"The Lost" Post 4a

Vocabulary
parashat (265): a section of the Hebrew Bible, independent of chapter or verse numbers in which each one represents a new idea or thought. Also called parashah
Kol Nidre (255): a Jewish prayer recited at the beginning of the service on Yom Kippur, means "all vows"
goĺąki (253): a traditional Polish dish of stuffed cabbages

Three Appeals
"And then Boris told me what the Jew in the French uniform had told him, during that improbable meeting. Boris said, 'He told me forget it, there's nobody left.'" (247). This quote has a very emotional appeal because of idea that every Jew in a town had been killed or forced to leave. We have already learned that there were around three thousand Jews in the town of Bolechow; it seems unimaginable that all of these people could be mercilessly slaughtered by, esentially, their neighbors. What makes this quote so powerful is its bluntness, as if this is the answer that is expected or that all are resigned to its factuality.
"For some reason, the horror of a boy having ot kill his beloved pet is easier to apprehend, to absorb and make real, than are other horrors. The horror, say, of having to kill your own child, lest its noise give you and the others away" (242). This section of "The Lost" had an extremely strong emotional appeal as Mendelsohn chronicles the atrocities of the Holocaust. A mother having to smother her own child is so horrible, its truly unimaginable unless one has been in the situation. Although killing one's own dog is horrific as well, perhaps the expectation of a child outliving a mother makes it that much more impossible to comprehend.
"Maybe he saw this sign, and maybe its tone- not, when you think of it, all that different from the tone of similar signs in the swimming pools and shower rooms of the bath spas throughout Europe, spas like the one in Jaremcze where Shmiel's father, thirty years earlier, had dropped dead- had reassured him" (338). This quote as well has a very emotional appeal- I couldn't believe that the Germans would provide the Jews with the false hope that the gas camps were actually cleaning stations. It seemed more than psychotic and evil- it was intentionally emotionally cruel. It was interesting that the author supposed that this tone on the sign would reassure Shmiel, even though it was associated with bad memories. Perhaps Mendelsohn is showing how in times of trouble, we cling onto anything that seems familliar.

Quote
"'During the march to the train station in Bolechow for the transport to Belzec, they ahd to sing, particularly the song "My Little Town of Belz." Whoever didn't take part in the singing was beaten bloody on the shoulders and head with the rifle butts"' (229). This quote is very representative of the treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust: not only were they physically tortured, but emotionally as well. This witness statement cited by Mendelsohn is so hard to read because of the truly unimaginable atrocities that it chronicles: that human beings could be that vicious is impossible to comprehend without having been there
.
Theme
Without endings, there is no room for new beginnings. However, these do not always need to be violent.