Factors that changed Eliezer begins to realize the selfishness that humans can have, and gradually begins to have less emotions. In the memoir when the Jews arrived at the concentration camp and SS officer separated the Jews by, ones with health and strength were sent to work and the weak and old sent to the crematorium. Eliezer’s thoughts to human beings being burned by the crematorium was, “No. All this could not be real. A nightmare perhaps … Soon I would wake up with a start, my heart pounding, and find that I was back in the room of my childhood, with my books” (Wiesel 32). The thought of women, men and children being burned was a horrid though that he did not want to accept the truth. Eliezer went into denial, he did not want to accept
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.
The holocaust ended May 8, 1945 but it took the lives of millions of people with it. Depriving millions of innocent souls of basic rights we have today. In the book Night, we are shown the experiences and transformations of young Elie from the day he arrived in the ghetto, to his last day in a concentration camp. As a result of his experiences during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel changes from a religious, sensitive little boy to a spiritually dead, unemotional man.
After 3 weeks at Auschwitz, they get deported to Buna, which is a turning point for the relationship between Elie and Chlomo. The camps influence Elie and give him a crooked mind focused on staying alive and nothing else. This leads to him disregarding his father. This twisted way of thinking, due to the camps, is making Elie cheer during bomb raids at Buna. He states his thoughts “But we were no longer afraid of death, at any rate, not of that death” (57). This shows that he is willing to die to see the camps destroyed. The most horrifying event that demonstrates his twisted mind is when Eliezer pays no heed to his father while he was being repeatedly beat with an iron bar. Eliezer, rather than acting indifferent and showing nothing, actually feels angry with his father. “I was angry at him for not knowing how to avoid Idek’s outbreak” (52). The new lifestyle of the camps affected Elie and his relationship with his father for the worse.
Wiesel also uses imagery, of Eliezer loosing the ability to express emotion, to show the dehumanization of Eliezer and the other Jews who are led to undergo drastic emotional changes. Unfortunately, the Jews suffer tremendous difficulties in the concentration camps. The torture that the enslaved Jews experience has obvious physical effects, but it also has mental changes on them. The events that have taken place at the concentration camps has shaken Eliezer so much, that at the sight of his stricken father, he replies, “My father had just been struck, before my eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked on and said nothing.” (Pg. 37 old book) After the Kapo beats his father to the ground for asking permission to use the bathroom, Elieizer is surprised at himself because he is incapable of doing so much as lifting a finger or saying anything in his father's defense. Like the other Jews, he is dehumanized with his main concern becoming self-preservation. Thus, Eliezer looses his compassion for others, including his father. When his father dies due to dysentery, Eliezer states, “I did not weep and it pained me that I could not weep.
The concentration camps were beginning to remove all emotion from the people. They stopped feeling anything for others, and began only thinking of themselves. For example, when an iron bar beats Eliezers father, Eliezer feels no pity or compassion. He is madder at his father for not being
Night is a book written by Elie Wiesel. In this book Wiesel tells about his experiences in the Holocaust. Wiesel was only twelve years old when the Holocaust first affected him. Early on Wiesel was separated from his mother and sister. Him and his father were then moved from camp to camp having to endure harsh conditions. Together they both saw terrible things that they will never forget. Many conflicts in The Holocaust changed both Wiesel and his father. The two factors that affected Wiesel the most was him having to indirectly face the entire Nazi society and his believe and trust in God.
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 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
I honestly agree to what Elie Wiesel has to say, “when human lives are endangered when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Where ever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that pace must at the moment become the center of the universe.”
Page 34, “…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.” From this one quote you can most certainly tell that Elie has been living through some extremely tough times in his life right now. You can also tell that just being a part of the concentration camp and knowing that if you don’t die there is a good chance that one of your family members or friends will, it will always be permanently engraved in Elies’ memories. And this has definitely had a huge impact on his life “He was not alone in having lost faith during those days of selection,” Page 76. Elie is talking about the Rabbi losing his faith when he states that the Rabbi is not alone and Elie himself is also losing faith. The selection was when the Germans and doctors looked at how the prisoner’s were health wise and if they where unhealthy they would kill them and put them in the crematoria’s. This, however, was tough for many of the prisoners because most of them where starving and unhealthy, a lot of the people didn’t pass the selections, but those who did
Eliezer and Schlomo's father-son relationship is the reason Elie had hope throughout the Holocaust. After the selection at the arrival of Auschwitz., Elie and his father had to walk towards the fire pits, where babies, children, and adults are being thrown in. Elie and his father thought that this was their fate as well. Such a traumatizing event brings forth a critical quote spoken from Schlomo, "You should have gone with your mother". This in context, references to the selection, as Schlomo did not want to see his son die. Another idea used to portray this extreme idea of mental torture was a thought from Eliezer, where he wants to throw himself into the electric fence to escape the brutal death of burning in the pits. This started
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.
Only 37 percent of Jews survived the holocaust. Elie Wiesel was one of the few Jews that survived, and he was only 15 years old when he was sent to his first camp. Elie Wiesel wrote the novel “Night” based on his journey in the holocaust. “Night” is about Elie and how he changed emotionally through drubbings, starving, adversity, and much more in the concentration camps. In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, was affected by the events in the book which led to him losing his faith, him having no motivation whatsoever (with the exception of his father), and him giving up on humanity as a whole.
Elie and his father are taken to Auschwitz where they are separated from the rest of the family and first hear about atrocities such as the incinerators and gas showers. In the beginning Elie believes that everything is a rumor, a lie, that humankind cannot perform such crimes, but he soon is forced to witness the demise in front of his eyes. This is when his outlook on his faith starts to waver. While watching the smoke billow up from a crematory, Elie hears a man standing next to him begging him to pray, and for the first time in his life Wiesel turns away from God. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (31).
First, after arriving in Auschwitz and being separated from his mother and sister, Elie and his father are warned about the crematoria, and Elie cannot comprehend the fact that people are actually being burned.