|
In Chapter Two, Pavel says to Artie, "You think it's admirable to survive. Does that mean it's not admirable to not survive?" What Pavel means to ask is that if it's honorable to survive, then does that stand true even if you don't survive? Does not surviving mean you lacked skills or strength? In his opinion, survival of the Holocaust was not based on resources or skill; it was random. From what I have learned through many dependable sources of reference, survival of the fittest did not exactly mean that the stronger or stealthier you were, the longer you would live. Although it is true that stamina will keep you alive longer and help you survive marches and labor, there were some occasions where the Nazi's wanted to be cruel and murder you for no good reason. You could have been the healthiest, skilled, and strongest person in the camps and still have been killed because... well, just because. |
I agree with this statement that Pavel makes to Artie. If I were to have said this to Artie, I would say, "Do you think that the only heroes of the Holocaust were the ones that survived?" I do not think that is true it all. I admire the perseverance of all of the prisoners that were in the camps; they had to endure so much just to stay alive. Just because many people died, that doesn't mean that those people were any different than the ones who did survive. Like Bijowski said, "it was random." Any person could die on any day that he or she was in the concentration camps, no matter their health. Often, the Nazis just killed prisoners for their own enjoyment whether they were the healthiest or the sickest people in the camps. They did not care as long as they could kill as many off as they could. |
