Night

"Around us, everyone was weeping. Someone began to recite the kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves. "Yitgadal veyitkadach shme raba. . . .May His Name be blessed and magnified. . . ." whispered my father."

This line stood out vividly in my mind. It really shows the horror these people faced. They saw their comming death and prayed for themselves. That prayer is usually recited by the living for dead relatives, community members, friends, ect. Its horrifying to imagine saying that prayer for yourself. They said this because they thought they were going to be killed right then and there when they saw the death all around them. The crematories and the horrors of the nazi party. They had just arrived at aushwitz and had realized that they were gonna end up in the crematory. They realized that they were going to die. The reality of the horrors that they had heard whispers of are now apperant to them. Its horrible mainly because they were all so optimistic before this. They believed the war was all but over. They believed the tales of slaughter by the nazi party were tales of madme. They had believed they were safe from germany in their little town in hungary. they believed they were safe, and now they realize that was far from the truth.
I chose it because its a scary thought, because many times today we are very optimistic about things, believeing the problems will pass. Underestimating the power politics has over us. We will let things that we dissagree with just happen without standing up agienst it and thats what these people did. It shows what inaction can do. It can lead to huge problems. It can lead to horrible things being done by governments and other groups, just like what happened during the second world war in Europe.