Journal #7

Journal #7-from chapter 7 Today is a good day. We look around like blind people who have recovered their sight, and we look at each other. We have never seen each other in sunlight:someone smiles. If it was not for the hunger! Today is a good day for the people, because it is the first time they see sunlight after coming to the concentration camp. Having warmth and being able to see each other from sunlight brings happiness to the Jews. Something so simple as sunlight makes people smile. However, even though they feel warm and happy, hunger does not go away. Hunger haunts them down and they only wish that the hunger would go away. So that as soon as the cold, which throughout the winter had seemed our only enemy, had ceased, we became aware of our hunger; and repeating the same error, we now say: 'If it was not for the hunger!...' The season winter is the enemy to the Jews. The Jews are already hungry, but being hungry and cold is a more pain in the neck. Their clothes are thin and ragged that they are nearly freezing to death. Coldness does not make the hunger go away, but makes the hunger worse. Having to be cold and hungry all day during the winter is like living in hell. But how could one imagine not being hungry? The Lager is hunger: we ourselves are hunger, living hunger. The Lager is a place for hunger. In Lager, you will always go hungry and there would be no Jew that is not hungry. The Jews live in hunger and will always live in hunger until they are freed from the concentration camps. All three passages talk about hunger. Even from the past chapters I was able to see how hungry the Jews were. The only thing that came to the mind of Jews was food. The Jews had to face hunger everyday and were living with hunger. The only thing that would stop Jews to be in hunger was to be freed from concentration camps and to be home. I can imagine that many people would have fought over food back then because everyone was hungry. Something simple as bread may have caused fights between the Jews. The Jews may have killed each other fighting over bread. Many may wonder if it was necessary to kill a man for bread, but when a man goes crazy over hunger he would do anything. He would even kill a man to have a piece of bread. By this, I am able to see how living with hunger is very painful. We should be thankful for the food we have instead of complaining. There are many people out there that having nothing to eat compared to us. Instead of waiting for the world to change, we can make a change in the world by helping the poor and hunger.