Journal #8

“The news had immediate repercussions. All who illegally posseassed second shirts, stolen or organized, or even honestly bought with bread as a protection against the cold or to invest capital in a moment of prosperity, immediately rushed to the Exchange Market, hoping to arrive in time to barter their reserve shirts for food products before the flood of new shirts, or the certainity of their arrival, irreparably devalued the price of the article” (Pg 78)


In the world of Auschwitz, the existence of black market was essential to the prisoners. In our perspective, we see the black market negatively because it is obviously illegal. However, when we place ourselves in the shoes of the Jews in the concentration camp at that time, we would have been devastated if the black market didn’t exist. Would we even have cared if it’s an evil and illegal deed? Probably not. It was the matter of life or death. It seems like when we are at the edge of our lives, at the matter of life or death, we tend to lose our morality and honesty. This clearly shows that we do fear our deaths.