Submitted by LebSonny t3_10q0fym in explainlikeimfive
Early in Night, he says it’s 1941, which would mean the war has been going on for a few years or so.
Some of the “foreign Jews” get deported, but Wiesel and his townspeople all just resume life as normal until it’s too late, and then they get rounded up too.
Before the “too late,” how did the Jews NOT know about concentration camps? And Germans rounding up Jews? Was news THAT slow to travel? Or did they just think it wouldn’t happen to them?
Edit: I guess I’m mostly referring to the period after Moishe’s (and the other foreign Jews’) deportation and account of the executions.
Thanks
Hipposy t1_j6n64t6 wrote
During World War II, the Nazis were in control of much information and spread false information about what was happening to Jews and other minority groups. They also punished people who tried to spread the truth. The Jews in Elie Wiesel's town lived far from the war and the first concentration camps and didn't know what was happening. When the Nazis came to their town, it was too late for them to escape or find out the truth. This was partly because they didn't have access to information and partly because they couldn't believe the terrible things that were happening.