Concentration Camps vs. School: Are they Really that Different?

Essay by RedneckboyHigh School, 10th gradeA, March 2004

download word file, 3 pages 2.3

Downloaded 34 times

One can think how horrible a concentration camp is, one can think how horrible schools are, the scary thing is that they aren't that far different from each other! Elie Wiesel describes in detail the concentration camps he is in and how he feels emotionally. Elie mentions several things about concentration camps that can be directly compared to a school or schools. Although people will say how the feeling of actually being inside a concentration camp and the feeling of being in school are completely different, if someone has never been to a concentration camp, then school is all they know and that's bad enough. Those who have been to concentration camps have been through a world with bells, fences, fear of the leaders, and the longing to escape, just like students at school.

Elie talks about the bells and how they run the show. Bells are the things that tell you when to go from one place to another.

The same can be applied to school. All schools use bells to direct students when to go to class, or when class has ended. Elie says "I dream of a world without bells," this is a thought on every student's mind as they are going from one class to another. Elie has most likely been through school, and the bells already, it must be torturous to have lived a life with bells and just when he's out of school he goes to Auschwitz and Buna following the bell's orders all day. The sound of bells ringing will leave you with a nasty ringing in the head which won't go away at times.

While Elie is working at the warehouse at Buna, a Kapo goes on a rampage sometimes and deals blows left and right. This is like the faculty at...