Group Reader Response LC#1

1. Critical Stance:
a. Throughout the beginning of the book, where the process of captivity begins, the manner in which the Jews confront the situation is rather alarming. As the invaders slowly come into their areas of living, they welcome them with beliefs that they are just being protected from the forefront of the war. Later, as they are being sent to the camps, and all of value is being stripped from them, they continue to act in faith. In a somewhat naive sense, they believe that whatever would have them happen to them would be in justice acts of God, and that they would be safe throughout all circumstances.

2. Dialectical Journal Entries

•     "I did not believe him myself. I would often sit with him in the evening after the service, listening to his stories and trying my hardest to understand his grief. I felt only pity for him." When Moshe the Beadle came to share his tale of great despair, no one believed him- they didn't think they were in danger of such atrocities. 
• "Was he going to wipe out a whole people? Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions! What methods could he use? And in the middle of the twentieth century!" Another quote from the book that displays the naive perspective they had on the power and capability of the Nazis.
• "There were no longer any synagogues open. We gathered in private houses: the Germans were not to be provoked. Practically every rabbi's flat became a house of prayer." In this excerpt, you can begin to see the process in which their lives are being taken. Forced to have their religious establishments closed down, they had to rely on one another on their strength of faith. And that's just what they did. 
• "'If you ask me, the whole business of deportation is just a farce..' These optimistic speeches, which no one believed, helped to pass the time. The few days we lived here went by pleasantly enough, in peace. People were better disposed toward one another. There were no longer any questions of wealth, of socially distinction, and importance, only people all condemned to the same fate-still unknown." The people would outwardly express their proclamations of faith and optimism to get through the fears of the situation. 
• "Around us, everyone was weeping. Some began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead... 'Yitgadal veyitkadach shmé rabe . . May His Name be blessed and magnified' whispered my father." While people were finally coming to terms with what was happening, they desperately turned to their God for reassurance and comfort.