Monday, February 14, 2011

Chapter 5 (pages 66-84): Selection

Explain "Selection."

How do the prisoners respond? What do they do? What is the result for Elie and his father?

9 comments:

  1. The selection was one of the most important things that decided if you would either live or die. It was a live or die situation. This was coming closer to the end of the war making Nazis more eager to exterminate all Jews. So the Nazis made a new extermination idea called the “Last Solution”. The last solution was like a little cement squared place where you were put in and then you were burnt into ashes. These selections in choices made them decide if you were to die or if you where still agile to live. Most of the prisoners started praying and hoping they were not chosen. In the first selection, Elie’s father was selected. He didn’t know what to do or what to say. It was as if he was under pressure not knowing what to do in his last breath of air. He felt time was running and he gave Elie a knife and a spoon and told him he would need them. But the good news was that after the people were chosen to die, there was a more thorough selection. Elie’s father was lucky he wasn’t selected. Now they were both fighting to be free and fighting to stay alive in the last steps of the war.

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  2. Selection was the proses of practically choosing who would be handed their death and who would live to suffer a little longer. The strong and healthier males were selected to do more labor, while the older, skinnier, less healthy men or teenagers were sent to be murdered. The prisoners knew what this selection meant. It was the choice of their life or death given to so called "doctors". The prisoners knew that in order to pass this selection they had to at least seemingly look healthy. They ran for their lives, literally, because their life depended on it. Eli passed this treacherous selection but his father didn't look as if he would pass. At first Eli's father thought he had failed the selection and would be shortly sent away to be killed, but to his and his son's relief Eli's father's name was not written on the list. Eli and his father are able to be united again, at least for now.

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  3. "Selection" was the process of splitting the Jews, and other people, that were fit for labor from those not fit for labor. The ones deemed not fit for labor usually were killed, in devices such as gas chambers. The prisoners respond poorly to selection because they know that since they've all been deprived and undernourished, anybody could be put down on the list. The people selected weeped, as they were separated from the rest, doomed to die. When the people selected were supposed to stay back at the camp, they looked to the person who said would protect them, hoping for him to get them out of here. Elie's father was chosen for selection, which made Elie very sad, because if his father would have died, he would be the only one in his family left. Fortunately, Elie's father managed to prove his worth, and passes the decisive selection.
    ~Carl

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  4. Basically, "selection" was when the Nazis separated the "healthy" prisoners from the "unhealthy" prisoners. In other words, they killed the prisoners that were unable to work for them anymore. Once prisoners knew that a selection was coming soon, they did everything in their power to make them seem stronger than they really were. They would run and do other things to make them seem not as frail and fragile. They would also do the things such as running, to make them seem like they had some color in their cheeks. They did everything in their power to not be selected. Once Elie and his father heard there was a selection soon to happen, they also did everything to try and not be chosen, just as everybody else did. Originally Elie had not been chosen but his father had been. However, his father was unaware that his number was written down. It wasn't until a few days later that he was called to stay in the barracks one day while the others were sent to work. It was there that they had another selection but Elie's father passed that time around. They were still together as of that moment but at that camp, anything was possible.

    I don't think his father will pass the next selection.

    ~~Yolanda~~

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  5. Selection is the thing that every Jew in a concentration camp feared the most. It is what determined weather they were to live or to die. Those who were healthy (the lucky ones) were always garanteed to pass selection. Thus they remained in the camps and were forced to do tremendous amounts of intense labor. Those who are near the end, clinging to their lives, are not likely to pass. Due to malnutrition they are not able to preform the tasks needed to pass selection. Such people were sent to their deaths, weather it be in a gas chamber or crematorium. Elie is fortunate enough to pass selecton, however the fate is not the same for his father. This is what they feared most. Fortunatley, he is given another chance and is able to pass. Elie and his father are together for the time being, wich is all that matters.

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  6. Selections is an operation when the jews are separed into two groups, the ones that were usefull and could work and the ones that couldnt do anything worth to them.
    Ellie father was luckly chosen to be selected because Ellie was afraid she wiil loose her only familiar left and she will be alone.

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  7. Selections is when they seperate the Jews into two different groups. One side is if they are going to die and the other side is if they are going to work until deaht. Some people that are not strong enought to work in the camps can not pass the selections and the ones that are still "useful" are likely to pass the selection.

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  8. In the selection the SS doctors would choose whether the prisoners were weak or strong. If you were weak, you die, and if you are strong you would keep on working. Many prisoners got scared and nervous when they hear the selection is coming. During the selection prisoners try to look very strong and show the SS officers they are able to work. Elie was worried that the SS doctors were going to choose him as a weak one, so he ran as fast as he could to show them he was strong. Elie was also worried about his dad. Elie’s father thought he wasn’t chosen, but his number was written down without him noticing. There was another selection, and this time Elie’s dad did pass.

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  9. It doesn't count if all you do is repeat what someone else said. You must add your own insights.

    Selections happened consistently throughout the period of a prisoner's imprisonment. It was not something that happened only at the end of the war.

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