Elie Wiesel And The Holocaust

Over the course of World War Two, over six million Jewish people were murdered. Killing factories known as concentration camps were spread throughout Europe, and worked tirelessly to exterminate Jews. The deadliest of all was known as Auschwitz, and it is where a fifteen year old Elie Wiesel was taken in 1944. He remained in concentration camps until liberation in 1945. By the end of World War Two, Wiesel had lost his faith in God and humanity after experiencing unspeakable horrors, such as the execution of children and the death of his father.

As a child, Elie Wiesel was deeply religious. He spent much of his time praying and studying religious texts. When his family was sent to Auschwitz, Wiesel stayed with his father but was separated from

His own baby sister Tzipora was killed inside a gas chamber. Later on, Wiesel and his father were sent to a work camp called Buna. It was here that Wiesel witnessed an execution that would stay with him. A young boy was hanged in front of the entire camp for a crime that he did not commit. Many of the people in the camp began to question their faith after witnessing the child’s execution. People cried out “Where is God? Where is he?” as the boy was hung (Wiesel 61). A prisoner replied “He is hanging here on this gallows…” (Wiesel 62). After witnessing the horrific act, Wiesel said “the soup tasted of corpses” (Wiesel 62).Wiesel and the other prisoners could not believe their God would let such a thing happen. The called the young boy a “sad eyed angel” and even the Gestapo were disturbed by executing him (Wiesel 61). Wiesel and the other prisoners saw this as the death of God, and of humanity. If the Nazi’s could execute a child, they would have no mercy for

When his father was struck, Wiesel was powerless to stop it. “My body was afraid of also receiving a blow” (Wiesel 106). The Nazi’s did not allow for Wiesel to comfort his father in any way. After his death, Wiesel did not cry, “and it pained {him} that {he} could not weep” (Wiesel 106). Wiesel has completely lost all faith and hope he had in humanity and simply became a walking shell. He couldn’t even weep over the loss of his father because his spirit was so broken. He was completely dehumanized.

By the end of the war, Elie Wiesel had lost his father in humanity and God. These two aspects that were so important to him prior to World War Two were eradicated from his personality. The loss of his baby sister and the execution of the child made him severely question his faith in God. The death of his father caused his loss of faith in the human race. The evils Wiesel was forced to experience were horrendous and terrifying. The holocaust is not an event humanity can ever forget, for all the pain it has