The Holocaust took the lives of over 6 million Jews. Elie Wiesel wrote the horrific story called Night. It recalls the brutal tale of the Holocaust, that stole the lives of the innocent. However, death wasn’t the only thing it claimed. The Holocaust took so much more from it’s victims; their faith, their humanity, and their chance at life. The victims of the Holocaust had their faith snatched from them by the nazi party. The book states, “For the first time I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless his name?” (Wiesel, pg. 31) Their religion was the whole reason they were in the situation in the first place, yet the treatment they received was so brutal they lost all hope and faith. Additionally, it states “But further there was no longer …show more content…
For instance “No one had said the prayer for the dead over them. Sons abandoned their father's’ remains without a tear.” (Wiesel, pg. 87) The treatment of the victims, was so brutal that they became immune to death. They suppressed their feelings so much that they didn’t even seem to have any, more like animals than people. Additionally the book states, “The following morning we marched to the station, where a convoy of cattle wagons were waiting. The Hungarian police made us get in.” (Wiesel, pg. 20) The officers forced them into these cattle wagons. They were treated like cows being taken to the slaughter; their human rights completely stripped from them. On page 95 it states that “Dozens of starving men fought each other to the death for a few crumbs.” (Wiesel) These men were so deprived of food they acted like beasts. They were no longer aware of right or wrong, only the need to survive. Their behavior resembled the aggressive nature of the animal kingdom, not human society. As a result of the Nazi’s disregard for the Jews, they were stripped not only of their humanity but also of their chance at …show more content…
Elie experienced this horrific truth on the first night at a camp, as stated in the book “Small children, babies! Yes, I did see this with my own eyes….Children thrown into the flames.” (pg.32) These children could have been anything they wanted, but the Holocaust denied them that possibility. The possibility that they could do something great with their lives. They were murdered as innocent children, not knowing why they were being sentenced to this tragic fate. Furthermore the book says “ We did not know which side was better right or left; which road led to prison and which to the crematory.” (Wiesel, pg. 30) A simple flick of the wrist by one officer either denied someone their life, or sentenced them to a living hell. Their right to decide their own fate was robbed by men who were no better than they were. Unjustly, their chance for greatness was stolen from them. The author says “I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered.” (Wiesel, pg. 107) These people were so plagued by the death and carnage that they witnessed, the lives that they had afterwards had no meaning. They were followed around by the haunting memories of their past, and it took the value from the lives that they had afterwards. In conclusion, when the Holocaust ended it took it’s victim’s chance at life with
Throughout the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer, the protagonist, is transported and moved to numerous concentration camps. His story, which is corresponding to Wiesel’s biography, is representative to the lives of a billion other Jews. Jews were stripped away from their families, beliefs, identity, and freedom. They could no longer express their faith in God or have the human right to live where desired. During the holocaust, nothing was fair, everything was dark and cruel.
These camps show many circumstances of inhumanity. The prisoners were so malnourished that Wiesel even writes, “I was nothing but a body, perhaps even less: a
It's hard to believe that innocent people were being tortured and killed based on their religion. During the Holocaust about 6 million Jews were killed. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, Elie, a young religious boy who wrote about his experience during the Holocaust. Throughout his experience Elie’s relationship with God develops from being strong prior to the Holocaust, to weakening when arriving at the camps, and completely losing his faith in God at the end.
Broken, imbruted, and barbaric are a few words that could be used to describe the effects the Holocaust had on its many victims. Though many Jews lost their humanity during the mas genocide that was the Holocaust, a man named Eliezer Wiesel refused. Throughout the novel Night, Elie recollects how even through such horrifying hardships he keeps his humanness. In Night, Elie’s rivetingly miraculous memoir of the Holocaust, Elie displays how easily the human soul is destroyed. Elie also shows that despite the fragility of human nature, its longevity can be increased through family, faith, and the will to live.
“ I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when he is silent. Believing in the Holocaust is a sign of strength. If they were not believing it wasn’t gonna make the pain and struggle easier.
From 1932-45 roughly 6 million Jews perished, all people of deep faith, but what happened to their faith? How did their faith stand in the face of such tragedy? How did it fall? In Elie Wiesel's powerful book Night he shows the different ways that faith is strangled and ripped apart and repaired in a situation of incredible terror and violence like the Holocaust. Everyone has different reactions to violence.
Many went slowly from slash wounds, watching their own blood gather in pools in the dirt, perhaps looking at their own severed limbs, oftentimes with the screams of their parents or their children or their husbands in their cars .¨(Rusesabagina 79).¨Then the entire camp, block after block, filed past the hanged boy and stared at his extinguished eyes, the tongue hanging from his gaping mouth. The Kapos forced everyone to look him squarely in the face. ”(Wiesel 62-63). These events identify similar purposes that the authors convey because Rusesabagina wanted to persuade us of the horrors of how they were killed and Wiesel also wanted to persuade us of the horrors of how they were being slaughtered.
Elie Wiesel was one of the fortunate individuals who had pushed through the forever-narrowing hope of survival. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, a memoir, Elie ultimately survived the holocaust through many choiceless choices. These choices ranged from willingly changing his age, choosing life or faith, and marching with little hope of another day. One of the first instances that required Elie to
Elie’s placid life changes quickly as the Germans begin to persecute Jews in other towns around his hometown. Many people around Elie continue to deny that these horrific events are reality, which certainly leads to confusion and shock when German officers appear in town and begin to organize the formation and construction of
This also illustrates that Wiesel’s memori, night, his faith is diminishing because seeing every one acting inhumane, trying to kill each other for just a bite of a piece of bread and how everyone is on the brink of
Elie Wiesel illustrates the difficulty in having faith when there is no sun shining through darkness of living. When something as horrific as The Holocaust is occurring, it is only a matter of time until the sufferers question their protectors. For Elie Wiesel this idea comes into fruition as he approaches a fire to be cremated and just before he is murdered, the Germans forced Elie and the Jews who followed him into barracks (Wiesel 33-34). After he has experienced being faced with death, he writes, “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.
“One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live,” (Elie Wiesel, Night 71). Death, a thematic topic in Elie Wiesel’s novel, which was written about Wiesel’s experience in the Holocaust, plays a significant role Wiesel’s work. Wiesel had to experience death more than once while in Auschwitz, he experienced death in many ways. Death was felt by many Jewish people,whether it be a family member, neighbor, or friend death was something that was all to common in their lives.
Who could have thought that the victims were most responsible for the Holocaust? After all, they were the targets of this abominable act; 6 million Jews, 9-18 million Soviets, 1.8 million Poles, and more groups with fewer casualties. This book, Night, is a memoir about a Jewish prisoner that goes by the name of Elie Wisel that survived this ordeal. After all, they had many opportunities to escape, repeal, or act. The people who chose not to do anything till it was too late are responsible for the Holocaust.
Wiesel’s speech shows how he worked to keep the memory of those people alive because he knows that people will continue to be guilty, to be accomplices if they forget. Furthermore, Wiesel knows that keeping the memory of those poor, innocent will avoid the repetition of the atrocity done in the future. The stories and experiences of Wiesel allowed for people to see the true horrors of what occurs when people who keep silence become “accomplices” of those who inflict pain towards humans. To conclude, Wiesel chose to use parallelism in his speech to emphasize the fault people had for keeping silence and allowing the torture of innocent
Night Paper Assignment Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a tragic memoir that details the heinous reality that many persecuted Jews and minorities faced during the dark times of the Holocaust. Not only does Elie face physical deprivation and harsh living conditions, but also the innocence and piety that once defined him starts to change throughout the events of his imprisonment in concentration camp. From a boy yearning to study the cabbala, to witnessing the hanging of a young child at Buna, and ultimately the lack of emotion felt at the time of his father 's death, Elie 's change from his holy, sensitive personality to an agnostic and broken soul could not be more evident. This psychological change, although a personal journey for Elie, is one that illustrates the reality of the wounds and mental scars that can be gained through enduring humanity 's darkest times.