"Night"-Reflecting on chapter 1

The description of the incidents faced by Elie Wiesel and many other Jews of Sighet in chapter 1 is quite interesting. He is able to create the hopeful mood by using some descriptive quotes. One quote in chapter 1, on pages 9-10, Wiesel states that "The general opinion was that we were going to remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army. Then everything would be as before. It was neither German nor Jew who ruled the ghetto-it was illusion." The people of Sighet were not yet convinced that death and torture were awaiting, and the fact that the Germans were taking control of their Jewish community was foreboding. The Jews still continued to live a ritual-guided life in the ghettos. Going back to when the Germans first arrived in Hungarian territory, the Jews were fond of the Germans at first. I believe that this is not just because of their acceptance principle of Judaism, but also because of the fact that both Jews and Germans were fellow Europeans. Wiesel states on page 7 that the first impressions of the Germans were "most reassuring...Their attitudes toward their hosts were distant but polite." They did not think about the duty of the German soldiers, and because of this (as I will discuss in my next blog), bad things occurred...