Joshua Nkwocha
Mr. Jensen
Period 6
23 January 2009

A Shameful Blemish On the Face Of Humanity Around the time of the Great Depression, 1939 to 1945, Jewish people in the entire western world, especially in Germany, Poland, and Romania, were tormented and were helpless victims of hatred. Although anti-Semitism was already present at this time, the Holocaust greatly amplified this form of racism. Holocaust is the act of genocide by fire. Elie Wiesel is a survivor who provides living testimony to this time period. He depicts and relays the hardships and brutalities that he and his family faced through his historical non-fiction novel, Night.
During the time of the great depression, in Germany, a dictator by the name of Adolf Hitler and his regime began his reign of terror and anti-Semitism, and his attempt to rid the world of the Jewish race. Hitler believed Jewish were scum and blamed them for all the economic problems in Germany. He also wanted to create his idea of the “perfect race”, Aryans. He believed that the “ blue eyed, blonde haired people of that race were the most elite and noble race, and Jews being virtually the opposite of that were unworthy of living. This period is called the Holocaust. Jewish people were affected in many a way by this hatred; politically, economically, intellectually, socially, and culturally.
Elie’s father is a shoe maker but a well respected man in the community. In fact, he is the leader, so to speak of their town of Sighet in Transylvania; people come to him for advice on important situations. When talk of the horrors of what was happening to other Jews in other places in Germany reached the town, few people gave any interest on the matter and believed it to be trifling and silly. When Moché the Beadle, an old lowly ranked citizen, came back from captivation by the Hungarian police, he tried to warn Elie’s father of