Night by Elie Wiesel Essay

Ian Kershaw empathetically states that “The Holocaust was the systematic, extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi government and their allies during World War II.” He further add that it wasn’t until after Adolph Hitler “became Chancellor of the German government, he began targeting the Jews as racially inferior to the German people (Kershaw, 1985).

The train arrived to Auschwitz. In the middle of the night. ¨Men to the left! Women to the right” (Wiesel 29)! The SS officers shouted as they forced the Jews off the train. At this time Elie lost his mother and his three sisters. Little did they know that they were going into the gas chamber to die. The women and old people were not useful in the camps. The concentration camp was about 25 square miles. An inmate spotted Elie and told him that his age was eighteen not fifteen. He also told his dad that he was not fifty but that he was forty. The SS shouted for them to move. They ended up in the barracks. The inmates that awaited them in there ordered the new Jews to ¨Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes¨ (35). They then were ordered to run to the barber. There they got all of their hair buzzed off. They then were soaked in disinfectant

The Holocaust was the persecution and the murder of six million Jews by Hitler, the nazi party and its collaborators. The meaning of the word holocaust is "sacrifice by fire." During the holocaust the government was the Nazi party. The Nazis, who came to power in Germany, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. Germans thought the Roma's (gypsies), homosexuals, and the disabled people were a threat to the Germans as well. They used these groups as a scapegoat due to the depression after the loss of World War II. Hitlers goal during the final solution aimed to isolate Jews from society and drive them out of the country. (ushmm.org)

On the Jewish New Year, Elie feels a strong rebellion against God. He becomes the accuser and God the accused. But in his rebellion against his faith in God, he also feels alone and empty. The Jews debate whether they should fast for Yom Kippur. As an act of obedience to his father and also as an act of rebellion against God, Elie swallows his food. In the camps, his physical needs become more important than his faith. Elie and his father manage to survive through the selection process, where the unfit are condemned to the crematory. Elie suffers from a foot injury that places him in a hospital. As Elie recuperates in the hospital after his foot surgery, a faceless neighbor tells him that he has more faith in Hitler than in anyone else because he's the only one who's kept his promises to the Jewish people (p. 77). This is a direct attack on those who have clung to their faith in God. The ultimate insult is that even Hitler is an object worthier of faith than God is.

During the Holocaust, Jewish communities were confined in killing centers called concentration camps such as Buna, Auschwitz, Gleiwitz, and multiple others. At these camps, Jews were forced to work to their death under a program called "Annihilation through Work". Accordingly, they were kept in extremely harsh conditions without any rights. Concentration camps became a major way in which the Nazis imposed their control. The Jews were transported time after time to different camps.As a part of these Jewish communities were Elie and his father. Elie, along with his father, were transported to a new camp called Buna. In these hard times, Elie and his father relied on the gratitude of other inmates to find out information on the new camps they

Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the small town of Sighet Romania. (Roth page 1) He was 3rd born and the only son to Sholmo and Sarah Wiesel. (Roth page 1) In Elie’s hometown of Sighet about 40% of the population was Jewish.

Oh that fire!” (Wiesel, 16). She saw a fire but when everyone looked there was no fire everyone thought she was mad but then when they got to Auschwitz there was fire from the crematorium. Elie was scared because he had to fit in a wagon with 80 or more people.

As German concentration camps across Europe are being taken over by American forces, the death counts are high, especially for the Jew population. American soldiers are finding over 20,000 alive men at concentration camp Buchenwald alone, but with an estimated 50,000 plus dead. The world is marveling at how such a tragedy went in silence, and millions were killed in concentration, labor, and exterminations camps. The focus today is on one particular survivor, Elie Wiesel. When questioned about the matter, Elie believed that he survived by, “nothing more than chance” (Wiesel viii). Elie Wiesel (real name Eliezer), was born and raised in Sighet, Transylvania, a town mostly populated by optimistic Jews. The Jews, throughout the trials they faced with the Germans, and, “To the last moment [before being transported], clung to hope” (Wiesel 15).

One of these small decisions is his age. Elie was 15 years old when he was brought to the camps but, he was told by a man to pretend he was 18. When the officer asked his age he proceeded to tell them he was 18. “ ‘You’re age?’ he asked, perhaps trying to sound paternal.

Elie would come to realize that the inmate was helping him fly under the radar and not have the Nazis select him for the Crematorium. After his encounter with the inmate, Elie realized that if he did his work and did not bring attention to himself, he wouldn’t be targeted and would be invisible to the gaurds. Once Elie was sent to the left (avoiding the gas chambers), he was processed and placed in a barrack. SS officers were walking through the barrack looking for sturdy men, but did not say the purpose. Elie was conflicted as, “A few SS officers wandered through the room looking for strong men.

Next, Elie and his father were forced to go to Auschwitz and other concentration camps and also ride in a cramped train cart. Elie was basically treated like a slave at the concentration camps and had to do multiple jobs, even though he is to young to work. He and other Jewish men are also threatened by SSS officers by pointing guns at them so they could do what they say. Elie is the same person as

The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that Jews, were “inferior” and were a “threat” to the German Racial community: this was the idea behind the Holocaust, meaning “sacrifice by fire”. The Jewish population of Europe stood at over nine million in 1933, most of these Jews lived in countries that the Nazis would soon occupy. By 1945, the Germans and collaborators killed two out of every three European Jews as part of the “Final Solution”.

The Holocaust was a mass murder of about 6 million Jews during World War 2 by the German Nazi regime. The Nazi Regime believed that the Jews were a threat to Germany. To eliminate the threat, Adolf Hitler wanted all Jews out of Germany. Other countries did not want any more Jews to enter their countries so they forbidden immigration. Hitler wanted all Jews in countries that he rules to move to designated cities. Jews lived in closed areas, also known as ghettos.

Since they had no real jobs, what they mainly did was sleep. Elie and his father stayed in Auschwitz for three weeks. At the end of three weeks, the person in charge of their barracks was executed for being too humane. Elie, his father, and many other Jews were forced to go to a new concentration camp. Their destination was a camp called Buna.

Germany was in the middle of a war with the world. This world war was known for the wrongful persecution of Jews and the disabled and many other “unfit” groups. Germany’s new leader, Adolf Hitler decided that the Jews were to blame for Germany’s failure in World War One. Forming an army, called the Nazi’s (National Socialist German Workers Party) to complete his horrible deeds, along with the “Final Solution.” This was a plan to create an Aryan race and end the lives of all Jewish, disabled, and others deemed “unfit” by Hitler. By the end of the war the Nazi’s had killed up to six million Jews, resulting in eleven million deaths in the Holocaust.