In what ways did people around the world share in Sighet's naivete about the Holocaust?

One of the most astounding things readers discover in the first chapter of Night is that, overall, the Jewish residents of Sighet are not alarmed by rumors of the Holocaust. Surprisingly, their skepticism was not uncommon during the Second World War.

Genocide was not unknown before the Holocaust. In the First World War, for example, the Ottoman Empire killed over a million ethnic Armenians in an attempt to ‘cleanse’ their country of people they saw...

One of the most astounding things readers discover in the first chapter of Night is that, overall, the Jewish residents of Sighet are not alarmed by rumors of the Holocaust. Surprisingly, their skepticism was not uncommon during the Second World War.

Genocide was not unknown before the Holocaust. In the First World War, for example, the Ottoman Empire killed over a million ethnic Armenians in an attempt to ‘cleanse’ their country of people they saw as inferior. Yet European countries viewed the Ottomans as culturally inferior. It made sense that they would do something so barbaric. Germany, despite anti-Semitic laws passed by the Nazis, was still a scientific and cultural world leader. To educated people, it seemed near-impossible that Germany, an advanced country, could commit genocide.

After Moshe the Beadle is deported in 1942, Elie hears that Moshe is happily living at a work camp. This rumor is one of many pieces of misinformation the Nazis gave Jews during deportations. Only at the last moment, when escape was impossible, did the Jews learn the Nazis' true intentions. The fact that only a handful of people escaped the camps before war’s end made it very difficult for the world to learn about the Holocaust until it was too late.