Chapter 4

“Alas for the dreamer: the moment of consciousness that accompanies the awakening is the acutest of sufferings. But it does not often happen to us, and they are not long dreams. We are only tired beasts.(44)”

Dreaming is a mysterious thing. In ancient times God spoke to men and women through dreams. But in the concentrations camp, it has a different meaning, like most things that are found there. In the concentration camp, dreaming is a way. Dreaming is way for the men at this camp to get away from everything that goes on around them. Its kind of similar to day-dreaming for me. When I wish to get out of the current situation I am in, my brain tends to wander, helping to entertain myself. While they were not trying to entertain themselves, we are doing the same thing. The difference is that they wish to get away from the work. Unfortunately, the work is so hard that they cannot dream. They are “tired beasts.” To some extent, we need some sort of enjoyment, something like a gateway from the current world to the world in which we are trying to create. Without imagination, we cannot dream. Men in turmoil, trying to survive in a hard place, being deprived of life, would have a hard time enjoying and creating one of the beauties of life. Thus they would not have as many dreams, which is an irony in that the people who need it most don’t get it, and the people who don’t need it, like students, get it. I guess like dreams, we don’t really know why some things happen. We don’t know why we deserve some things, while others do not get anything.