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Elie Wiesel Loss Of Faith In Night

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After experiencing life similar to hell on earth for nearly a year very few people could truthfully say that their faith is unscathed. Even in the modern world, people who have not been starved and pushed to work beyond their limits find themselves questioning whether or not there is a god, and if he is a just one. Throughout Night, a Holocaust memoir, it is shown that faith does not only refer to religion, but also the belief that humanity is sympathetic and warm-hearted. Elie Wiesel, author of Night, demonstrates how he loses his faith and watches those around him lose their confidence in God, and each other. Wiesel shares his thoughts with the readers writing how from a very young age he believed profoundly yet within a few months Wiesel finds himself questioning “Where is God?” (61). Loss of faith only propels Wiesel to find the strength within himself to persevere until his day of liberation. …show more content…

As others around him continue to pray and hope, Wiesel finds it pointless. He focuses his energy on staying alive, not praying to a cruel god who does not seem to care about the millions of people dying for no good reason. Among the continuous believers is a Jewish prisoner named Akiba Drumer. Drumer wants to believe so strongly that rather than admit he is starting to give up hope that God will save him, he offers himself to the SS officers. Wiesel says of Drumer, “He could only repeat that all was over for him, that he could no longer keep up the struggle, that he no longer had any strength left, nor faith” (72). Drumer’s dying wish is for his fellow prisoners to recite the Kaddish for him in 3 days, when he is no longer alive; no one remembers. Akiba Drumer’s death demonstrates how Elie Wiesel’s loss of faith may have saved his life. If Wiesel would have had the same thought processes as Drumer, he would have also offered his neck to the SS officers and would not have made it past …show more content…

Prisoners of the Holocaust spoke not only of religious faith disintegrating, but also how their faith in humanity depleted. Wiesel recounts how one prisoner said, “I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (77). The only person that the prisoners can put any of their trust into is the one who is slowly killing them. Another instance of loss of faith in humanity is when Wiesel witnesses the son of a rabbi he knew run away from his father. The son tries to escape his dying father so that he no longer has to take care of him and can selfishly live on. After watching this Wiesel finds himself praying to a god he no longer believes in, “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me the strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” (87). No matter how tough it is to go on, Wiesel will not give up. He will continue to live through the miserable conditions of the Holocaust just so that he does not give up on his father, the only person he has faith left

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