Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Chapter 2 (pages 23-8) -- The Transport

What were the conditions like on the train?

19 comments:

  1. The conditions in the train were really bad. Many couldn't breathe or sit down. If you were standing by the window you were lucky. Everyone took turns to sit down on the floor. Many were tired and hungry. The German officers had just gave them little bread and water. The Jews would eat little everyday to survive the trip to the camp. There was 80 people in one cattle car and all of them were confused or scared.
    Ms. Schachter was separated from her family but her little son was with her. She was getting crazy and having visions of fire. Her little son was crying at first, but later he knew he had to take care of his mom and tried to calm her.
    I didn't like when the German officers would threaten them of shooting them if a person went missing, or if they found jewelry.

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  2. The conditions in the train are terrible. 80 people are inside one single cattle car, so there is barely any space for the people to sit. Breathing in the car is very hard; only some people near the windows can breathe. Everyone is slowly, little by little eating the food they had brought from their homes. Every day the conditions in the train are getting worse and worse; it is too hot, and people are suffocating.
    The German soldiers secure the windows with metal bars, and all gold, silver, or watches have to be handed over to them; the soldiers threaten to kill everyone in the train if one person escaped, and if anyone possessed a valuable item, they were to be killed.
    In one part of the train, there is a crazy woman, in her 50’s, with her little son who is 10 years old. During the first transport, she had lost her husband and two sons. Mrs. Schachter is going crazy. At random moments, she always screams, “Fire! I see fire!” which make the people think she is insane. All her screams prevented all other 79 people in the train to get some sleep.
    The trains are horrible, but the concentration camps are a million times more horrible than the trains.

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  3. The conditions were inhumane, it was worse than how we treat animals. Everybody was packed into little cars, with only the little food everybody had brought from home. There was little air and way more than enough heat, these two put together made the people suffer even more, many dying of suffocation. Soon enough a lady cracks and begins to scream everynight, and if she keeps on they may punish everyone. So they beat her silent everynight so she can stay quiet. Eventually they reach the caoncentration camps, everyone tells them it is okay and they will keep the families together. Little do they know it is not good at all. I agree with Carolina, it is worse then the travel there. -Alex

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  4. On the way to the camps, Jews were put in cattle cars. 80 people in each cattle car. All the windows where sealed making it hard for people to escape. When everyone was in the cattle car some people took turns sitting down and standing up. There was not a lot of air in the cattle cars and some people died in them. But when people died they were all really close together so no one knew who was dead and who was still alive. Sometimes the cattle cars took three days to arrive to their destination, so this made it easier for Jews to die of many diseases in the cars. Having to stay in a cattle car for three or more days made people want to escape. Hungarian police guaranteed that no one would escape because they put a supervisor in the cattle car. But if anyone did escape the supervisor was shot because he had let people escape. Also peoples couldn't escape because the windows where sealed properly making it harder for people to escape.

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  5. The train was horrible. That train was not made for humans to be there. There were about 80 people in one train alone. The people were packed in the train like sardines. Apart from there being a whole bunch of people in the train, without many windows, oxygen started to run out in the packed train.
    Food was a major issue in the train too. There was barely any that the ignorant police gave them. Everyday the living conditions on the train kept getting worse and worse. Many died of suffocation, deprivation of food and water, and because of the heat. The train was getting hotter everyday. With barely enough windows to keep them alive, many people died. The train that carried the Jews to the concentration camps soon became a death bed to many people who could not take the horrible living conditions that they were going through on the train. -Nalleli

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  6. It was quite confusing to me why Eli sugar codes his whole experience so much. I have studied the Holocaust, and the pictures that I have seen and the stories I have heard were much more graphical and emotionally heart wrenching than how he explains it. Maybe Eli did not want to think much of his experience so he did not go into much detail, I would have felt the same way. The conditions on the train as Eli explains it were obviously horrible, inhumane acts of hatred. The SS soldiers had so much rage ad hatred for the Jews that they viewed them more as animals than as humans, excuse me; they viewed them as animals, not as human beings. They were thrown into trains like cows being transported. I cannot comprehend how someone could have the heart to treat another living, breathing HUMAN in such ways!! Why did they think they even had the right to do such things? They had no right, yet they still treated the targeted people (mostly Jews) with hatred and malice.
    -Cecilia

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  7. Now for the train; it was worse than could be described. The packed train causes insanity among the Jews. After a few hours this experience has already begun to be too much for some. Soon, the basic rules of the community are sacrificed. Young lover would flirt with each other as if no one was watching and people become so scared that they do anything to maintain any amount of peace.
    On the train there was a "crazy" lady named Mrs. Schachter. They believed that she was mad but in fact she was a prophet from God. They beat her and tried to silence them but somehow she always got free to proclaim her message. The fire that she constantly sees is a vision of the world to come. She shouts fire and implores her fellow Jews to listen to her but alas, they were so raped up in their own frame of mind that here actions were considered mad. They neglect her message so they face the consequences.
    The train is another means of torture to the Jews. Burn a man, shot him, beat him half from death but none of these actions will ever compare to taking away his peace of mind.
    -Julieth

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  8. The conditions were horrible. The SS soldiers packed 80 people into one single car. There was very few windows, so there was not any sort of fresh air, vents or cirrculation. The Jews were running out of oxygen. The soldiers took all of their belongings, and did not give them much food. The Jews started dying of suffocation and hunger. The heat was aslo unbearable. The Jews were treated disrespectfully and inhumane.
    -Bria

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  9. How do I even begin to explain the gut wrenching conditions that were present on each car? It was so many people into one car that they were doomed to die before they reached their destination. They received no food, water, or even air. The people who stood by the few windows were only labeled lucky enough to breathe "fresh" air. Most people turned to insanity but still there was no hope among them. Some saw fires and the ones who didn't labeled the others insane and crazy, but to their surprise there was fire in the distance. They realized their terrible fate way too late to run. The conditions they were left in is always so tear jerking. It is almost unbelievable that they survived the terrible train rides. If I was one of the unlucky people on those train rides I would have been the first one to go into a state of silence. Although I would have also been the first one to take a hint and leave to safety.
    -Saphira

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  10. The conditions on the train poor. There was no room to move around. People had to take turns with seats. The lucky ones got to see the sunset. On the bad side they saw it through barred windows.Some people felt themselves going crazy, and others showed it. The Jews were given small provisions of water and bread. Elie and the rest of the still had doubts that something terrible would happen. These carts should have been the signal
    Cedric-

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  11. as the Jews were p reparing to leave he ghetto they were skeptical about the journey that lay ahead.There minds were filled with false hope that the only reason for their relocation was to escape the intruding war. However when they were compiled into the train car like packed sardines they soon realized that what lies ahead would not be pleasant.There was dim ligthing and air circulation was almost nonexisting. People were on the verge of death from scarce amounts of bread and water.A lady went insane speaking of fire in the distance. Her terrorfying screams frightened the Jews.They began to torture her as if they weren't suffering the same conditions as she was.

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  12. last comment by Keamber,sorry

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  13. If I were asked to describe the conditions in that train. I would probaly say Inhuman! There was 80 people in on car.Too make matters worse there was no air due too the fact of how many people were on the train. Pretty much you didn't feel comfortable unless you sat next too a window.The worse thing of all is that the food that they had too eat wasn't enough. then there were soilders that said "put your gold,siver,and watches in the basket." "If you are found wit any of that stuff when you get off the train you will get shot like dogs". That is pretty insane if you ask me. Too top all the horrible things going on there was a crazy lady named Mrs. Schachter. Who kept on claiming that there was a fire.So the people on the train had too subdue her multiple times

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  14. The conditions on the train were unbearable. People were going mad because of the lack of food. So many were crammed into one car that there was no room to sit. The victims decided to take turns to sit or stand. Since there were so many people it became hard to breathe. The only food they were given was some bread and buckets of water in the very beginning of their terrifying journey. What was even worse was Mrs. Shachter, a victim on the bus, kept screaming at the top of her lungs about a fire. Since this was occuring the other passengers did not get much sleep. When they thought it could not get any worse they arrive at a concentration camp called Auschwitz. Once they arrive people come in and start to beat them trying to get them out of the car. Once they step out into the night they see burning flames and smell the scent of burning flesh.

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  15. The conditions in the train were horrifying. There was a total of eighty people in the train. Not all of the people could breathe well. The one’s that were close to the window or by the window, were the ones that could breathe better than the rest. But even that privilege was taken away from them because the Nazis blocked the windows by putting metal bars on the windows.
    Some Jews were not even sitting down. Some Jews had to be on top of each other to actually fit in the train. There were way too many people. Mrs. Mrs. Schachter went crazy. She couldn’t hadle it any more. She was separated from her family. She had her husband and two other sons. She stayed with her 10 year old son. He was the only one left from her family. At random moments, she would have some kind of weird vision that she had seen fire; Her son knew he needed to take care of her.

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  16. It was quite confusing to me why Eli sugar codes his whole experience so much. I have studied the Holocaust, and the pictures that I have seen and the stories I have heard were much more graphical and emotionally heart wrenching than how he explains it. Maybe Eli did not want to think much of his experience so he did not go into much detail, I would have felt the same way. The conditions on the train as Eli explains it were obviously horrible, inhumane acts of hatred. The SS soldiers had so much rage ad hatred for the Jews that they viewed them more as animals than as humans, excuse me; they viewed them as animals, not as human beings. They were thrown into trains like cows being transported. I cannot comprehend how someone could have the heart to treat another living, breathing HUMAN in such ways!! Why did they think they even had the right to do such things? They had no right, yet they still treated the targeted people (mostly Jews) with hatred and malice.

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  17. The Jews were not well treated, as you know. The train rides were long, usually about three or four days long depending what concentration camp, you were being transported to. Usually many Jews died on their way in the trains. Conditions were very bad; The Jewish people were transported in cattle trucks. They were transported without any stops for food, drink, or restroom time and they had to sleep standing up.

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    Replies
    1. you might need to reread this book. They were transferred by trans. And they did get food and water vary little but they got some. And the tran did stop in some different places along the way. And they din't sleep standing up in the book it says that Elie and his sisters took terns laying down.

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  18. The conditions in the train was horrible. many people died when they arrived to the camps. In the train there was not enough food and people could not breath because there was not enough space. in the train there was a old lady that would say that she can see flames and the dark smock in the sky. Every time she would say that people would go see out side if it is true, but it was not. People in the train started to hate her.

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