Confused. Can you clear this up?

Question

I'm not a hater, so please bear with me. I just read Elie Wiesel's "Night". There is an avid description of "fire pits" in which living people were tossed into.

To my knowledge, prisoners in Auschwitz were gassed. I have never heard of these fire pits before.

Is it a genuine account or fictitious?

What gives?

Answer 1

He may be referring to the ovens in which Jews burned alive. Initially they were only burned after they had been murdered, but towards the end of the death camp time period the guards would throw people into the ovens while still alive to save time. Perhaps is what he iw writing about.

Answer 2

This is a genuine account. The extermination of Jews at Auschwitz and the other concentration camps took on dozens of methods. The use of Zyklon-B (the gas in the chambers) has received the most attention because (1) it was the most efficient way to kill the most people at one time, and (2) the deception factor was so evil. Jews would be told they were getting showers and getting "deloused" and so they would WILLINGLY enter the gas chambers, not knowing what they were in for.

Please trust that anything Elie Wiesel wrote about ACTUALLY HAPPENED, and that this was NOT fiction.

You should also consider reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl for other similar accounts.

by the way, you arent the Eisenstein who lives in California and grew up in Pittsburgh, are you? If so please send me a note directly. You and I are well-acquainted.

J

Answer 3

Good book hey? They started off buring them but started to have probs with that because the smell of decaying flesh was too much. So they came up with burning them. It was the quickest way to take care of the mass amounts of bodies.

Answer 4

I believe he is refering to the crematoriums.