Everyone’s anxiously waiting to find out what new information Eliezer’s dad will bring. Eliezer’s dad is summoned to a special Council meeting (he’s a member of the Jewish Council in his ghetto).If this is as bad as it gets, the Jews think, this isn’t too bad.They don’t even have to deal with outsiders. The scary barbed wire isn’t all that bad, and they have their own Jewish Republic within each ghetto. The Sighet Jews become optimistic again.Next, the police set up two ghettos and move all the Jews there.Important community members come to talk with Eliezer’s father (who has connections with the Hungarian police) about what should be done about the situation.Then, Jews are no longer allowed to keep valuable items, or they’ll die. First, Jews cannot leave their houses for three days or they’ll die. People celebrate Passover and as the celebration ends, the restrictions begin.Wiesel sums it up pretty well: "The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out-and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling." The Jews in Sighet just don’t want to see what’s coming.Some of them even buy chocolate for their host families. They are billeted in people’s homes and while they’re not exactly friendly, they’re not rude or violent. At first the Germans don’t seem so bad.But the Jews of Sighet are optimistic that the Nazis won’t come all the way to their little town. News comes from Budapest that the Jews there are subjected to attacks by the Nazis.How could one man (Adolf Hitler) possibly wipe out an entire people? Impossible! Now it’s spring of 1944 and the people of Sighet listen with incredulity to radio reports.Moishe warns the people of Sighet to leave because death is coming their way.Moishe escaped because he was shot in the leg and left for dead. He tells Eliezer his story: he and the other foreign Jews were carted off into Poland, where the Gestapo took over and forced them to dig their own graves. Many months pass and Moishe the Beadle returns.The Jews of Sighet think it’s a shame that the foreigners are carted away, but quickly forget, clearly not seeing this as a warning for their own futures.Moishe the Beadle is actually a foreigner, so he and the others like him are packed into train cars like cattle. Then one day, the Hungarian police expel all the foreign Jews from Sighet.Eliezer confides in Moishe his desire to learn Kabbalah, and to Eliezer’s surprise, Moishe knows all about Kabbalah and starts to teach him.They end up talking most evenings at the synagogue. Moishe the Beadle sees Eliezer crying while praying at the synagogue, and they have a kind of connection.
He keeps saying to his son, "There are no Kabbalists in Sighet." Eliezer’s father thinks his son is too young to learn Kabbalah, and that Kabbalah isn’t something that Eliezer should spend his time on.He studies the Talmud and goes to the temple every night, but he also wants to study Kabbalah. Eliezer, who’s also Jewish, is very religious.Moishe the Beadle is awkward and shy, but 12-year-old Eliezer likes him anyway. He’s a poor Jew in the town of Sighet (now in modern-day Romania), where our author and narrator, Eliezer Wiesel, lives.
0 kommentar(er)
