Night: 3/31/15

**Spoilers**

Focus Question: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

Before Elie went to the concentration camps he was a very sympathetic and kind person. When Moishe the Beadle returns from being deported Elie writes, "I often sat with him, after services, and listened to his tales, truing to understand his grief." Elie was a very kind and sympathetic person and sat with Moishe after he returned. Although he could not believe what Moishe was saying, he still tried to be kind to him. Elie was a very kind person, to all people. Elie was also very religious. He says that when he was a child, "By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." Elie was very religious and used this to guide his decisions. He thought that everything that God did was for the good of humans.

Elie undergoes great changes throughout the Holocaust. He becomes much less sympathetic through his experience. When his father is beaten he says, "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked." This shows that Elie cared very little about the conditions others were in and only cared about himself. He had only been in the camps for one day and already had lost much of his caring and kindness. The camps had began to make him a completely different person. Elie also lost his faith in God in the concentration camps. When he had just arrived and seen babies being burned he said, "Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Elie thought that god had abandoned him and the other prisoners. He became very angry at God because of this. This was the start of him abandoning his religion.

Elie's experiences during the Holocaust make him much less sympathetic than he was before he was put in the ghetto. When Elie's father dies in the camp in Germany Elie says, "If I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last!" He was not upset that his father had died and even felt free from the burden of supporting him. Before the Holocaust Elie was very kind to his father and even during the beginning of the Holocaust he grew even closer to his father. The horrors of the Holocaust caused Elie to not feel sadness when his father died. Elie's experiences also made him doubt God. When Jews would normally fast Elie says, "And then there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God's silence." He was very angry at God. He did not fast to show his respect towards God because he felt that God was being unfairly silent. He thought that God was allowing these Jews to die and that he should not respect or honor him. At the beginning of the book, before the Holocaust, Elie was very religious and would even cry when he prayed. His opinion towards God was changed by the Holocaust.

"The Closed Town" Butterfly Project

I commented on: Athziry, Carlos, and Marisa

3rd Quarter Reflection

     I think that in third quarter I have made the most improvements in my ability to pick out the important details of a text. I have practiced this through writing blogs, writing AoWs, and writing essays using sources. When writing the Seaworld/Blackfish argumentative essay I had to pick out the most important parts of sources to write a convincing essay. This helped me develop that skill.

   What I am most proud of in the new year is that I wrote my first thematic essay. I have always heard of these essays but have never written one. I learned a lot and practiced my writing skills. I am very proud of this accomplishment. The most challenging part of third quarter was keeping up with homework. I have many activities outside of school and not much time to do homework. Because we receive so much homework I often had to stay up past ten working on homework.

Night: 3/26/15

Pages: 1-46
Prompt: Describe the main characters

The main character is Elie Wiesel. Elie is very religious. He studied the Jewish scriptures and was taught by Moche the Beadle about Judaism. When he is in the camps he often thinks about God but wonders why he does not help him. He is also very young compared to the other prisoners. This is because he lied when he was asked his age. This causes him to not be able to make decisions as easily. It is also harder for him to deal with daily life in the camps.

Another main character is Elie's father. He is fifty years old. This makes it very difficult for him to keep up with the other prisoners. He is also very generous to Elie. When one of them is very hungry the other gives them their rations. He also is very emotional. He gets very sad when Elie suggests killing himself. Although they are in a death camp he thinks they should stick together.

A supporting character at the beginning is Moche the Beadle. He is very religious and teaches Elie about Judaism. He is very poor and stays mostly to himself. He is taken by the Germans, escapes, and returns. He tries to warn people about the Germans but they do not listen to him. This makes him very upset. This shows that he is a very caring person because he returns to the town to warn people about danger.

AoW Impressions

Today I learned much more about the Holocaust today. I learned that after WWII there were thought to be around 7,000. It is now known that there were around 42,500 camps. Next, I learned about what survivors are doing now in their daily lives. Many survivors are telling their stories to the world. I also learned that there are meet-ups between Holocaust survivors and liberators and between survivors and captors. These are probably going to be the last meetings because all survivors are now very old.

I also learned about current disputes about the Holocaust. I learned that a Holocaust captor was recently discovered and is being tried for 300,000 murders. I also learned that a Holocaust survivor was going to have a meeting with one of his captors. The captor had been interviewed and said he was unapologetic for what he did. The survivor was upset by this and the meeting was canceled. I discovered that some people do not like thinking about the Holocaust. In Israel Holocaust Remembrance Day is not celebrated because the people there think that the best way to honor the victims is to not be sad about their deaths. 

Berlin Memorial Blog

I learned that the Nazis strategically took rights away from Jews so they would not be suspected by other countries and so they could carry out their plans effectively. I also learned that most of Jew's rights were taken away by the Nazi's. I think this monument was build as an apology to the Jews. Although this is not enough of an apology it is apologizing. I noticed that in certain years there were many laws passed but in some years few were passed. These years often matched up with other significant events. I think the restrictions on where I was allowed to go would be the hardest to deal with. This would be hard because I would not be allowed to do anything other than sit at my house and shop for food in the restricted times.

Bio-Poem for a Literary Character

Louie Zamperini

Brave, Survivor, Strong, Resolute

A character in Laura Hillenbrand's story

Lover of friends, family, and running

Who notices that he should be grateful for what happened

Who feels forgiving, liberated, and at peace

Who learns that he is blessed and that he should be joyful, not angry

Who used to think that God was being cruel to him but now knows he was blessed by surviving

Major character in Unbroken

A book that tells about a man imprisoned and beaten but blessed

AoW Impressions: 3/8/15

     This week there were not as many articles about ISIS. I did not see any article's about ISIS executing or killing innocents. I do not know if this was because there were less killings or if it is because people did not want to chose an article about ISIS after most of the articles last week were about ISIS. I saw two kinds of articles about ISIS. The first was about ISIS recruiting three girls. They talked about how the government was tracking them and telling them to come back. The other type was about ISIS attacking a major archeological site. This was the article I chose.

     There were many other kinds of articles that people chose. One kind was about the dress that either appears black and blue or white and gold. I see white and gold but a lot of the people I know see black and blue. Another type of article was about Ebola. These were all talking about a cure that had been developed for Ebola. Finally another main type of article was about diseases. There was one about parents that are changing vaccination schedules because of myths. Another was about a deadly bacteria escaping in a Luisiana lab.