Journal #13: Chapter 13

One Sunday of October, 1944, there was a selection in Auschwitz. It was surprisingly fast. “In three or four minutes a hut of two hundred men is ‘done’, as is the whole camp of twelve thousand men in the course of the afternoon” (128). The men had to run a few steps in front of the SS man, who decided everyone’s fate right away.

“The SS man, in the fraction of a second between two successive crossings, with a glance at one’s back and front, judges everyone’s fate, and in turn gives the card to the man on his right or his left, and this is the life or death of each of us” (128).

When I picture the scene of selection that day, it is terrifying. There are hundreds of thin, naked and shaved men, waiting for the judgment between life and death. The process may seem simple and quick but it is immoral and inhumane. How can a random person decide another person’s fate by observing him for a few seconds? How can he judge another person without “knowing” him? What right does the random person have to do so?

Even today, we tend to judge people and categorize them. We don’t actually know who they are, but we unconsciously, or sometimes consciously, judge others. The problem is that we still make the judgment even if we do not know them. We may know them by name or appearance, but a lot of times, we do not know their personality and their thoughts. In fact, we don’t often even attempt to learn about others. For our convenience, we like categorizing people and treat them according to our biased judgment. But our judgment is usually incorrect. In some ways, we are similar to the SS men in the selection, because we sometimes judge others by a quick glance. Others’ fate is decided in our own mind. However, we should remember that we do not have any right to make judgment on other people.

Memorable Quotes:
“Just as our hunger is not that feeling of missing a meal, so our way of being cold has need of a new word. We say ‘hunger,’ we say ‘tiredness’, ‘fear’, ‘pain’, we say’ winter’ and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes” (123).

“Does Kuhn not understand that what has happened today is an abomination, which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty, which nothing at all in the power of man can ever clean again?” (130).