Keira Paalman English IB Mr. Pinder 10 May 2024 Effects of Violence When forced to go to a new place, one where violence and death is a common occurrence, most would be horrified. But, how does it affect someone over time, when it happens so constantly in their environment? Elie Wiesel and his family, who are Jewish, are put in this situation when they are sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He and his father are separated from his mother and sisters upon arrival, and experience life under the Nazis in concentration camps for the next year and a half. In the camp, there is constant brutality against the Jews. The Nazis would beat them, sometimes just for their own fun, as well as killing many. In Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, he demonstrates how those in the Holocaust began to …show more content…
After getting to the camp, the Jews were sorted. One of the inmates told them what could happen to them, and Elie says, “We stood stunned, petrified. Could this be just a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?” (Wiesel 31). The inmate had told them about the crematorium. The two groups that the Jews were sorted into went in separate directions, with Elie’s and his father going deeper into camp. The other line, with his mother and sisters, went to the crematorium. When they first gotten to Auschwitz, it was also the first time Elie and the other Jews had experienced this level of Nazi treatment, and understood what danger they might face. This terrified them, as it was their first encounter with that kind of horror. Later on, the Jews began to grow familiar with the violence and it did not affect them anymore. After being in the camp for a while. Elie and the others were eventually moved as the Allied forces got closer. While running to the next camp, many Jews were dropped to the ground out of exhaustion and were killed. One of these was a young boy named Zalman, who was running next to