The Fight For The Survival Of The Fatherland

The concentration camps of the Holocaust were home to countless injustices to humanity. Not only were the prisoners starved to the brink of death, but they were also treated as animals, disciplined through beatings nearly every day. Most would not expect an ill-prepared young boy to survive such conditions. Nevertheless, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Wiesel defies the odds and survives to tell the story. Wiesel considers this survival merely luck, yet luck was not the only factor to come into play: his father had an even greater impact. Prior to their arrival at Auschwitz, Wiesel lacked a close relationship with his rather detached father; however, when faced by grueling concentration camp life, the bond between Wiesel and his father ultimately enables Wiesel’s survival.

Sometimes the strongest connections in life are formed during the worst circumstances. This is exactly what happened during the Holocaust between Elie Wiesel and his Father. In Night, a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel recounts the appalling events him and his father were subject to at the hands of the Nazis. Amidst the atrocities happening around them Wiesel develops a bond with his father he never could have achieved without living through one of the lowest points in the world's history. Although Elie Wiesel's relationship with his father is challenged numerous times due to the atrocious events they were succumbed too, in the end this bond is what maintains Wiesel's will to live.

In his book, Night, Elie Wiesel spoke about his experience as a young Jewish boy in the Nazi concentration camps. During this turbulent time period, Elie described the horrifying events that he lived through and how that affected the relationship with his father. Throughout the book, Elie and his father’s relationship faced many obstacles. In the beginning, Elie and his father have much respect for one another and at the end of the book, that relationship became a burden and a feeling of guilt. Their relationship took a great toll on them throughout their journey in the concentration camps.

Elie Wiesel, the author and the character in the memoir Night, fights to live through the Holocaust with his father. Wiesel, a 13 year old boy from Transylvania, his father, his mother and three sisters struggle to live through the Holocaust. Together the father and son battle against starvation, dehydration, hypothermia, and the multiple of brutal beatings given by the Nazis, while the mother and three sisters are separated from them. Finally after a hard year and a half Wiesel’s father dies of dysentery in Buchenwald, another concentration camp outside of Auschwitz, just shortly before Wiesel and his father could be liberated from the camp by the Russians. Hitler, a man corrupted by power, lead the Axis against the Allies. While doing so

“That is when I remembered that I had a father. During the alert, I had followed the mob, not taking care of him. I knew he was running out of strength, close to death, and yet I had abandoned him. I went to look for him. Yet at the same time a thought crept into my mind: If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength for myself… Instantly, I felt ashamed, ashamed of myself forever.” Slowly though, he starts to feel more and more that his father is a burden, like page 107. “I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. I was aware that I was doing it grudgingly. Just like Rabbi Eliahu’s son, I had not passed the test.” On page 108, he becomes frustrated with his father. “I sat next to him, watching him. I no longer dared to believe that he could still elude Death. I did all I could to give him hope.” Then finally, on page 111-112, “The officer came closer and shouted to him to be silent. But my father did not hear. He continued to call me. The officer wielded his club and dealt him a violent blow to the head. I didn’t move. I was afraid, my body was afraid of another blow, this time to my head… When I came down from my bunk after roll call, I could see his lips trembling; he was murmuring something. I remained more than an hour leaning over him, looking at him, etching his bloody, broken face into

“Idek was on edge, he had trouble restraining himself. Suddenly, he exploded. The victim this time was my father. (...) I watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What’s more, if I felt anger at the moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. (...) This is what life in a concentration camp had made of me.” (Weisel 54)

The date is April 11, 1945. A 17 year old boy looks towards the ominous gates of the Buchenwald concentration camp after nearly two years of misery and sees his first sign of hope: an American tank standing at the entrance of the gates. This young boy was Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the gruesome events that occurred in concentration camps during WWII. Elie shares a chilling memoir about his experience in his book Night. Throughout the novel, Elie and other Jewish inmates constantly used their families as their primary motive to overcome hardships even while being challenged by tough circumstances.

This strong bond built between both father and son has truly benefited them both and helped them to survive the Holocaust and its’ horrible conditions in both emotional support and physical support. They both look out for each other, stick together, and confide in each other. For example, when Wiesel’s father became sick, he looked almost dead when he was asleep. A man told the others who were throwing corpses out to throw the father out as well. Wiesel, once indifferent to all the other bodies being thrown out, now states, “I woke from my apathy just

Strong bonds built upon trust and dependability can last a lifetime, especially through strenuous moments when the integrity of a bond is the only thing that can be counted on to get through those situations. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he writes about his life spent in the concentration camps, while explaining the experiences and struggles that he went through. However, not everything during that period was completely unbearable for Wiesel. When Wiesel arrived at the first camp, Birkenau, the fear instilled in him and the loneliness he would have felt forced him to form a stronger attachment to his father. That dependence towards his father gave Wiesel a reason to keep on living. In turn, his father was able to support Wiesel and make the experiences in the camps a bit more manageable.

Elie, his father, and the prisoners had to run in the snow more than 40 miles to another concentration camp, deeper in Germany. When they stopped a man, Rabbi Eliahou, asked if Elie and his father if they had seen his son. Elie had and he realized that the Rabbi’s son had “wanted to get rid of his father…to free himself from an encumbrance” (Wiesel 87). They then got on cattle trains that took them to the next concentration camp, Buchenwald. They passed by villages and when people threw bread in, the prisoners began to fight to the death for it. One son began to attack his own father for a piece and killed him, only to be killed the next moment himself. Soon after they arrived in Buchenwald, Eliezer’s father was very weak and sick. A part of Elie felt that if he could get rid of his father he “could use all [his] strength to struggle for [his] own survival” (Wiesel 101). He was very ashamed, even more so when his father died and he felt “free at last” (Wiesel 105).

When relationships are challenged, they can either be made stronger or destroyed. Elie Wiesel’s relationship with his father is tested on numerous occasions throughout the time of the Holocaust. Wiesel writes about his horrific experiences, most of which are in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, in his memoir Night. Throughout his time in the concentration camps, Wiesel manages to stick by his father’s side, which is hard to do. In doing so, Wiesel’s relationship with his father prospers, rather than declines. Wiesel’s relationship with his father, although difficult to maintain at times, led to his survival during the Holocaust.

Larry Schweikart believes despite the excessive racism, sexism, and bigotry throughout the history of the United States, when the story is told “fairly,” all that can be taken away is a sense of awe at the obstacles overcome, the blood split, and the nation built. Although corruption can be seen over the course of time, the freedom of the nation overcame all else and created a bright light of a society in a world of dark oppression. Schweikart emphasizes the idea that history is often taught from a single, biased perspective, clouding the true image of the American nation as it progressed over time. He also emphasizes the ideals of character, tied to liberty, tied to property, and how they were all necessary for success. More generally, Schweikart believes that throughout the history of the United States, it has proven time and time again to be a nation based on the principles of freedom and justice, exemplified through its actions in every aspect, such as the liberation of people’s and bringing them to a higher state of living, and the sharing of power with those who had none, no matter where they came from, or who they were. “All men are created equal”; the United states is the “last, best hope” of earth; and America “is great because it is good” all extend Schweikart’s basic ideals that the United States’ history, when viewed with the basic ideal of “the ends justify the means,” creates a story

Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night” shows many of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. In the memoir, Wiesel recalls his experiences in the Holocaust. In many of the dire situations, it is not Elie who pulls himself out of a situation, it is the presence of his father. For example during the Death March: “My father’s presence was the only thing that stops

“They were the most famous orphans of the cold war. (Roberts).” This powerful sentence is used to describe the impact that the Rosenbergs death had on their children and the media. Both brothers, along with a whole group of people,

The Holocaust is well-known as one of the most inhumane and terrible instances in which the human race has inflicted conflict upon itself. In Night, events during this time are portrayed from a first-person perspective, giving even greater insight to the horrors within. Elie Wiesel deeply describes every aspect of his journey through the Holocaust, from concentration camp selections, to the food, to the everyday work and abuse. In the given section, Elie and his father must endure multiple selections. They are separated and Elie describes his reactions to the apparent loss of his father, Shlomo.