Ignorance Theme In Night By Elie Wiesel

Does ignorance, family and the Holocaust fall in the same hand?

“It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work. If you don’t you will go straight to the chimney” (Wiesel 39). During World War II, the largest and deadliest war in history, Jews were forcefully put into concentration camps to work while the Nazi soldiers benefited from it. If the Jewish prisoners were incapable of working, or refused to work they were sent to the crematorium, a furnace in which S.S soldiers used a deadly gas called Zyklon-B (“Elie and Oprah at Auschwitz (Fixed Repeats)”). Elie Wiesel, the author of the memoir Night, was a victim of the Holocaust (“Elie and Oprah at Auschwitz (Fixed Repeats)”). In the memoir Wiesel describes the pain and suffering he and his

To elaborate, Moishe the Beadle escapes from a concentration camp and tries to warn everyone around him about the occurances he experiences. Everyone believes Moishe the Beadle has gone mad “even [Wiesel] did not believe him” (Wiesel 7). Wiesel has a strong relationship with Moishe the Beadle in the beginning of the memoir because they are both very religious, so Wiesel questioning his close friend, displays ignorance perfectly. The incredulity of the people is emphasized throughout the first section of the memoir creating a vexatious mood. When the Jews continue to deny the truth, even when the S,S. soldiers are violently pushing eighty of them into cattle cars, it causes frustration from the audience. There are warnings and signs before the S.S. soldiers get there, but still the people refuse to think for a moment that there is a possibility these warnings and signs may be correct. Furthermore, Eliseo in Life is Beautiful finds his horse painted green with the words “Achtung Jewish Horse” written on it. Eliseo shows the horse to Guido and tells him soon these people will start to do the same to him. Guido scoffs because he does not believe anything will happen to him (Benigni). This also demonstrates a situation in which someone chooses

Wiesel includes these themes to help him fulfill his purpose for writing the memoir. He wants this specific work to give a true emotional story that reveals the truth about the Holocaust. The emotional story not only teaches the audience about the cruelty in the concentration camps, but also allows the audience to experience the Holocaust as the reader. On the other hand, Benigni’s purpose for Life is beautiful is not so much to explain how cruel concentration camps are, rather to give an audience a love story of two different people while briefly enlightening the audience about the prisons. Even though the film is not completely focused on the conditions of the prison it still teaches the audience historical elements. Both the memoir and the film explain the hard working conditions the prisoners are required work in, and the hard work they have to do. Also, they describe the crematorium as a place where people are burned if they are not capable of working (Benigni). Along with the hard working conditions, the Jews are treated as if they are animals. They are called dogs, and the S.S. soldiers do not treat them with respect. This dehumanization causes the prisoners to act like animals as explained by Elie Wiesel in Night. Relationships