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Effects of the holocaust
An essay on the holocaust
Effects of the Holocaust on survivors
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Brutality Weakens Faith in Night The Holocaust was one of the world’s darkest times, a mass murder conducted in the shadows of the world’s deadliest war. Thousands of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and more were killed in the concentration camps every day. The Nazi soldiers deprived their prisoners of food, water, and in some cases, their will to live. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy1, recounts the stories of his life during the Holocaust. As time progresses in the camps, it is evident that the dehumanization brought upon by a nefarious army causes the Jews to lose their faith in God. Prior to the deportation of Wiesel and his family, Wiesel possesses an undeniable faith at an early age. Believing and placing his trust in God is a second nature to him. Regarding his original faith, Wiesel writes, “I believed profoundly” (1). At just the age of twelve, Wiesel already understands his religion and is interested to learn more. He believes strongly in a god that not only created the universe, but a god that will listen to his prayers and love him unconditionally. Wiesel holds a strong faith …show more content…
As they arrive at the camp and exit the cattle cars, Wiesel recounts, “In front of us flames. In the air that smell of burning flesh” (26). The Jews had then realized their fate; they had been exiled to a death camp where Hitler would fulfill his promises and destroy the Jewish community in its entirety2. Following the first night in the camp, Wiesel proclaims, “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). After being separated from his mother and sisters and witnessing the incineration of innocent babies, Wiesel’s hopes of everything being okay have vanished. He is beginning to internally revolt against God and refuses to accept His
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
The Holocaust was the mass murder of Jews during the period of 1941 to 1945 under the German Nazi regime. More than six million European Jews were murdered out of a nine million Jewish population. Out of those who had survived was Elie Wiesel, who is the author of a literary memoir called Night. Night was written in the mid 1950’s after Wiesel had promised himself ten years before the making of this book to stay silent about his suffering and undergoing of the Holocaust. The story begins in Transylvania and then follows his journey through a number of concentration camps in Europe. The protagonist, Eliezer or Elie, battles with Nazi persecution and his faith in God and humanity. Wiesel’s devotion in writing Night was to not stay quiet and bear witness; on the contrary, it was too aware and to enlighten others of this tragedy in hopes of preventing an event like this from ever happening again.
Wiesel states that in many instances while in the camp, the only thing keeping him going is his father. Wiesel is never truly alone. Even after he loses his faith, his father proves to...
‘Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done’” (Wiesel 91). The topic of a father and son relationship is extremely personal to Wiesel, which makes him hark back to how he was raised: religiously. Though clouded with a sense of reality from his experience in the camps, Wiesel still has hints of hope in his view of the world from his upbringing in Sighet. Thus, our upbringing affects much of the way we see the
Throughout the speech, Wiesel utilizes a wide range of tones and uses strategic pauses so the audience experiences no difficulties in understanding the struggle he went through. In one of his more intense moments of the speech, he begins talking about how much worse being ignored was, versus being unjustly judged. Religion may be unjust, but it is not indifferent. People cannot live “Outside God” (Wiesel), they need Him even if He is far away.
The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said, “ There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.” The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind, consisting of the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally handicapped and many others during World War II. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the terrible proceedings of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps, and suffers a relentless “night” of terror and torture in which humans were treated as animals. Wiesel discovers the “Kingdom of Night” (118), in which the history of the Jewish people is altered. This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses his faith and his relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? (67). Throughout the Holocaust, Wiesel’s faith is not permanently shattered. Although after his father dies, his faith in god and religion is shaken to the core, and arguably gone. Wiesel, along with most prisoners, lose their faith in God. Wiesel’s loss of religion becomes the loss of identity, humanity, selfishness, and decency.
After the atrocious genocide that occurred in Germany, called the Holocaust, many came to ask, “How can a supposedly loving God sit back and let such a horrible thing happen?” Even during the event, Jews may have thought, “Where is our God” Why is he doing this to us?” When such an awful matter occurs,it is very much challenging to believe in God, let alone mankind. After seeing many of his fellow Jewish companions being beaten, cremated, murdered, and treated like animals, survivor and author of Night, Elie Wiesel, still did not lose hope. He quotes, “After the Holocaust, I did not lose faith in God. I lost faith in mankind.” It seems as if only good suffer and wicked prosper; perhaps God is not all-powerful, and is bound by the rules of physics
Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.
In the beginning of the chapter, Eliezer’s faith in God is absolute. In Chapter one, Wiesel was questioned about why he prays to God, he answers, “Why did I pray? ...Why did I live? Why did I breathe? ...” (pg. 4) His belief in God was omnipotent and unconditional; he cannot imagine living without faith in a divine power. Wiesel then begins to meet often with Moishe the beadle, who was a Kabbalah teacher which then shows the riddles of the universe and God’s centrality to the quest for understanding to Wiesel. Moishe the Beadle then coveys two concept keys to Wiesel that the idea of God is everywhere, even within every individual and that the idea that faith is based on questions and not answers. Wiesel’s faith in God then becomes a struggle
In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel shows readers how threatening and dangerous life can be as a Jew in concentration camps when Hitler was reigning over parts of Europe, such as Germany. Born into a semi-normal life, Wiesel, was just a typical Jewish boy who was focusing on his religious studies and education. Years later, Hitler demanded that all Jews must be deported to concentration camps. There, Wiesel becomes separated from other members of his family, leaving him with no one else but his father. Wiesel experiences many near-death situations and learns the importance of survival within the concentration camps. Though some may believe that it was best to be altruistic in the concentration camps, I believe that it is best to be selfish in
The memoir Night focuses on Elie Wiesel’s experience of the Holocaust. In his memoir, it is clear that the one thing that is lost in these terrible death camps is everyone’s humanity. The purpose of the concentration camps is not only to kill, but to dehumanize. In addition to humanity, there is one less noticeable thing that is lost in being forced to stay in these concentration camps - faith. Elie’s view on religion and God changes drastically during the Holocaust. Originally, Elie is extremely religious and devout. He believes in God strongly, prays to God often, and even studies Kabbalah. Even on his first night after arriving in Birkenau, Elie already feels a sense of God leaving him, his faith dissipating. Towards the end of Elie’s
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lived changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4). This would change in the coming weeks, as Jews are segregated, sent to camps, and both physically and emotionally abused. These changes and abuse would dehumanize men and cause them to revert to basic instincts. Wiesel and his peers devolve from civilized human beings to savage animals during the course of Night.
That doubt plagued Wiesel, causing him to abandon his faith and walk away from it. However, that nameless “neighbor” he encountered not only walked away, but followed a different path, a path where the man intending to slaughter the Jewish people was the sole figure he believed in.