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.
...ce out of the camp he "Spent his days in a total idleness. And I had but one desire to eat. [He] no longer thought of his father or mother"(107). The war left him crushed for life without any attachments to reality or sympathy for his family; he had cried his last tears. Following the camp, Elie only existed as a body wanting basic necessities without a soul or passion. The Holocaust changed Elie from a religious child to a mindless body who lost all innocence at age when he "Was fifteen years old"(96). The flames of the furnaces and the noose on the necks of fellow prisoners stole that desire from him and all the prisoners leaving empty bodies to work for the Nazi regime. Such horrors forced any man to abandon his passions if he wished to survive to the next day.
Six million perished in the flames, mass shootings and gas chambers of concentration camps during the Holocaust. This started when the Nazi party established a “Final Solution” that sought out to eradicate the inferior Jewish race from Germany and the world (“Holocaust”). A person cannot look at this event and see nothing except for the dark, evil side of human nature. However, if a person looks at the Holocaust from a survivor’s point of view, they can see the good side of human nature, especially if someone looks at it from Elie Wiesel’s perspective. Elie Wiesel and his family were Romanian Jews who were, unfortunately, swept into the Holocaust’s horrors. Elie managed to escape the Holocaust using tools of survival, including love for family and impassivity. He did not let being a victim of the Holocaust define him, so Elie moved on to become an inspirational figure that represented and spoke out for all of those who constantly suffer due to the oppressive aspects of society. No one could have predicted such an outcome that is Elie Wiesel’s life story in the face of catastrophe like the Holocaust.
After surviving the first concentration camp, Elie and Mr. Wiesel were sent to Buna, a work camp. At Buna a Overlap (a prison guard) was tortured for sabotaging a power station. A young boy under him, called a Pipel, was also to be tortured for information on the Overlap’s accomplices. The Pipel was hung because his he would not reveal the Overlap’s accomplices. “For more than a half an hour, he stayed there struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes.”(page 62). As Elie stood and watched he heard the other prisoners repeatedly ask, “Where is God?”
In the beginning of the memoir, Elie is an extremely passionate and devout Jew, but as the story progresses, Elie sees horrendous things in the concentration camps, and as a result, he slowly loses his faith. Elie displays his extreme devotion in the beginning stages of the memoir when he states, “By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple. I cried because something inside me felt the need to cry” (Wiesel 4). Elie is clearly very fond of learning more about his religion and connecting to God in a spiritual way. Furthermore, Elie is only thirteen years old, so when he says he cries because he feels the need to cry, he is exhibiting incredible passion. Elie reveals signs of change and begins to lose his faith in God just a few moments after arriving at the concentration camp when he says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel 34). Elie exclaims that he cannot worship God anymore due to the awful things he has seen at Auschwitz. He does not want to believe in the being that could have allowed these awful events to happen. This is a completely different Elie from the loving and caring Elie in the ghetto. Elie also uses rep...
Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy, lives in Sighet during World War II with his mother, father, and two sisters, and he is very religious and wanted to study Judaism. However, there were warnings by some people that Jewish people were being deported and killed. Although no one believes these warnings, Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto where they have no food. After being in the ghetto Elie and his father are separated from Elie’s mother and sister because of selection and were placed in cattle cars where they had no room. They are taken to Auschwitz where they suffer from hunger, beatings, and humiliation from the guards which causes Elie’s father to become weak. By now Elie loses his faith in God because of all he has been through. Lastly, Elie’s father dies just before the Jews are liberated and Elie sees his reflection in the mirror but does not recognize himself because he looks like a skeleton.
Elie Wiesel writes about his personal experience of the Holocaust in his memoir, Night. He is a Jewish man who is sent to a concentration camp, controlled by an infamous dictator, Hitler. Elie is stripped away everything that belongs to him. All that he has worked for in his life is taken away from him instantly. He is even separated from his mother and sister. On the other side of this he is fortunate to survive and tell his story. He describes the immense cruel treatment that he receives from the Nazis. Even after all of the brutal treatment and atrocities he experiences he does not hate the world and everything in it, along with not becoming a brute.
The best teachers have the capabilities to teach from first hand experience. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel conveys his grueling childhood experiences of survival to an audience that would otherwise be left unknown to the full terrors of the Holocaust. Night discloses mental and physical torture of the concentration camps; this harsh treatment forced Elie to survive rather than live. His expert use of literary devices allowed Wiesel to grasp readers by the hand and theatrically display to what extent the stress of survival can change an individual’s morals. Through foreshadowing, symbolism, and repetition, Wiesel’s tale proves that the innate dark quality of survival can take over an individual.
Eliezer’s horrible experiences at Auschwitz left him caught up in his sorrows and anger toward God. His loss of faith in God arises at Auschwitz. He doubts arise when he first sees the furnace pits in which the Nazis are burning babies. This horrifying experience ...
As stated in the text “Why would I bless Him(God). He causes thousands of children to burn. He created Auschwitz.” (67 page). This shows that he hates God for making millions of people to die and making the killing center, Auschwitz and other camps. In fact, as noted on page 69 “ I no longer accepted God's silence… I turned that act(not fasting) into a symbol of rebellion of protest against Him. “ This shows that Elie no longer accepts God for allowing this to happen and will not pray to God because of this. In addition, ironically in the beginning of the book he wanted to became a person who studied God ,but towards the end of the book he didn’t believe in God after all he has when though and the horrors he had
In fact, Elie’s childhood was what made him who was and why he fought for peace. The treachery and injustice convinced and changed him. This change made him who he was. At 15 years old, he and his family were sent to the camp Auschwitz. There his mother and one of his sisters were killed while Elie, his father, and his other two sisters survived. At the camp, Elie lost touch with his sisters and was left with his dad. Elie said “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those
Terry Pratchett once said that, “Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” There is a lot of hate and prejudice against the Germans because of their actions as Nazis in World War 2, and some of that hate is justified. In Night, Nazis treated the Jews as objects; indifferent about their feelings, and forced the Jews into harsh labor and living conditions. Elie Wiesel and his father, Shlomo Wiesel, are Jews who lived in Sighet, they lived peacefully but, then were forced into working in concentration camps when Nazis tried to conquer Europe. Elie and his father experienced the horrors of the Nazi regime. They watched as countless of their friends and fellow Jews passed away or were killed by the Nazis through the use of crematories or gas chambers. Elie also witnessed the product of inhumanity: the turning of people into animals; people fighting over pieces of food for survival, and the transformation of Elie himself. Elie’s experiences in Night represent the dehumanization of humans through ownership and the loss of freedom, and result of acts of inhumanity against humans.
Not long after they arrived at Auschwitz, Elie began to lose faith in himself. After only observing the horrors of what was occurring, Elie had no desire to strive for survival, he was already prepared to die, and wanted to get it over with. He thought to himself, “I could not believe that human beings were being burned...If that is true, then I don't want to wait. I'll run into the electrified barbed wire” (Wiesel 33). Once a very self motivated individual, Elie now has no wish to fight for his life. Elie, just a boy at the time had his hopes and dreams taken away from him leaving him with no faith in himself. He thought to himself, “The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me”(Wiesel 37). Elie realized that he no longer possessed the drive in which he had in Sighet. As Jews were no longer adequate enough to even possess a name they were required to receive numbers. Elie stated, “Three [veteran] prisoners tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name”(Wiesel 42). Elie being told that he is not even worthy of a name but only a number, created a huge decline in Elie’s faith in himself as these humans were fundamentally being treated like animals. Elie once being such a self inspired and motivated individual was completely barbarized and lost all faith he once
Starving, burning, shooting, beating, and death. These are just a few examples that tormented Elie.The parents should have listened when they recieved their first warning signs that the germans were approaching, little did they know their future would be filled with hardship and pain. Concentration camps were no place for a human being to encounter daily. Nazi’s decided that blonde hair and blue eyes are what made you acceptable to the world, and others without were worthless, especially jewish people.These countless acts against jews made some question their religion and or even the existence of god.
Elie’s relationship with God was tested to an extent that he had never imagined. At the beginning of the story, Elie Wiesel had a strong belief in God. He would never question, disobey, or challenge the authority of God. When Hitler started to follow through with his plans for Jews, this is when Elie’s faith toward God began to be tested. When Jews were being rounded up and deported to camps, Elie believed that God would save them. As the story progresses the challenged to stay alive is hard and Elie’s feelings towards god began to sour. Elie Wiesel shares, “Why should I sanctify His name? The