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The opening sequence of "Night" by Elie Wiesel struck me as particularly powerful and emotional. As the Hungarian police and the Nazis moved into the narrator's community, Wiesel's use of irony and foreshadowing was extremely effective. When Wiesel describes his visits with Moshe the Beadle, for example, his message of piece and love stands in dark, ironic contast with the impending doom of their entire Jewish community. The return of Moshe as a devastated and hopeless escapee of the Nazis acted to predict the looming storm that swallowed up that Transylvanian town like a plague of locusts.

It is remarkable to me how easily and seamlessly the Nazis took control of that Jewish territory. Wiesel speaks of German officers boarding with Jewish households, and how they were polite and even pleasant to their captives. People in the community went on with their daily lives despite the rumors and, eventually, orders to clear out of the ghetto. It was like the people turned a blind eye to their conquerors, and by the time they realized their mistake, it was far too late.

Denial is a natural human reaction when disaster first strikes, and Wiesel perfectly portrays human nature when he describes the town of Sighet's denial of each day's new dangers. This reminded me of how people naturally tend to disbelieve the unordinary when danger first arises. I read a book called "The Circus Fire" that chronicled the great Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey fire of summer 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut. Over 200 people died in that fire, but the people watched the glowing tent mesmerizingly at first, thinking it was perhaps part of the show.