How Did Religion Change Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust was a genocide that disposed of many Jews, of the survivors there was Elie Wiesel who held God high above him but later looked down upon him. Like others, Elie started to develop a feeling of hatred against God because of all the hardships they had to go through while God did nothing for them. Elie Wiesel relationship with God transforms during the years he left Sighet, his home, till the time he was liberated in Buchenwald. His feelings do vary but begin with his devotion, leading to doubt, and ending with a loss.

Elie Wiesel was only a young boy at the time living in Sighet, who would cry while praying to god without a known reason. In the Jewish faith, men can study the Kabbalah once this, a world of mysticism that Elie

Not even before they entered the camps they suffered from the poor care and concern they received. Doubting God changed Elie as a person, one who cried while praying to one who does not wish to pray. It was difficult for Elie to hold his faith in God above all else when he was faced with a lack of life all around him. The SS officers not only dehumanized him and the other Jews but it made him question his view on God and where his loyalties lie in times of darkness. Elie continues to ask questions and God responds in ways he does not understand, “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (33). Elie held these thoughts in his mind as he saw many being burned alive or killed in other forms around him. Elie did not understand why the suffering of his people who believe in God was put to this abuse as Gods plan. It was difficult for him to believe in God when he felt God was in control of everyone's life, Elie is left to question God and do nothing more to help. God's role in Elie and other faithful follower dropped, they no longer had faith and hope in the help God would give them. Those who remained faithful and who would continue to pray used it as a source of comfort for them to go to with all the hardships occurring. Unlike them Elie no longer cried while praying, it was no longer a source of comfort for him, it stayed with him but it was always on a tip of a scale ready to fall. To retain faith in her tips shows people's strength but Elie has lost that strength, or he never had enough because he no longer considers God above all else. He has changed and God has