Journal #4

Journal #4- from chapter 4

From chapter 4, I felt that there were many significant quotes and some quotes that were really touching. I picked out a couple of quotes, but I'm just going to explain briefly why I think these quotes are significant in this chapter.

We have never seen its boundaries, but we feel all around us the evil presence of the barbed wire that separates us from the world (pg 42).

This quote explains how the Jews felt as if they were living in a different world. They even felt as if they were separated from the real world. The concentration camps were a totally different life from the real world and from the past life the Jews use to live in. The concentration camps made the Jews feel as if they lived in hell.

'Heimweh' the Germans call this pain; it is a beautiful word, it means 'longing for one's home' (pg 55).

From this quote I was able to see how the Jews were longing to go to one's home. Each Jew wished or dreamed that they were back home. The lack of food and horrible conditions in the concentration camps only made the Jews wish they were back home. Home was a place that was safe, no hunger, and where the loved ones were still a live. As the Jews thought that "heimweh" was a beautiful word, this can show how desperate the Jews were to go home.

We know where we come from; the memories of the world outside crowd our sleeping and our waking hours, we become aware, with amazement, that we have forgotten nothing, every memory evoked rises in front of us painfully clear(pg 55).

I felt that this quotes was telling that no matter how hard and hungry the Jews were, they could not forget the place called "home". When they went through hardship, memories of the passed of peace and happiness kept rising. As loved ones were gone, memories of them kept rising causing pain and loneliness.

But where we are going we do not know. We will perhaps be able to survive the illnesses and escape the selections, perhaps even resist the work and hunger which wear us out-but then, afterwards? Here, momentarily far away from the curses and the blows, we can re-enter into ourselves and meditate, and then it becomes clear that we will not return (pg55).

I think this quote can explain how many Jews felt. They couldn't predict of what would happen to them. They did not know where they would be going or if they would be able to survive this whole mess. Each Jews must lived with fear and not knowing what would happen to their lives. Having to always worry what would happen next eventually caused no hope in the concentartion camps. Only one would wish and try to survive....hope did not exist in concentration camps.

All four quotes have the same thing in common. All four quotes explains how life was like as a Jew. In my past journals, I made predictions of how Jews would have felt and through these quotes, my predictions were correct. Living as a Jew at this time must have been very difficult as I predicted. This chapter is very well written to show a clear mind of how a Jew felt and thought during hardships in concentration camps.