“Night” is an autobiographical literature by Elie Wiesel during World War II that explains the tragic events the author went through during that period. In Sighet, Transylvania, everything began in 1941; when Elie Wiesel was just thirteen years old. Elie Wiesel was a religious and devout Jew; he was passionate about studying the Talmud and Kabbalah. Elie was a brother to three sisters and the only son of a Romanian shopkeeper. He found himself a Kabbalah teacher named Moishe the Beadle who was deported on the first transport, but he eventually sneaked out to warn the Jews in Sighet about their fate; no one believed him. In the spring of 1944, the Germans took control of the Hungarian border and Elie and his family were forced to live in compact …show more content…
Half the inmates died due to starvation and lack of nutrition. They were only given a very small ration of soup and a piece of bread. As he was trying to survive in the concentration camps; his greatest fear was not to lose his father through his harsh times and challenges while in the camp. One day, the inmates were told to come to the meeting place, to witness a child being hung by the SS officers. On that day, Elie lost all of the faith he had in God and said God died with the child who got hung by the cruel SS officers. Soon, the Jewish holidays came and it was different from how they celebrated the past years. Elie has turned away from God and did not take part in the worship. Yet another selection passed by, but this time his father was proven as a weak person, but a second selection took place and luckily Elie’s father passed the selection. A few months later, Elie’s leg started to swell and the doctors had to perform a surgery on his foot. The rumor of the Russian army coming spread throughout the camp. Eliezer and his father went along with the people being evacuated from the camp, leaving behind the people in the infirmary. The weather was harsh and was frigid. He wasn’t in a state to wear shoes and his foot was surrounded by snow that was covered in
This shows Elie’s change in his thoughts on God and having faith. At the beginning of the story, Elie strives to be a spiritual kid and is fascinated by learning about God. He goes behind his father's back to learn about God with Moishe the Beadle, and has intense prayers everyday which he cries during. However, he becomes bitter towards God, angry about all the pain he has inflicted on the Jewish race. This change in perspective was brought on by the torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment by the Nazis. It causes Elie to question how God, who is supposed to be helpful and good, could ever allow such horror. This connects to loss, and how the traumatic
After arriving at the concentration camp Gleiwitz there was a selection and Shlomo, Elie’s father, was chosen to die. Elie had a tantrum which caused order to disappear, and Shlomo to slip over to the side of men chosen to live. Three days later Shlomo, Elie and the other men at Gleiwitz were moved to another concentration camp (Dakers 50). The reason for being moved was another attempt to avoid the
Another time Elie questions God and his faith is around Rosh Hashana, the new year. All the Jews gathered together to say prayers to God. He questions God for allowing all these terrible things to happen to them when they live their lives for Him.
Elie loses complete faith in god in many points where god let him down. He struggles physically and mentally for life and no longer believes there is a god. Elie worked hard to save himself and asks god many times to help him and take him out of the misery he was facing. "Why should I sanctify his name? The Almighty, the eternal, and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent..."(page 33). Elie was confused, because he doesn’t know why the Germans would kill his race amongst many others, and he does not know why god could let such thing happen to innocent people. "I did not deny god's existence, but I doubted his absolute justice..."(page 42). These conditions gave him confidence, and a courage to
the horrific events in the concentration camp and the ever-present risk of death does Eliezer
He had seen a woman whom he recognized from the camp while reading the newspaper on the Metro. They spent the evening reminiscing and before parting Eliezer asked,”May I ask one more question?” The woman answers by saying that she is Jewish and then explains how she got into the concentration camp. From an observant family during the Occupation, she had false papers and passed as Aryan. When she was deported to Germany, she eluded and at the depot, nobody knew she spoke German. She says “It was imprudent of me to say those few words to you, but I knew that you would not betray me…” This refers to the time she helped Elie after Idek vented his fury on him. And Eliezer, at that time was starting to find people who he could trust and trust him
Elie was a holocaust victim who was almost forced, by other jews, into a furnace, by order of the Nazis. “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” Elie was very religious before the Holocaust and yet on the first night at Auschwitz he lost his faith in God. He regained faith
No matter how hard life can be, we can overcome it with God’s help. He is the reason he survived. He is the reason we are here. Elie kept his faith through the whole experience. That is amazing for someone who faced that much persecution and kept on worshiping
Eliezer wanted to be very religious. He was anxious to learn more about the many different things of his religion towards the beginning of the book. When Eliezer and his family were brought to the death camps, he began to doubt about his faith. For instance, Eliezer watched with the rest, the hanging of a young child from the gallows."He remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes"(Wiesel 65). Eliezer says this because once they hung them, two men died instantly and the little boy was still breathing. A man behind Eliezer was asking where God was and Eliezer was thinking the same thing. This quote relates to Eliezer’s faith fading away because he saw the death of the boy as the death of his God, because if God let this happen to a child, with everyone there to see it, then the God that Eliezer once believed in probably doesn’t exist anymore. This act shows how innocent people died without help or a second
During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s outlook on life shifted to a very pessimistic attitude, showing emotions and actions including rebellion, forgetfulness of humane treatment, and selfishness. Elie shows rebellion early in the Holocaust at the Solemn Service, a jewish ceremony, by thinking, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled” (Wiesel 67). Elie had already shifted his view on his religion and faith in God. After witnessing some of the traumas of the concentration camps, Elie questioned what he did to deserve such treatment. Therefore, he began to rebel against what he had grown up learning and believing. Not only had Elie’s beliefs changed, his lifestyle changed as well. When Elie’s foot swelled, he was sent to the doctor, where they put him “...in a bed with white sheets. I [he] had forgotten that people slept in sheets” (Wiesel 78). Many of the luxuries that Elie may have taken for granted have been stripped of their lives, leaving Elie and the other victims on a thin line between survival and death. By explaining that he forgot about many of these common luxuries, Elie emphasizes the inhumane treatment the victims of the Holocaust were put through on a daily basis.
Elie, his father, and the prisoners had to run in the snow more than 40 miles to another concentration camp, deeper in Germany. When they stopped a man, Rabbi Eliahou, asked if Elie and his father if they had seen his son. Elie had and he realized that the Rabbi’s son had “wanted to get rid of his father…to free himself from an encumbrance” (Wiesel 87). They then got on cattle trains that took them to the next concentration camp, Buchenwald. They passed by villages and when people threw bread in, the prisoners began to fight to the death for it. One son began to attack his own father for a piece and killed him, only to be killed the next moment himself. Soon after they arrived in Buchenwald, Eliezer’s father was very weak and sick. A part of Elie felt that if he could get rid of his father he “could use all [his] strength to struggle for [his] own survival” (Wiesel 101). He was very ashamed, even more so when his father died and he felt “free at last” (Wiesel 105).
Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.
In the memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel portrays the dehumanization of individuals and its lasting result in a loss of faith in God. Throughout the Holocaust, Jews were doggedly treated with disrespect and inhumanity. As more cruelty was bestowed upon them, the lower their flame of hope and faith became as they began turning on each other and focused on self preservation over family and friends. The flame within them never completely died, but rather stayed kindling throughout the journey until finally it stood flickering and idle at the eventual halt of this seemingly never-ending nightmare. Elie depicts the perpetuation of violence that crops up with the Jews by teaching of the loss in belief of a higher power from devout to doubt they
The novel Night by Eliezer Wiesel tells the tale of a young Elie Wiesel and his experience in the concentration camps,and his fight to stay alive . The tragic story shows the jewish people during the Holocaust and their alienation from the world. Elie’s experience changes him mentally, and all actions in taken while in the concentration were based on one thing...Survival.
The novel “Night” was written by Elie Wiesel and is a memoir of his life during World War II. The book starts with his life living in Hungary with his family. It then tells of how they were taken away to concentration camps throughout the war. During Elie’s stays at the various camps you see the sacrifices he makes and how the experience changes him.