inadvertent role the Jews play in their destruction. The foolish optimism—nothing bad will happen. An example of this is when they were forced to move to the ghetto, the townspeople act relieved that they don’t have to deal with overt prejudice anymore: “We should no longer have before our eyes those hostile faces, those hate-laden stars. Our fear and anguish were at an end, we were living among Jews, among brothers.” ( )Moral of Ethical Issues: The concentration camps were beginning to remove all emotion from the people. They stopped feeling anything for others, and began only thinking of themselves. For example, when an iron bar beats Eliezers father, Eliezer feels no pity or compassion. He is madder at his father for not being able to get away from Idek’s outbreak, than he is at Idek for beating his father. The hanging of the little boy arouses feelings, which are rare like pity and sorrow throughout the jaded atmosphere of the camps. In chapter nine, when Eliezers father dies, Eliezer finds himself relieved, although it is only momentary and later he deeply regrets these feelings.Feelings toward Text The Nazi’s turned Eliezer into a living corpse, almost a shadow of his former self. He was surrounded by constant death, including the death of both his mother and his sister, early in the book, as well as his father, which was much later in the book. Throughout the story Eliezer lost many emotions and felt shame with himself for loosing them. During the time that his father passed away, he felt very relieved. Although later in life, he realized that the feeling was only temporary, he still regrets the feeling emensly. The way the Nazi’s killed the family of not only Eliezer but also thousands of others, reduced the survivors to base, animal instincts and denied them there humanity. This book was so powerful and overwhelming. I cannot even fathom the idea of living this way, and would feel the s...
