A Nightmare

            
             "Silence" by Tadeusz Borowski and "The Watch" by Elie Wiesel are stories about the Holocaust. Both short stories give the reader an idea of what the Jews experienced during the Holocaust. The characters in the stories experienced great loss, pain, and developed feelings of hatred and vengeance. However, the vengeance in both short stories was different. In "Silence" by Borowski, vengeance was spontaneous. The characters took vengeance in their own hands. In "The Watch" by Wiesel, vengeance was delayed. The character did not use violence. His way of taking vengeance was to let go of his past and to move on after 20 years had passed since the Holocaust.
             The Holocaust was a nightmare for the Jews and for many other innocent people. The Nazis treated them in an inhumane way. Many Jews were killed in front of their families. In "Silence", Borowski gives the reader an idea of how the Jews were placed in concentration camps. Families were separated. Many lives were taken away in "Silence"; therefore the characters were angry with the Nazi's soldiers. They had gone through some horrific experiences to the point of loosing their senses towards life. They no longer cared if they became murders. All they cared was to take vengeance in their own hands. The characters in "Silence" spent too many years in concentration camps. They had lost family members, starved to death, and were mentally hurt. .
             The short story "The Watch" by Wiesel is very similar to the story "Silence". In "The Watch", the character also experienced pain and loss. The Nazis had taken his childhood years away. The character and his family were forced to leave their homes, and their valuable possessions were taken away too. The character buried a special gift, a gold watch, which it had been given to him as a gift at his bar Mitzvah. Wiesel is implying that the character had been separated from his family, and that the character had been the only survivor from his family in the Holocaust.