In the concentration camps, Jews have witnessed and experience violence towards them. One way Wiesel’s life became challenging is by the loss of his innocence from witnessing his father being stuck in the face. In Auschwitz at a concentration camp, Wiesel's father asks the Gypsy a simple question that results in him getting slapped painfully, in “ My father had just been struck in front of me, and I had not even blinked” (Wiesel, 39). As Wiesel’s father is being slapped in front of him, Wiesel becomes frozen in fear. He begins to understand that violence is real in the world. Wiesel has never witnessed anything that has ever made him fear for his life. He says this in “ I had not even blinked”, where he petrify in fear. As his father is getting slapped, Wiesel is silently
The holocaust is one of the world's most tragic events, approximately 6 million Jews died and the concentration camp Auschwitz is the world's largest human cemetery, yet it has no graves. In Elie Wiesel's autobiographical memoir Night, he writes about his dehumanizing journey in the concentration camp, Auschwitz. Firstly, Elie experiences the loss of love and belonging when he is separated from his mother, sisters, and eventually his father. Also, the lack of respect that the Nazis showed the prisoners which lead to the men, including Elie to feel a sense of worthlessness in the camp. Finally, the lack of basic necessities in the camp leads to the men physically experiencing dehumanization. As a result, all these factors contribute to the
The concentration camps of the Holocaust were home to countless injustices to humanity. Not only were the prisoners starved to the brink of death, but they were also treated as animals, disciplined through beatings nearly every day. Most would not expect an ill-prepared young boy to survive such conditions. Nevertheless, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Wiesel defies the odds and survives to tell the story. Wiesel considers this survival merely luck, yet luck was not the only factor to come into play: his father had an even greater impact. Prior to their arrival at Auschwitz, Wiesel lacked a close relationship with his rather detached father; however, when faced by grueling concentration camp life, the bond between Wiesel and his father ultimately enables Wiesel’s survival.
The Wiesel family had been deported from Sighet and taken to the Auschwitz-Birkeanu camp, where all deportees were put into two different lines, males and females. This is where Elie and his father were separated from the rest of their family. It is after they realized that they had survived the first selection that Elie, looking back, says: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never" (P34). In this quote, the author applies visual, auditive and olfactory imagery to portray the theme of the horrors of war. Here, Elie reflects upon his experiences and how these have permanently marked him, making him feel haunted by such memories. On the other hand, the reader feels heartbroken and hopeless, seeing as Wiesel will have to shape his life around the impact that the camps had on
His attitude went reversed from being confident, as a religious and prestigious person within the Jewish community, to being scared with the inmates giving poor treatment to him. Wiesel was separated split from his mother and sister along with given the bare minimum to eat and drink. Therefore, it was not surprising when he felt scared and uncomfortable with his surroundings as he was not used to it. Furthermore, during the time when his father was slapped by a Gypsy inmate, Wiesel stood petrified with fear instead of retaliating back against his father’s adversary. He explored the rationale behind his lack of action through the text stating, “my father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent” (39). Even though the Gypsy inmate slapped Wiesel’s father, Wiesel did not stand up for this father considering how scared he was of the authority in Auschwitz, a concentration camp. This incident reflected on his change in character since the authority at Auschwitz dehumanized his father in front of everyone, and he did not do anything to defend his father. Earlier, the Jewish people were allowed to sit down at the second barrack of the Auschwitz camp. Wiesel’s father got up to ask to use the bathroom since he had a colic attack; however, the gypsy inmate in charge did not answer his question and slapped him. Because of Wiesel’s his
Madison Burr Ms. Logan English 9, E 25 September 2017 God does not exist in Auschwitz Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of
Elie Wiesel: Night Character Analysis Essay on Eliezer What would it do to a person to go to a concentration camp, see the horrible things, and come out alive? This book, Night, is about Eliezer Wiesel, who is both the main character and the author. Elie’s book is a memorial about his experience in Hitler’s concentration camps, what he went through, and how he survived. This paper is going to be about Eliezer’s horrific experience and the ways that it changed him.
Night - Alteration Over Time The terrors of the Holocaust are unimaginably destructive as described in the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The story of his experience about the Holocaust is one nightmare of a story to hear, about a trek from one’s hometown to an unknown camp of suffering is
In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel gives an account about his life in a concentration camp. His focus is of course on his obstacles and challenges while in the camp, but his behavior is an example of how human beings respond to life in a concentration camp. The mood, personality, behavior, and obviously physical changes that occur are well documented in this novel. He also shows, as time wears on, how these changes become more profound and all the more appalling. As the reader follows Elie Wiesel’s story, from his home in the ghetto, to his internment at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to his transfer and eventual release at Buchenwald, one can see the impact of these changes first hand.
The Death of Good: Figurative Death in Night In the early 1940’s, Hitler started death camps. His goal was to kill all of the Jews because they were not pure Germans. He started concentration camps, where they would beat and starve the prisoners until they died. The prisoners went through selections
Amel shook his head, sighing. He looked disappointed. I had finally quelled the happiness in him. Or, so I thought, until he gave me a small smile. "I'm sure living here for as long as you have has been taxing. The people here are so sad and violent, but they don't want to listen, Cerin. Hope, joy, and love... they don't have to hide very well here. There are so many distractions, so many fake things they tell themselves, that any virtue is easily covered up. God could give us so much food, we'd never ever starve, or so enough money for absolutely everyone to live in a nice house, or even heal all the sick and raise our dead loved ones, and we still wouldn't believe in Him. But He shouldn't even have to do any of that, He already made us, and
However, he uses ambiguous details to describe how the man dies, only saying, “Falling back onto the ground, his face stained with soup… then he moved no more” (57). The very descriptive explanation of when and where the bombing occurred is not as important as the moment the man dies, yet Wiesel chooses to describe the less important event more than the other. By not telling us how the man dies he leaves us wondering and makes us conclude how and even if the prisoner dies. By making us examine the death of the prisoner more closely we are left with a deeper impression of the event. The sudden change from a peaceful day of rest to one of chaos is another way of showing the confusion Eliezer feels. The scene of the dying man resonates in our mind and shows us the horrors of the concentration camps. Wiesel also beautifully illustrates the desperation of the prisoners in Buna by telling us about a man who would risk death just to have a bit of extra soup (57).
Informational Outline Topic: Josef Mengele General Purpose: To inform Specific purpose: To inform the audience about Josef Mengele, a doctor in Auschwitz and a psychological quandary. Thesis: From his early life to his insane experiments, Josef Mengele is a perfect model of the evils humans are capable of. I. Introduction
It is said that Mengele “knew exactly why they were there and how killing Jews could advance their careers.” (Wistrich 229) With this being said, there is no doubt as to why survivors and governments have tried to track down Dr. Mengele for countless years after the war. However, is it possible that there might have been a soft side to this man? After all, some twins did call him “Uncle Mengele”; he had to care for them at least a little bit to make sure that they stay alive, even if for his evil necessities. “Yet even Mengele, a music
After leaving the internment camp, the family found refuge in an abandoned military barrack. Here they found two women from Berlin, one with a boyfriend and son, already living there. The town of Sievershagen was only 30 kilometers from the border to the American/English occupied zone, falling just inside the Russian occupied zone, so close to freedom but they didn’t quite make it. It was here that Wolfgang got his first impression of what the next few years of his life would be like. A group of Russian officers developed a habit of coming to the barracks every night, making conversation with the family and playing chess with Mutti, before going into the rooms of the women from Berlin and raping them repeatedly. This lead Wolfgang and his family