Night Lies and Deceit Quotes Page 5
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #13 "Comrades, you are now in the concentration camp Auschwitz. Ahead of you lies a long road paved with suffering. Don’t loose hope. You have already eluded the worst danger: the selection. Therefore, muster your strength and keep your faith. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life, a thousand times faith. By driving out despair, you will move away from death. Hell does not last forever … And now, here is a prayer, or rather a piece of advice: let there be camaraderie among you. We are all brothers and share the same fate. The same smoke hovers over all our heads. Help each other. That is the only way to survive. And now, enough said, you are tired. Listen: you are in Block 17; I am responsible for keeping order here. Anyone with a complaint may come to see me. That is all. Go to sleep. Two people to a bunk. Good night." (3.136) |
Either the Pole in charge of Eliezer’s block has deceived himself into believing all of them will "see the day of liberation," or he is purposefully trying to deceive the men in an attempt to give them hope and sustain them.
| Quote #14 "You don’t know me? … You don’t recognize me. I’m your relative, Stein. Already forgotten? Stein. Stein from Antwerp. Reizel’s husband. Your wife was Reizel’s aunt … She often wrote to us… and such letters!" |
Even though it’s a lie, Eliezer can’t help but try to provide his relative with some hope, even false hope – he sees deception as a better alternative to crushing Stein.
| Quote #15 The only thing that keeps me alive," he [Stein] kept saying, "is to know that Reizel and the little ones are still alive. Were it not for them, I would give up." |
Stein was kept alive by the lie that his wife and children were OK. But once he realizes the deception, and the truth of his family’s situation, he feels he has no reason to keep on living.
