Today we discussed the influence or role of illusion in the life of both the imprisoned Jewish community and in the Nazi community. We first contrasted how Elie's loss of faith differs from other characters who still cling to their faith.We discussed how the ability to maintain faith in some degree is an aspect of illusion or believing that God or the world will intervene. We discussed Elie's loss of faith in the context of the novel's allusion to Job. We then explored other illusions maintained in order to survive such as Elie and his father's pretending to each other that the remaining members of their family are alive. Kaitlin offered her view that the German people and SS were also suffering from rationalization and delusion believing somehow that their brutality and cruelty was a manifestation of patriotism . We discussed the influence of demagoguery and antisemitism on the German and Austrian people.