Look at wiesel's use of the word vanishing in the third paragraph. what sort of connotation does vanishing have (as opposed to the more straightforward finishing or ending)? how does the word support wiesel's purpose or ideas?

"Vanishing" has the connotation of happening almost magically-disappearing while people are looking. It also shows that something is disappearing or ending very quickly. Something 'finishing' or 'ending' feels like it was supposed to happen, that it's nothing out of the ordinary. Vanishing has a much more extraordinary quality. 

This supports his main idea because he is trying to prove that terrible things (like the Holocaust) happen right in front of people's eyes and they don't do anything to stop it if they are being indifferent. This ties into the act of something vanishing because it happens in magic when people are looking right at the magician or the object that disappears. 

As the boys sleep, military airplanes battle fiercely above the island. none of the boys sees the explosions and flashes in the clouds because the twins sam and eric, who were supposed to watch the signal fire, have fallen asleep. during the battle, a parachutist drifts down from the sky onto the island, dead.

Ineed in my !