and the air was bad-tasting and it was incredibly hot. "Lying down was not an option, nor could we all sit down. We decided to take turns sitting. There was little air... After two days of travel, thirst became intolerable, as did the heat." (Wiesel 23) Under these harsh conditions many of the men and women crack and begin to openly flirt with one another like nobody is around. The train then comes to a stop after several days and a Nazi officer comes aboard and takes charge and told everyone that if they tried to escape that they would be shot. Then he left and the doors to the cattle car were nailed shut to prevent escape further. In the middle of the night a woman named Mrs. Schachter screamed and said that she saw fire. People throughout the cattle car were in a state of panic. Some people looked out of the window but there was no fire, it was just the dark night sky. "It was as though she was possessed by some evil spirit." (Wiesel 25) The rest of the jews in the car then classified her as crazy like they did with Moshe the Beadle. Some of the boys in the car were encouraged to beat Mrs. Schachter to make her stop screaming. Some of the blows she received could have been lethal. They then arrived at Aushwitz, not knowing what they were in for. "In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau."
Cory,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! The pictures you included showed how packed the Jewish cattle cars were. I especially like the way you described the visions of Mrs. Schachter. She sees flames that no one else can see. She can see the future of all the Jews. The flames stand for the crematoriums where many Jews will be killed. However, no one believes here until the see the flames themselves. Again, great blog post.