Sense of peace after fear

¨It was almost dusk, and fogy. The air in the woods had a scent to it, a sweet, piney smell. As I looked up at the trees around me, I felt a sense of peace, despite all that had happened. The forest seemed large and endless, and the mist surrounded us made me feel safe, especially when Tante Rosa took my arm and led Rueven and me with such confidence and determination. In the ghetto we always walked tentatively afraid that any wrong step could bring us danger.¨ Halina thought, Escaping into the Night, p.53

This quote shows me that  when Jews were in the ghettos they were really scared and worried because they knew that if they did anything wrong like something that bothered that Nazis they would be in danger, like for example if they tried escaping out of the ghettos when they were told to stay in them they would be killed because they didn't follow orders. That´s a lot different from when they were in the forest they were not as scared because they felt free even though a lot of times their surroundings were scary and hopeless. This quote also shows me that when Jews were in the ghettos they had a lot of choiceless choices, and I know that because of how Halina thought that any wrong st (did anything wrong that Nazis didn't like) Jews took can bring them danger that means that they had to do things they didn't want to do so they wouldn't be in danger which meant a choiceless choice. For what I feel about this quote, I feel that this quote is very powerful and meaningful because of how it shows that even though Halina and the others in the forest were surrounded by scary surroundings they still felt free, much different from when they were living in ghettos and how all Jews were really scared of making a wrong decision or taking a wrong step can be really dangerous for them.

This quotes shows a couple of themes which are: atmosphere of fear and hope. This quote shows atmosphere of fear because of how it talks about Jews when they were in the ghettos, and they were really scared that if they did one thing that the Nazis didn’t like they would be killed and if they took a wrong step or made a wrong decision they could be in danger. It shows hope because of how Halina thought of the forest and free they are and how the surroundings were kind of scary but the way she thought about it made me know/think that she has a lot of hope.To make a real life connection, well I think that this quote relates to a movie that we watched in social studies called ¨Pianist¨ which was about the Holocaust and how the Nazis treated people.  For example in that clip I saw, the Nazis go into some ghettos at dinner time and just take random people and they took them into the streets and made them think they are free and told to run, and while they were running the Nazis shot them all. This relates to the quote because of Halina‘s thoughts that she had after she was out of the ghetto, when she was in the ghettos she didn’t feel free and she was really scared because of how the Nazis treated Jewish people.