Night Post

It was a sunday, and half of their group were at work. The other group, however, were resting. Elie was a part of the resting group while his father was working. All of the sudden, sirens for a bombing went off at around 10. The SS take cover in the shelters while the Jews were inside blocks. The camp looked like an abandoned ship. In the middle of the camp, there were two cauldrons of hot soup left unattended. All of the inmates locked their eyes on it. For a while, no one even tried to go. Fear was stronger than hunger. All of the sudden, one man started crawling towards the cauldrons. Hundreds of eyes watched his every move. Other men started to move along with him. He finally reached the cauldron. That's when he was officially a dead man. He had to muster his strength to even get up to the rim. All of sudden, he screamed and was shot. Then, someone shouted that the americans were bombing the Buna factory. Everybody watched the factory go up in flames. If the bombs landed on the blocks, none of them would care because they no longer fear death. The bomb that hit filled them with joy and gave them confidence for the war effort. The raid lasted more than an hour. The only victim was the man trying to get to the soup. Several buildings were flattened but the depot was not touched, leaving Elie's father unharmed. In the afternoon, we cheerfully went to clear the ruins. 

I think this was both a close call and something to be happy about. Sure, it's sad that they could've died then and there but they did not. The Americans were right there. They could have saved the inmates in Buna and save the Jews more suffering. I see the bombs as a new sign of hope. This also happened during the day. Elie could be using the sun as a sign of hope. However, I did feel bad about the inmate who was trying to get extra rations of soup. They all had the same thing in mind. However, I think that man had lost all his will to live at that point. He knew what was going to happen. He was just pushed to the edge by starvation. The bright side was he was the only victim. Those bombs could have hit the blocks.