Elie Wiesel

Near the end of Elie Wiesel’s time in the concentration camps, Wiesel began to question

many things. He had questioned G-d, not because he believed in him so much, but because he

almost had no belief left. He also questioned himself when thoughts of leaving his father came

to mind. Had Wiesel left his father, life would surely have been easier for him to survive. But

throughout all these immoral thoughts going through his head, he “had done well to forget” them.

(87)

His time in the Holocaust left him questioning G-d many times. Wiesel went from a

religious young man to a near atheist adult by the end of his torturous time at the camps. Wiesel

felt that G-d was powerless and silent during the Holocaust. G-d wasn’t going to save anyone

this time. The only people who were going to get out of this alive were the ones who were

physically and mentally strong enough. Wiesel was lucky enough to be one of the very few who

made it out to tell his story. However, he still watched as his mother and sister were taken away

to the crematory and his father died in his bed.

Wiesel’s weakest point mentally was when he heard that Rabbi Eliahoo’s son abandoned

him during the death march from Buna. He also heard that a nameless child beat his father to

death for a small portion of bread. It was there an then that he gave minor consideration to

getting rid of his father. It is the brutality of the entire Holocaust that led Rabbi Eliahoo’s son

and the unnamed child to do such things to their fathers. A father/son bond is one of the

strongest bonds known to man. But, for both children, their own survival came first. Eventually,

Wiesel was forced to make the same kind of decision. He had taken some of his father’s food

during the last couple of nights he was living because he knew that he would most likely die

anyway. He gave up hope on his father just like the others.