Approximately six million Jews died during the Holocaust and about three million survived. Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust went through many horrific circumstances. They had to bear starvation, overexertion, beatings, torture, and much more. Millions of innocent people died in the concentration camps. Night, by Elie Wiesel, and Life is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami, portray the hardships and tortures of the concentration camps by showing how the Jews held onto their beliefs and faith in order to survive. Therefore, prisoners in the concentration camps had a better chance of surviving the Holocaust if they had faith in themselves and their families survival even if they went through many hardships.
During
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If prisoners did not give up and pushed through the terrifying experiences, they had a much higher chance of getting through the Holocaust alive. Elie never gave up on himself in the concentration camps. Even though it was harder for him when his father had died, he was able to push through and make it to the end. He no longer cared about anything else except surviving. “[He] spent [his] days in total idleness. With only one desire; to eat. [He] no longer thought of [his] father, or [his] mother” (Wiesel 113). Furthermore, once Elie’s father died, Elie cared about nothing except living another day. He pushed through the final moments of being a prisoner in a concentration camp and survived because he persevered through the torment. The last few weeks were the worst Elie had faced, but he was able to survive because he kept his faith and his hope that liberation was near. Similarly, in Life is Beautiful, Joshua begins to give up on the game that his father has created for him. Guido, knowing that losing faith could kill people, did everything he could to assure his son that it was almost over. He convinced Joshua that he needed to push just a little harder in order to win and get his tank. He made everything a game and assured Joshua that they were in the lead just so his son wouldn’t lose hope. He knew that losing hope meant an almost certain death. Both examples show us that
However when the Germans came, every drop of hope was sucked out of him and his family. He was separated from his mother and sister, saw bodies burn day by day, bodies being shot left and right and people killing each other for their own survival needs. Even so, Elie never took the chance of killing himself because he was always around his father. When Elie was running the death march of 52 miles, he never quit even when his stomach felt like bursting. Elie always had a drip of hope even when he didn’t realize it.
During the Holocaust, six million Jews were sent to their deaths. Nevertheless, in the Holocaust literature, one can find the glimpse of joy. In 1933, in Germany, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party created a German Empire & Jews were no place in Hitler’s vision. Love & Laughter were two of the main things that made Jews and other people forget the time happening in the Holocaust, including nature. Almost 2,700,000 Jews were sent to extermination camps such as, Treblinka and Chelmno, where they were lately killed.
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.
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
Elie’s dramatic change and the fear of standing up for his father makes him realize how selfish he had become. With the passing days in the concentration camp, Elie also notices how much his life changed him into a monster. He explains, “What is more, any anger
In Night. People in concentration camps tried to protect each other but struggled very hard to do so. Sometimes, they barely had a chance to begin with. For example, Elie witnessed someone kill himself because they already committed all he had left to taking care of a family member and was stuck. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?
In the beginning of Elie’s experience, he gets the choice to abandon the ghetto and go with the family’s former maid to a safe shelter. He chose to stay because Elie would have been separated from his parents and little sister. This choice had a negative impact, but also a positive one. The negative side is that Elie’s family stayed in the ghettos, and then the concentration camps. At the time, no one could believe the rumors about the Nazis.
The empathy he felt for his father is what drove him to stay alive, to fight for his life. Without his father, he would have given into exhaustion long before the American tanks arrived at the camp. Elie's father gave him strength, therefore giving him resilience. Strong people are resilient people; it took everything Elie had to keep himself alive. In the times he wanted so badly just to lie down, to give up it was his father's presence which kept him alive.
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.
On January 30th, 1933, one of the most deadliest and dangerous genocides had begun, the Holocaust. Approximately 6 million Jews lost their lives in the concentration camps. A well known survivor from the Holocaust is Elie Wiesel. He was put in a concentration camp at the age of 15 and died recently in 2016. In his memoir, Night, Elie demonstrates a remarkable amount of stamina when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles by not giving up his chance to live and caring for others.
When the prisoners in the death camps experience vile acts every day, they are bound to commit them as well, to ensure their survival. This is most expressed in chapter seven, where the son killed his father for a measly piece of bread, only to be killed by other prisoners who were just as starved. The prisoners needed to eat survive and the only way to eat at this time was to kill others to steal their food. This is not ethical or right, but it was the only thing that the prisoners could do to survive. It is surprising that Elie and his father did not succumb to these malicious acts because they also experienced terrible trauma.
On multiple occasions the Jewish people were brutally beaten. Even when they were on the edge of death they did not give up on living. Along with watching people being beaten, they also watched thousands of people die. They watched people being hanged and killed over trying to get more food. Even though most people figured they were going to die in the camps they did not give up on staying alive.
He see’s what's happening and he soon begins to lose his faith and his hope for the future. All in all, we may have never seen the strength or bravery of Elie, had he not kept going forward. He strengthened his faith, and eventually survived Auschwitz. Holocaust survivors seem to always say that without courage and faith, you would never make it out. Another example of this would be when Elie receives gifts from his father.
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).
Most of the Jews would rather die than keep on living in the camps. After the constant beatings and mental abuse from the Nazis, Elie says, “I had neither the desire nor the resolve to get up” (Wiesel 88) The brutality the Nazis show toward the Jews is unimaginable. The constant beating and malnourishment is good reason for Elie to not ever get up again. There is no point in getting up to go starve and be mercilessly attacked by people who do not even believe he is a human being.