Elie Wiesel Research Paper

Painful experiences and memories are a part of everyone’s lives. Anyone who has ever been alive can remember a period of distraught and pain. However, while some try to forget the past, others choose to remember it. It is important to remember painful aspects of the past rather than forget them because it makes us stronger and prevents us or others from experiencing the same pain.

People that survived the Holocaust were optimistic and/or hid but today most are guilty. They have guilt in them because they survived while others were dying amongst them.Surviving World War II meant freedom but many did not get to that point, unfortunately. They were brutally murdered or died either from working too much , starvation, and/ or diseases that spread like wildfire. Unbelievably, smells from the gas chambers, where victims were poisoned with gasses, are still present at concentration camps locations . Many survivors have never been able to get over this horrific event that took place because of the terrifying memories from the camps. Memories of how ruthlessly people were being killed, disgusting food, and the hard work, haunt

The 20th century was a time of brutal wars and eradication of joy. On April 12, 1999, Elie Wiesel stepped up to the podium, reflecting the violent times as they were months before entering a new century. Wiesel knew very well that the uncountable tragedies had to change, and each individual must exercise his or her own contributions in the face of justice and humanity. His devastating experiences and tragic realizations produced a voice that carried around the world, revealing the fundamental structure of humanity.

The book Night opens in the town of Signet where Elie Wiesel, the author ,

The Holocaust was a systematic genocide of the six million Jews and over nine million other Undesirables of Europe during World War II, spanning from 1933 to 1945. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel depicts the savagery of the concentration camps and with which the Nazis treated the inhabitants. Not surprisingly, not all the Jews were able to maintain their devotion to the religion that they loved and died for. The atrocities of the Holocaust made it inevitable for the Jews to question God and, for some like Elie, to eventually lose their faith.

Why is the Holocaust such a horrendous genocide? The Holocaust was an event that spanned nearly four years, and over six million humans of the Jewish religion were enslaved and executed. To know how gross, unbelievable, and horrendous the Holocaust is, the memoir “Night”, written by Elie Wiesel, will surely tell you how. Furthermore, the book starts in a town named “Sighet” in Poland, in which a community of Jews lives in. Wiesel and all the Jews are then grouped up, and freighted off to a concentration camp called “Auschwitz.” Moreover, Auschwitz is one of many of camps; however, Auschwitz is the largest and famous of them all. Wiesel and his father will have many battles with faith and survival throughout the whole book. The Holocaust is the worst genocide ever to happen in the history due to the battle with faith, loss in humanity, and lives that are ruined.

Its 1944 and young Elie Wiesel is taken from his home in Sighet, Transylvania. After a 12 hour boxcar ride, Elie and the other jew from the town arrive in Oswiecim, Poland. All these innocent people will soon be loaded into the death camp “Auschwitz- Birkenau.” Throughout the Holocaust young Elie has changed from waiting for god to intervene in these horrible times to denying any and all hope from God. Elie says “It was nothing more than chance” (viii) that he survived.

In Elie Wiesel's book, Night, the overlap of optimism and will for survival and faith kept many people in the Holocaust alive, including Elie Wiesel. The Holocaust was an agonizing time for many people. It was a mass persecution and murder of 6 million jews and 5 million non-jewish people. Some people targeted in the Holocaust were Jewish People, Homosexuals, the disabled, Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, Communists, and Socialists. They were sent to camps most of the time. Those who were deemed fit to work normally would be anybody over the age of 14 and appearing to be healthy, anybody else was sent to be executed. The Elderly and Women with Children had no chance of being deemed fit to work.

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928. He was born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania. Unfortunately, he became a victim of the Jewish Holocaust, Adolf Hitler was running the country when the holocaust started. Elie was a teenager when he was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. He had to overcome constant death around him. He was separated from his mom and sisters. He suffered humiliation and watched people die everyday from starvation. He had to overcome the death of all his family and everyone he knew. These adversities made him a great and generous man.

The Nazis killed over six million Jews and millions of other Polish and Soviet civilians in the Holocaust. They also killed gypsies, physically and mentally disabled people and homosexuals. The number of survivors today are quickly dwindling down. Clinical psychologist Natan Kellermann defines a Holocaust survivor as any Jew who lived under Nazi occupation and was threatened by the “final solution” (Kellermann 199). This definition can be applied to not only Jews, but to anyone in general whose life was threatened by the Nazis. When these survivors were liberated, they believed the suffering was over, but for many, this wasn’t the case. The trauma of the horrors they faced is still evident in their life. By analyzing the effects of post traumatic stress disorder after the Holocaust, readers can see that the aftermath of the Holocaust is still prevalent in the survivor’s everyday life; This is important to show that while the trauma may not be overcome, the survivor can be more at peace with the events.

The infamous Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once said, “Being a neutral bystander helps those who are evil; that remaining silent encourages even more evil to happen.” Wiesel was part of the millions of Jews and protesters who Nazis shipped off to numerous concentration camps during the Holocaust. The apprehended and inaccurately claimed convicts had to go through many terrors to survive. Wiesel was one of the few Jews who survived the time Hitler ruled. I agree with Wiesel’s significant quote for many various reasons. To begin, I agree with Wiesel’s statement because victims that could have helped others during the Holocaust ignored that there were evil actions occurring around them during the time Hitler ruled. The victims also ignored

During the Holocaust, the survivors experienced torturous events that led them to lose their beliefs and identity. In the story Night, Elie Wiesel saw children burning in the crematorium and he commented that “Never shall I forget the flames that consumed my faith”(34). His experience of

Some people decide to take different stand points in an argument and some decide to stay neutral. Is it better to choose whether to be an oppressor, victim, or to be neutral? Elie Wiesel once swore to never be silent and to speak up when humanity was suffering, to take a stand and choose a facet because neutrality would favor the oppressor causing the victim to be tormented. He explains how when people do not take a valid standpoint for what is right that the tormentor does not see what they are doing wrong since no stands are being taken. I personally agree with Wiesel, people should not have to suffer because the people of the society do not want to take a stand and subsist silence. If communities were being tormented they would want someone

In the small town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, hovered over the words of the Talmud, a sacred text of the Jews. His eyes traveled across the Mishnaic Hebrew letters, studying the messages and themes of the book. Elie, like many other Jewish children in his community, invested every drop of effort and moment of his time into studying the holy scriptures, uncovering its sacred truths and understanding the boundless character of his God. Beyond his religious study, Elie enjoyed a satisfactory personal life. Living with a loving family who provide for his every need, he has nothing to worry about. On top of that, he enjoyed spending time with several friends and took advantage of his freedom to invest his life into Judaism. Little did he know that soon, he would not have the freedom to read the Talmud, Kabbalah, or worship his God. Through

Wiesel writes“Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.” Forever he will know that pain of that day. Somany people were affected by the Holocaust. Everyone lost something, family, faith, even their lives. Now the world has changed, generally we are accepting of other religions, we are more humane.