“He fights for his life but still remains everybody’s friend. He ‘knows’ whom to corrupt, whom to avoid, whose compassion to arouse, whom to resist. Yet (and it is for this virtue of his that his memory is still dear and close to me) he himself did not become corrupt. I always saw, and still see in him, the rare figure of the strong yet peace-loving man against whom the weapons of night are blunted” (Pg 57)
In statistics, there is something call a ‘Bell-curve’. A bell curve is a graph that looks like a bell and it shows the average of all kinds of things. For example, on a bell curve of the scores of SAT, the curve is at a highest point in the middle of the SAT score because most people get the average result of the test which is neither too high nor too low, and statistically about 95% get the average score. Yet, there is always an exception. Some people who are above and beyond, and receive extremely high or low scores; they are placed in the beginning of the peak or at the end of the peak on the graph. Since the two groups of extremely high score and low score makes 5%, the group with exceptionally brilliant and get high score will be only 2.5% out of the millions of people who took the SAT. Similarly this idea of bell curve is parallel to the corruptness of the people in Auschwitz at that time.
Before encountering this passage, I only thought EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this concentration camp were hostile to each other and were untrustworthy to other. Because they were so vulnerable, there was lack of trust but full of backstabbing. In fact, their minds were brainwashed to think that they would do anything even betraying their comrades in order to survive in Auschwitz. But only 95% of the people were corrupt, not all of them. There were few exceptions.
Alberto was different and he was one of the 2.5% people out of the whole Jews that were in Auschwitz, who were uncorrupt. Alberto was not deceitful like the rest of the people in that camp. I thought there was no such a thing as friendship in that predicament, but Alberto shattered my idea because he was a friend of everyone and loved by everyone, he created friendships even in that kind of situation. As I read this passage about Alberto, I asked myself ‘if I was in his shoes, would I be able to behave like how he did?’ ‘Would I be friend to everyone and care for others in that situation?’
In statistics, there is something call a ‘Bell-curve’. A bell curve is a graph that looks like a bell and it shows the average of all kinds of things. For example, on a bell curve of the scores of SAT, the curve is at a highest point in the middle of the SAT score because most people get the average result of the test which is neither too high nor too low, and statistically about 95% get the average score. Yet, there is always an exception. Some people who are above and beyond, and receive extremely high or low scores; they are placed in the beginning of the peak or at the end of the peak on the graph. Since the two groups of extremely high score and low score makes 5%, the group with exceptionally brilliant and get high score will be only 2.5% out of the millions of people who took the SAT. Similarly this idea of bell curve is parallel to the corruptness of the people in Auschwitz at that time.Before encountering this passage, I only thought EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this concentration camp were hostile to each other and were untrustworthy to other. Because they were so vulnerable, there was lack of trust but full of backstabbing. In fact, their minds were brainwashed to think that they would do anything even betraying their comrades in order to survive in Auschwitz. But only 95% of the people were corrupt, not all of them. There were few exceptions.
Alberto was different and he was one of the 2.5% people out of the whole Jews that were in Auschwitz, who were uncorrupt. Alberto was not deceitful like the rest of the people in that camp. I thought there was no such a thing as friendship in that predicament, but Alberto shattered my idea because he was a friend of everyone and loved by everyone, he created friendships even in that kind of situation. As I read this passage about Alberto, I asked myself ‘if I was in his shoes, would I be able to behave like how he did?’ ‘Would I be friend to everyone and care for others in that situation?’
