Wiesel’s painful memories that he retained from the Holocaust, are useful to keep locked in his mind. They are useful to keep locked in because it is one of the only ways to remember the people and things he lost. Another reason to keep the memories is that by losing the memories he wouldn’t be himself anymore. The final reason as to why to hold onto the memories and keep them intact is, what good is going through something tragic and not knowing how to handle it seeing as you destroyed the memories? I will be taking the side of yes he should keep his memories of the Holocaust and I will continue to explain why. Wiesel’s painful memories are great to keep for the sake of knowing what and who he has lost from this disastrous event. “We must remember, we must remember the times of cruelty and suffering when in the darkest of all places, in man's world, day after day, hour after hour, the killers killed, the victims perished” (Excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s 2002 remembrance addresses).
This shows that the only way to remember the people and things he lost is to keep the memories of the Holocaust and, never forget them no matter how painful they may be. This also ties in with the fact that if he lost
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“We tell these stories because perhaps we know that not to listen, not to want to know, would lead you to indifference, and indifference is never an answer” ( excerpt from remembrance speech 2001). This quote from Elie’s remembrance speech shows that if he forgot the stories, the memories of what happened in the camp that he would become indifferent, and by becoming indifferent because of the memories he would become a different person entirely forgetting the people he lost including his family and close friends. Now both these reasons tie in well with each other so let’s add the cherry on top with the next reason as to why he should keep the memories
Millions of innocent lives were taken away. Families were separated from each other. Day by day the lives of human beings were being tortured. Out of the many lives that were ended some lasted and survived. Elie Wiesel was one to survive. Elie witnessed the daily life of horrible situations. Human beings began to lose hope in living. No human being would have ever thought they would live day by day being tortured till their death. He entered the camp in 1944 at age 15 and in 1945 the camp was liberated. Wiesel did not survive alone, his two older sisters survived as well. When the camp was liberated it does not mean that the lives taken away from innocent people were forgotten. Elie Wiesel wrote various amounts of books to keep this drastic history living. This occasion deserves to be forever passed on, the lives of purity need to be a
The emotional connection Wiesel has to the injustice and inhumane acts from other people being a survivor from the Holocaust
Night is a novel written from the perspective of a Jewish teenager, about his experiences
As said by Audrey Hepburn; “Living is like tearing through a museum, not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering - because you can’t take it in all at once.” In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, the Holocaust took place in an order of layers. As time passed, the extremity was increased each chapter he succumbed to. Elie expresses raw emotion in his memoir, Night, and leaves you in a complete, utter state of wonder and sadness. Not only this, but remembering and cherishing the importance of all the emotions from this time in history. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, the theme of remembering is present before the Holocaust and in today’s society.
After surviving the Holocaust, Elie writes down the things he experiences as a young boy during that time period. As Elie enters Birkenau holding his father’s hand, he claims, “Never shall I forget the small faces of children whose bodies I saw transform into smoke under a silent sky… Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.” (Wiesel 34). Upon his arrival at the concentration camp in Birkenau, Elie witnesses young children being burned alive in crematoriums. He asserts that he has seen events so horrid that the memory would stay embedded with him forever. As soon as he witnesses the death of countless people, Wiesel begins to see the world as one filled with cruelty and hatred, the exact opposite of what he learns in his Jewish studies. In the end of his memoir, Elie finds himself in the hospital after being liberated by American soldiers. Elie looks into the reflection of the mirror hanging on the wall and describes what he sees as, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me” (Wiesel 115). After experiencing such traumatic events, Wiesel refers to himself as a new person. The innocent and religious Elie slowly dies during the Holocaust. In his biographical memoir, Elie slowly changes his
Elie Wiesel was a biblical scholar who knew God and praised him often. The events of the Holocaust made him contemplate him faith, eventually making him lose it. Any remembrance of the verses could have made Elies time at the concentration camps easier as it would have helped him knowing God was with him or had a plan for him. The verses of the Bible can help anyone get through any situation as simple as bad grade on a test to helping someone get through on of the worst events in history. If Elie remembered the Bible verses he had studied he could have kept his hope and stayed stronger for
As humans, we require basic necessities, such as food, water, and shelter to survive. But we also need a reason to live. The reason could be the thought of a person, achieving some goal, or a connection with a higher being. Humans need something that drives them to stay alive. This becomes more evident when people are placed in horrific situations. In Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, he reminisces about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. There the men witness horrific scenes of violence and death. As time goes on they begin to lose hope in the very things that keep them alive: their faith in God, each other, and above all, themselves.
It was at first a slow progression from limiting the rights of the Jewish people, to wearing the Star of David and then to the attempted extermination. The Germans then began a race to kill the Jews as quickly as they could (Wiesel, 2008).
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 Holocaust has been one of the most horrifying and tragic event that our human race has dealt with, but there are some speculations that the stories told about experiences and memories from traumatic event are not completely accurate. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, who is a holocaust survivor, talks about the agonizing pain he and others experienced and gives us a first person view throughout the book. Traumatizing events that happen shouldn’t be forgotten and there are many reasons to speculate how suffering, starvation and violence that each survivor went through could affect their overall memory. From my perspective, I believe that Elie Wiesel memories that are told in “Night” are not always accurate. The great detail on how he explained situations, feels like it couldn’t be remembered with the circumstances that he was being put under. There are many reasons why our memories can’t be true under tremendous weakness,
Wiesel quotes,”We are on a new threshold of a new century, a new millennium. What will the legacy of this vanishing century be? How will it be remembered in the new millennium”. This is important because 6-7 million Jews and other races were killed because one man thought Jews were an inferior race to the Germans. Elie Wiesel doesn’t want people to forget about the 6% or 6-7 million Jews that died in Germany alone.
“I forgive you. Not for you, but for me. Because like chains shackling me to the past, I will no longer pollute my heart with bitterness, fear, distrust or anger. I forgive you because hate is just another way of holding on, and you don’t belong here anymore.”-Beau Taplin. Elie Wiesel, author of Night and a survivor of the Holocaust, he tells all in his memoir, Night. In his memoir, he expresses his true feelings while living through the Holocaust. Wiesel gave the ones who persecuted and assassinated his family and millions of others, but he wrote his memoir to specifically let future generations remember what happen to 11 million people. In addition, Wiesel wrote Night to speak for the remembrance of the ones who died. Wiesel was a child when his family and friends were taken
Now this is a hard book to read. The writing is clear, but it is difficult nonetheless. Who wants to read about torture and genocide, about people being ripped from their homes, losing their faith and turning on their own families? It is depressing, to say the least. However, this book is not about making the reader sad, it is about remembering. Wiesel wrote his memoir so that we would remember what happened and remember what humans are capable of. Wiesel tells the complete truth about his experience, and the reader is left with hard questions. Although it’s a painful story, he gives you real insight into the tragic horrors that took place.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” The repetition of the phrase “Never shall I forget” really emphasises on and illustrated that what Wiesel is describing will be engraved in his memory forever, that it is impossible to forget. I also think that he wants to spread the word about what happened in the holocaust, raise awareness and make sure that nothing even remotely like it ever happens again.