The most notable quote to me in our reading assignment this weekend was,
"More generally, experience had shown us many times the vanity of every conjecture; why worry oneself trying to read into the future when no action, no word of ours could have the minimum influence?"
This was said after the chemical examination did not lead to any change after several months. As disappointing as it was, Levi and the other concentration camp prisoners weren't surprised. They did not see any point in planning for a future, not when death could have been possible at any given moment, and this realization nearly killed me as a reader. It not only hints that camp life had robbed them of all possessions as well as their humanity, it had robbed them of any hope for a future as well-which is really sad to think about. While the past serves as someone's lesson, the future serves as someone's motivation. Without their future, the prisoners did not have the motivation to fight back against the Nazis. Their will to survive was stripped from them. Planning for the future and certain possible outcomes is a very natural thing for humans to partake in and a characteristic that separates us from animals. The Nazis basically put them on the same level as animals when they took this away from the Jews. For the prisoners, losing sight of their future was one of the worst things that happened to them, putting them in an empty present that held nothing but suffering. Yet another example of how the Nazis found ways to make their prisoners less and less human with each passing day.
Commented on posts by Clabo and Abbie Hedden.
"More generally, experience had shown us many times the vanity of every conjecture; why worry oneself trying to read into the future when no action, no word of ours could have the minimum influence?"
This was said after the chemical examination did not lead to any change after several months. As disappointing as it was, Levi and the other concentration camp prisoners weren't surprised. They did not see any point in planning for a future, not when death could have been possible at any given moment, and this realization nearly killed me as a reader. It not only hints that camp life had robbed them of all possessions as well as their humanity, it had robbed them of any hope for a future as well-which is really sad to think about. While the past serves as someone's lesson, the future serves as someone's motivation. Without their future, the prisoners did not have the motivation to fight back against the Nazis. Their will to survive was stripped from them. Planning for the future and certain possible outcomes is a very natural thing for humans to partake in and a characteristic that separates us from animals. The Nazis basically put them on the same level as animals when they took this away from the Jews. For the prisoners, losing sight of their future was one of the worst things that happened to them, putting them in an empty present that held nothing but suffering. Yet another example of how the Nazis found ways to make their prisoners less and less human with each passing day.
Commented on posts by Clabo and Abbie Hedden.
Comments