“Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.” After World War I Germany had suffered great loss. Their economy was especially weak. The German people desperately seeked for a leader that could help them. Adolf Hitler had won over the people of Germany and gained control. Many thought he would be the one to save them. Hitler slowly began turning everyone against the Jews. He said the Jews were the ones to blame for their country’s problems. Hitler began sending them to concentration camps in order to exterminate them, this was known as the Holocaust. Between five to six million Jews were killed. Elie Wiesel experienced all of these horrors right in front of his very own eyes, alongside his father. …show more content…
For instance, Wiesel states, “Of course. But on one condition. I want to stay with my father.” For Wiesel, it is imperative to him that he stays with his father. He depends on his father but at the same time, he also looks out for his father. However, there are also times Wiesel acts selfishly or feels angry towards his father. For example, Wiesel states, “I refused to give him my shoes. They were all I had left.” Wiesel is acting selfishly, because he does not wants to give up his shoes even if it will cost him staying with his father. It’s also a very ironic situation because he speaks about staying with his father, but he won’t give up his shoes for his father. Also, he says that the shoes are all he has left but in reality, his father was all he had left. There are also times when he gets angry with his father. For example Wiesel explains, “What’s more, if I felt anger at the moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father.” He’s feeling a rollercoaster of emotions, He may be feeling guilty and upset that his father got his so he turned his guilt into anger. He may also be angry at himself for not doing anything but he directs his anger to his father. At this moment, he feels as if his father will be a burden on him. Throughout the middle of the book his mind is on his …show more content…
For example, Wiesel states, “And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were glassy. He was breathing faintly.” Wiesel’s father was getting really close to death. When the gravediggers approached his father, Wiesel wasn’t ready to let go of his father. He knew his dad wasn’t dead. So he started to hit him so the guards wouldn’t throw him out. At this point, Wiesel is now looking out for his father, he wants his father to keep living. When they arrive at the camp, his father grows extremely weak. He wants to rest but Wiesel grows angry and frustrated, for example Wiesel states, “I could have screamed in anger. To have lived and endured so much; was I going to let my father die now?” His father was begging Wiesel to let him go. “He had become childlike: weak, frightened, vulnerable.” Wiesel finally realized that his father isn’t able to take care of himself, he must now take care of him. Wiesel doesn’t know what to do any longer, the Blockalteste is telling Wiesel to stop giving his rations to his father. Realizing he was right, he felt guilty. For example Wiesel writes, “It was only a fraction of a second, but it left me feeling guilty.” Wiesel knew that by agreeing with the Blockalteste he would be giving up on his father. He wasn’t ready to leave his father. Wiesel pretended to be sick so he could stay with
My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me” (86). The syntax of this quote stresses the importance of relying on your family. First, Wiesel repeats the words, “To no longer,” which creates emphasis. This repetition helps readers understand Wiesel’s emotion, which is wanting to surrender. He is struggling and really wants to let go.
He was once kind, thoughtful, and caring of others. But, as his sufferings increased, he becomes heartless, filled with hate, and begins to abandon all that he once held dear. He stops praying early during his imprisonment, and in general becomes selfish. His only concern is himself, and how he is going to eat and survive until the next day. Once concerned about others, he is now focused on himself. Wiesel also feels “free” when his father dies, presumably because he no longer has to look out for or take care of anyone but himself. Wiesel also details another example of changing behavior in the camp, as he tells the story of a son who killed his father simply for a piece of stale bread. These and other behavioral changes describe the kind of environment Wiesel and others were exposed to in the
Wiesel does a wonderful job with his use of pathos throughout the speech by making the audience reflect on his words and creates a strong emotional reaction for what is being said. From being a survivor of the Holocaust, one of the darkest parts of history as well as the most shallow times for humanity. Immediate sympathy is drawn from the audience. When he states that himself endured the horrible conditions these people had to live in. He then explains to us that the people there, “No longer felt hunger, pain, thirst. They feared nothing. They felt nothing. They were dead and did not know it.” With saying this it brings forth feelings of guilt, one of the most negative emotions to accumulate a reaction towards these events. Also numerous people throughout the world long for world peace and to hear the inhumane acts that was once acted upon an innocent man, makes their stomach's sink. Wiesel defines its derivation, as “no difference” and uses numerous comparisons on what may cause indifference, as a “strange and unnatural state in which the lines blur.” Like good and evil, dark and light. Wiesel continues to attract the audience emotionally by stating this he is aware of how tempting it may be to be indifferent and that at times it can be easier to avoid
The Gypsy who was in charge, punched his father with such intensity that he fell down and squirmed back to his place in line. “I stood petrified. What had happed to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent.” Wiesel goes through a rollercoaster of emotions when dealing with his father. At times, Chlomo became his only hope and the only reason that he did not die. At other times, he felt that his father was a burden and was pulling him down. He couldn’t march well or keep up with the others. Through all of this despair and anguish their bond became stronger than ever.
Wiesel had to deal with his family being separated and tortured as well as his own account with facing injury and death and trying to survive. “Men to the left, women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Yet that was the moment when I parted from my mother…we were alone. I saw my mother and sister disappear into the distance” (Wiesel 38).
At the beginning of the book Wiesel mentioned that his dad was a cultured man, his dad was also said to be “rather unsentimental” (4). On page 32 Wiesel mention he was still happy since he got to be near his father. Wiesel got to be in a working spot next to his father too, which once again he was stationed ny his father and was very happy about it as mentioned on page 50. Wiesel also seemed to be worried about his father’s factory getting bombed on page 60 since the buna factory had been bombed and went up in flames. On page 94 Wiesel was calling for his father making sure he was near, which to mean means he was still very worried about losing his father. On page 96 wiesel’s father was about to get exterminated in the crematoria but Wiesel made a scene to distract the SS officers working, so his dad could sneak to the opposing line which was for the prisoners that could live longer. “I tightened my grip on my father’s hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him.” (104). Wiesel was getting closer and closer to his father throughout the book which you can tell by looking at the above quotes throughout the book. On page 111 an SS officer was striking wiesel’s father on the head and Wiesel was to scared to do anything about it, and every muscle in his body tightened leaving him left standing there
He shows us how the two can become very similar in bad situations such as his. One example of when this happens is when Wiesel is in the hospital. He meets a man who seems to have no will to live. He speaks very bluntly about an oncoming death and it seems like he feels he is already dead. He says, “Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve… Hitler alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” (Wiesel 80-81). The man speaking so bluntly and without emotion about his own extermination really shows that he already feels dead, especially because he is in the hospital and knows that he will likely be the first to die. Wiesel’s ability to express the man’s bleak tone and readiness to die shows that he was able to teach people that sometimes the line between life and death can become blurred, and that one can feel dead even though their body is still
The greatest change to Elie Wiesel’s identity was his loss of faith in God. Before he and his family were moved to the camps, Wiesel was a religious little boy who cried after praying at night (2). When the Hungarian police come to force the Jews to move to the ghettos, they pulled Elie from his prayers (13). Even on his way to Auschwitz, stuffed inside the cattle car with other terrified Jews, Wiesel gave thanks to God when told he would be assigned to labor camps (24). After a few days in Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel heard about the crematory and the fact that the Nazis were killing the sick, weak, and young. In his first night in the camp, Wiesel experienced his first crisis of faith: Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. …Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust (32).
During the Holocaust many things that occurred in concentration camps caused despair among its prisoners.Mr. Wiesel tells about the treatment in death camps in his book Night by Elie Wiesel. He faced starvation, physical, and mental abuse. In 1944, Wiesel and his family were deported from Hungary. He lost everything including his family, religion, identity, and faith in humanity. Wiesel and his father were sent to Birkenau where they were held, but were later moved to a different death camp.
Elie Wiesel was a Jewish American born in Romania. His principles were influenced by being raised in a heavily religious and liberal family. In the 1940s, his own country forced his family to flee to the ghettos, and not long after, Wiesel, “a young Jewish boy from a small town,” was captured by Nazis, waking up to the perilous realization of “eternal infamy”(Wiesel). In April 1945, after enduring through starvation and punishment, he was finally liberated.
In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his father’s relationship before the concentration camps consists of little emotion shared between each other; their estranged relationship leaves no room for them to show affection towards each other. In Sighet before the Holocaust, Elie’s father engages more with the citizens of the town than with his own family. Later, when Elie and his father arrive in their first concentration camp in Birkenau, they grow closer very quickly, relying on each other to continue their fight to live with the little food and harsh treatments. When Elie and his father live their lives before the Holocaust in Sighet, his father spends most of his time tending to the needs of the community and less to the needs of his family; however, when the two of them arrive in Birkenau, their relationship rapidly changes as his father plays the role of a supportive parent and Elie the helpful son.
The Holocaust, a terrible time with a terrible person. Hitler was a horrible person, killing many Jewish people and families. Roughly 6 million people died in the years of Hitler’s rule. Although many people died ,many people survived the tragedy. Eliezer Wiesel was one of few that survived the Holocaust. If the Holocaust wouldn't had happened we wouldn’t be where we are today. We would see more segregations of everything.
As their time in the concentration camp continues, the conditions there worsen. The prisoners are soon forced into a treacherous forty-two mile run in the icy cold, which makes them struggle between life the death. During this march, one thing keeps Wiesel’s will to live alive and that is his father. This shows one of Wiesel’s weakest moments, where he contemplates giving up numerous times. Exhaustion takes over his body, and the only thing he can think about is the pleasures that death would bring him. Wiesel’s mind overpowers him and he reflects, “Death wrapped itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt that I could touch it. The idea of dying, of no longer being, began to fascinate me” (82). However, his father needs him, and that is truly what drives him to keep pushing until the end. They stay alive for each other, which shows how much they really care about the other. While Wiesel rests in the shed after the run, Rabbi Eliahou, a very well-liked man, comes in looking for his son. He and his son have been sticking together for three years. Wiesel expresses that he has not seen him, without realizing that this is false. The Rabbi’s son purposely left him, to strengthen his own chances of survival. Wiesel is taken aback by this, and astonishingly begins to pray. He thinks, “My God,
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).
The Holocaust was a very terrible time in history over six million Jews perished in concentration camps. Even though in every tragedy there are survivors. Elie Wiesel was a little boy when all of this happened. He experienced all of the terrible things that happened during this time frame. While suffering in the terrible condition of the camp Elie and his father’s relationship goes through a drastic change.