When Elie Wiesel was taken from his home and placed in a concentration camp, his entire life was changed. Everything from his life to his faith in God was altered. This affected him on a personal level, which made him rethink his position in life and what he believes in. This caused short and long term effects on what he thinks of himself.
Elie Wiesel was a 15-year-old boy from Sighetu Marmatiei in Transylvania. He was born on September 30, 1928. Elie Wiesel would go on to be a writer, a teacher, and a civil rights activist. He wrote a book called Night, in which he would recount the experiences he had after he was stolen from his home and forced to work in death and disease filled labor camps. During the holocaust, family members were stripped
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His belief in God was changed as well. Before the holocaust, Elie was active in his religion and beliefs. He would pray often and wished to know more about God. The holocaust caused him to question these beliefs. Several instances in his book Night recount a man asking the question “Where is God.” The first time, Elie replies with, “I don’t know.” The second time, however, he replies with, “He is up there.” after they have just witnessed the hanging of a young boy. This expressed the fact that he no longer believes in God. This is also noticeable later on in an interview with Oprah Winfrey where he avoids answering questions about whether he believes in God. The holocaust very deeply affected Elie. It made him feel like he was nothing. It made him forget who he was, and made him feel as if the world was every man for himself. Elie lost his father to the holocaust. This caused him to go into a blank state of mind where nothing but food and survival mattered. This lasted for months which were not described by him. Elie was strong enough to survive the holocaust which very few were able to do. He undoubtedly thought about suicide many times. His will to live was greatly tested by the holocaust. After he was separated from his mother and sisters all he had left was his father. Once his father died, nothing else mattered to
Hitler’s Nazi Party commited many horrible atrocities that affected millions, killing six million Jews and five million Gentiles. Celebrated Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel, writes about his experiences at Auschwitz in the memoir, Night. Wiesel underwent beating, whipping, forced labor, and starvation and witnessed many other inhumane acts at the hands of the Nazis, all while he was between the ages thirteen and seventeen. The many traumatic events that Elie experienced during his time in a concentration camp altered both his physical appearance and his spiritual relationship with God.
The holocaust makes physical and mental alterations to Elie’s life, and this tells the reader that the people who did this are effective and impacting, also it shows that Elie’s mind is controlled by what he was experiencing. Way back at the start of the book the readers see an adolescent boy who is studying Kabbalah, but when suddenly German officers come to ship the Jewish citizens out of his town, Elie wants to run away. By
One man asked, where is God and Elie’s only response was that God is “hanging here from this
Elie was born on September 30th in 1928. He was 15 at the time of the holocaust, he died on July 2nd in 2016. Elie had
The Nazis would treat them horrible they also lived in horrible conditions. Him and the other men and children there would only get a little portion of foods. Many of them would starve and some would share between them some food they would save. Elie Wiesel and two of his older sisters survived the holocaust as well. To begin with, "Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the town of Sighet now part of Romania.
Also he did not know that they were going to die. Then he and his father were together until his father died January 28, 2014. Then Elie was the last one alive in his family. He was very close to his father and when his father died he was alone with no family. “Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it.
Elie did not know who he was anymore. All he saw was body with no life. He lost his identity to the flames that consumed everything, The flames took away homes, families, and souls. Elie lost his faith and his father to the Holocaust. He had hope that everything will end soon.
Elie Wiesel was a Jewish boy who grew up during the Second World War. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, there was a population of 757,000 Jews in Romania in the 1930s, where Wiesel grew up. In the 1950s, after the war, there was a population of only 280,000 Jews. Wiesel was one of the lucky ones who survived the Holocaust. While he was in these concentration camps, it took a toll on his life.
In this book Elie speaks of his hardships and how he survived the concentration camps. Elie quickly changed into a sorrowful person, but despite that he was determined to stay alive no matter the cost. For instance, during the death
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.
Although survival was a key aspect in concentration camps, Elie gradually begins to live numbly, surviving only because instinct told him to. He no longer cared for the meaning of life, and his only thoughts were of bread, much like a stray dog hoping it would find morsels of food to live off of. However, he didn't start off this way. At the start, he lived for his father. Schlomo Wiesel was Elie's only reason to live, but prior to his father's death, he slowly began to free himself of caring.
and it changed him. In the book, Night, the main theme, is religion and belief which is shown when Elie talks about the his strong religion and belief as a boy, his disconnection from religion, and the inhumane actions the Nazi 's caused. Having such a strong belief in something and then dramatically changing how you think, is a very significant event. During this time, many people questioned where God truly was. Even Elie was questioning where God was.
As for me, I had ceased to pray... I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (45). It is apparent here that the effect of the Holocaust on the Jewish people’s faith was delayed on some level. Elie refuses to pray to the God that apparently abandoned him. This is personified when he says he doubts that God has absolute justice.
He changed as a person because he was used to people dying that it didn’t even bother him anymore. But in the beginning Elie when he first arrived at the camp he wasn 't used to seeing people dying. On Elies’s first day at Auschwitz he saw “a truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies!... thrown into flames” (32). Elie couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Elie was held captive in concentration camps from 1944-1945. During his time in the concentration camps, he became grateful for what he had, overcame countless obstacles, and more importantly kept fighting until he was free. [The Holocaust is very important to learn about because it can teach you some important life lessons.] You should always be grateful for what you have, no matter what the circumstances are. This lesson can be learned when Elie says, “After my father’s death, nothing could touch me any more”(109).