Journal #2

Journal #2- from Chapter 2 We Italians had decided to meet every Sunday evening in a corner of the Lager, but we stopped it at once, because it was too sad to count our numbers and find fewer each time, and to see each other ever more deformed and more squalid. And it was so tiring to walk those few steps and then, meeting each other, to remember and to think. It was better not to think. From this passage, not only are you able to see the hard ship the Jews went through, but you can feel as if you are in this situation. Every Sunday, the people you know, the people you grew up with, and the people you love are suddenly gone. One by one, familiar faces are gone and you are left a lone. When someone does not return or come to the corner of the Lager, you know that the person is either gone or sent to another concentration camp. You hope that the person is still living, but you know that hope does not exist here. As the number of people grow less, you wonder when it would be your turn to go and you feel a lone in this world. The hard labor and hunger changed everyone in the camp that it makes you depressed. Hunger and hard labor everyday makes you exhausted. You don't have the energy to walk, to think, or meet anyone. All you want to do is rest and eat. The most thing you want is to return to your home and family. By thinking, you began to know that the people you know and love are gone. Thinking makes you more depressed and makes you loose energy. The more you think, the more you want to go home and feel as if this place is hell. In the concentration camp it is better to be a zombie rather than living as a normal human. The only thing you wait is death..... From this short passage, I was able to think as a Jew and how I would have felt if I was in this situation. I would have felt lonely and depressed by seeing the people I know and the people I love die. I would have no hope and no longer would feel as if I existed. I would have no strength to do anything and would rather wait to be gone as the others. I would only wish to be back at home, but hope never exists in a place like this. The passage made me feel sad by what the Jews had to go through. I myself would have not tried to survive if I knew I had no one and I was a lone in this world....