A Father's Death and Last Blog Post

I am about to tell two heartbreaking things to all of you. One: This is the last blog post ever for the year, and for myself entirely. I would like to thank you all for all of the positive - and negative - comments you all have told me; it has been a pleasure blogging. Second: Chapter 8 of Night is a particularly tragic one. When the remaining prisoners from Buna are taken from the train, into the concentration camp known as Buchenwald, they are immediately forced to form ranks of five, and to take a shower. Elie, seeing this as a great opportunity to rest, decided to run to the shower, but his father had other plans. His father told Elie that he was going to rest, but Elie said that after all of this time, he could not give up, and he urged his father to come with him. The bell rang suddenly, and Elie, craving some rest, ran for the nearest block, leaving his father on the outside. The next day, Elie saw his father; his condition had gotten worse. He was unable to stand, and he was sick and unable to speak. He urged Elie to give him food, which Elie did. Later that day, Elie realized that his ration was going to waste, as the doctor, and the Blockälteste were both saying that there was nothing he could do to save his father, and his father said that his rations were being stolen by other cellmates, a Pole and a Frenchman. Elie started to cut down on the rations, but his father's urging made him more sympathetic towards him. This happened for a week, until the night roll call of January 28, 1945, where Elie refused to give his ration to his father, afraid that he was to be beaten by an S.S. officer. His father kept begging for food, and he soon was struck right on the head by an S.S. officer who was inspecting the block. The next day, Elie found his father was gone; taken to the crematories to be burned, because another prisoner had taken his spot. His father's funeral and burial had nothing special: no candles, no singing, and no burial. His father was forgotten by the prisoners of Buchenwald, with no remembrance in his name. After his father's death, Elie had a voice in his head that said, "Free at last!" as he had no more burden, his father, on his shoulder.

This chapter was a hard one to read. The way that Elie writes about his father's suffering shakes me deep to my core. Even though I have not experienced permanent loss, I have received temporary loss. I have relatives whom I never see for years on end, and when we meet every other year, we try to make the best of it, and when we leave for home, I normally feel emotional pain that tells me that I didn't have enough memories and time to share with them. This pain goes away because I know I will see then again. Elie, though, will have permanent pain, because he knows he made the decision to evacuate that lead to his father's death, and that he is one of the reasons his father was dead. Also, he knows he will not see his father again, so he will never get more experiences with him. The "Free at last!"part is Elie's mind telling him he had done a good thing for himself, and that he was sure to survive now to write the book, instead of dying and burning in the flames of the crematories like his father had.