Elie Wiesel Book Report

Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel has gone through thick and thin. Wiesel is a noted Holocaust survivor. He, at the time, was only 15 when he was taken away from his little Jewish community. While he was in concentration camps, many family members were killed. Despite all the horrific events that he faced, Wiesel was rescued and brought to safety. After being hit by a car he decided to concentrate on writing about his experiences of the Holocaust and how his faith has grown.

Wiesel was born in Sighet, September 30, 1928, to an Orthodox Jewish family. His parents, Shlomo and Sarah, owned a grocery store in the village. He had two older sisters, Hilda and Bea, and a younger sister, Tsiporah, him being the only boy. He began attending Jewish school at the age of three, where he learned Hebrew, the Bible, and eventually Talmud. His maternal grandfather, who was

Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, had arrived and Wiesel questioned himself if he should fast or not. He believed that fasting was year-round, but many of the prisoners believed they should because they believed that they needed to show God that even being there they were capable of worshiping Him. Wiesel and his father decided not fast since they were going to need all the food and all the strength they could get to stay alive. By then Wiesel had lost faith in God and could no longer accept the silence of God, Wiesel protested against Him.(Wiesel 87). After a long day of working all the prisoners were sent back into their blocks and many would talk about God, Wiesel questioned why, why were they praying, begging, asking God for help and forgiveness, since God, Himself was making them suffer the worst thing possible to man kind. One of the other prisoners had told everyone in Wiesel’s block that God was testing them. That He wanted to see whether they were capable of overcoming their base instincts and to kill the Satan within them (Wiesel