 | ||||||||||
| -Jewish women going through an inspection- |
Eli
and his father are in Buna and they are all assigned to a certain block
and a Kapo. Eli’s Kapo is Idek. Idek is very short tempered and will take out his anger on anybody who gets in his way. They’re all put through medical
inspection to be searched for any gold teeth or valuable possessions.
They’re assigned to a certain block with a group of musicians. They work in a warehouse
fixing electrical equipment. They were only given a blanket, washbowl,
and a bar of soap. Eli is told to go to the dentist to get his teeth inspected for any gold fillings.
He puts it off for a few days until the dentist gets fired for stealing and selling the gold fillings he extracted from other Jews. While Eli is
working in his lock, he gets in Idek’s way during one of his fits of
rage. Everyone watched as he was beat for doing absolutely nothing. The
mysterious French girl tried to reassure him to not lose hope. She said to him,
“Bite your lips, little brother…Don’t cry. Keep your anger, your hate,
for another day, for later. The day will come but not now…Wait. Clench
your teeth and wait…” (53) —Flash forward—Eli is in Paris at a metro and
he notices a French woman that looks familiar to him. It turned out to
be the young French girl who dried his tears years ago. A few days
later when they’re all busy loading diesel engines onto trucks, Eli’s
father gets in Idek’s way. Eli feels the fury crawling up his skin. Why
must his father be so stupid? “Why couldn't he have avoided Idek’s
wrath? “ (54) The foreman Franek was actually a nice man, but if he didn't get his way…you’d suffer the consequences. Franek found out about
Eli’s gold tooth and he wants to keep for to himself. He forces Eli to
give him his gold tooth and he believed that if he did then Frank will
follow through with his agreement and stop torturing his dad. Of course Franek doesn't keep his agreement.
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| We chose this image because the Jew is being whipped as Eli was after his encounter with Idek. |
You might
think the beating in this section is over, but Eli suffers one more but this time it was his own fault. On a Sunday, Idek decides to send his
Kommando to the depot under Franek’s command. Everyone was so confused.
Why were they there on a Sunday? Eli, out of curiosity decided to find out why, and when he did his thoughts put him
in a lot of trouble. “Just you wait, kid…You will see what it costs to
leave your work…You’ll pay for this later…And now go back to your
place…” (57). He gets whipped in front of everyone 25 times. He passes
out cause of the pain. Why? He got whipped simply because he laughed at
the view of Idek fooling around with a girl. How pathetic is that? To
scare Eli into staying quiet, he tortured the young boy.
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| This image shows men at the gallows. It represents the 2 main hangings in section 4. |
After that
incident, the camp was attacked. All the Jews remained hidden−all but
one. This brave man used this attack as an advantage to get to the
cauldrons of soup. He was hung. Eli felt no pity for the man. After his
hanging, Eli devoured the soup as if it was the best feast anyone could
have. That wasn't the case when a young boy, a pipel, was hung. Eli couldn't bear to see the child being hung, watching the life slowly
suck out of him. He couldn't enjoy the soup that day.
4 - good job on the analysis
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