In 1944, Elie Wiesel was only 15 when his family was stripped of their natural rights and forcefully transported into the most well-known concentration camp, Auschwitz. Beginning in 1941 and officially ending in 1945, the Holocaust was a genocide of anti-semitism. In Night, Elie Wiesel shares his experience of facing extreme racism within the concentration camps by facing starvation, torture, and even death. The concentration camp ended up being survival of the fittest, only those who crave to survive survived. Though, in Night, two characters who portray conflicts with survival are Mrs. Schacter with the loss of her family and Elie stretched between picking his father or himself. First and foremost, Mrs. Schacter was conflicted when she was …show more content…
After arriving at Buchenwald, Elie’s father had grown extremely sick from dysentery, a disease which made him extremely thirsty but extremely dangerous to give water to. As he is battling his inner fear of becoming Rabbi Elahu’s son (who abandoned his own father), the Blockaltest tells Elie, “ ‘Listen to me, kid. Don’t forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you can’t think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone. Let me give you good advice: stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father. You cannot help him anymore. And you are hurting yourself. In fact, you should be getting his rations…’ “ (110-111). The Blockaltest tells ELie that he should forget about trying to care for his sickly father more and to focus on surviving. Elie is conflicted because he wants to stay with the only family he knows he has left and didn’t want to abandon his father to prioritize himself like Rabbi Eliahu’s son. This shows the struggle between life and death because if Elie were to continue giving his rations to his father, he risked his own well-being. When his father got extremely sick, Elie had to choose between helping his father by sacrificing more of his rations or saving himself and keeping his
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the author writes about his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Wiesel was only 15-years-old when he was forced out of his home in Sighet and deported to Auschwitz along with his family in May 1944. By the time Buchenwald concentration camp was liberated in April 1945, Wiesel already had major experiences that greatly affected his life. Wiesel’s experiences drastically change his character as a human being to help him deal with evil as a survivor of the Jewish holocaust.
These factors alone would not have guaranteed his survival, because there were people in the camps that were physically stronger, received more support from other inmates, and more determined to escape the camp, and so it was a combination of these, along with chance, that made him survive. This experience left severe psychological effects on his mind, such as a loss in his faith and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a result of the inhuman treatment he received and the sickening acts of cruelty and savagery he witnessed while in the concentration camps. In order to fully understand how Elie Wiesel survived and what effects the treatment he endured in the concentration camps left on his mind, all a person has to do is read Night, an account of his experience during the Holocaust and an important primary source when understanding what the environment was like in the camps. Night was published in 1956, first translated into English in 1960 and re-translated by Elie Wisel’s wife, Marion Wiesel, in 2006.
When they arrived at Buchenwald, he fell very ill. Elie’s and his father received barely any food to eat, but Elie always gave a small portion of his meal to his father. Despite if he was starving, he always put his father’s health before his health. But after the blockalteste talked to him and said he couldn’t save his father, Elie
Throughout the horrific experiences in the concentration camp, Elie and his father had to learn to look out for each other even when it was everybody for themselves. Towards the end of Night, Elie, his father, and other prisoners were on a “death” march to another camp to avoid being liberated by the Russians. The march was extremley gruesome, mostly because everyone was in such poor physical shape. When they had been resting at a small town, Elie’s fatehr kept making sure Eile didn’ fall asleep… falling asleep would risk dying from exhaustion. After arriving at the new camp, Elie’s father fell ill with dysentary.
The Holocaust was a devastating time for not only adults but children as well. Throughout the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel changes spiritually, physically, and socially. In the country of Auschwitz where he approaches a concentration camp beginning to see the cruelty and brutal trauma Nazis had in plan for not only just Elie but others, by not eating, working to the bone, losing the connection to his family as well as his passion and loyalty to god. Dehumanization is shown throughout the novel beginning with the hanging of the Jewish boy in front of the rest of the prisoners, the Natzi soldiers throwing bread into a cattle car, and losing sight of his faith in god. Each event challenged his inner strength.
Weisel’s father becomes sick and close to dying, and Elie feels compelled to provide for his father. Initially, Weisel gives his father part of his rations each day. A few days later Weisel and the Blockalteste talk about his sick father, and the Blockalteste gives him advice. “‘Stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your father. You cannot help him anymore.
Elie had lost faith since he had left home. He had thought that God was unjusted. Elie had also stopped praying which led to him think that God was uncaring so he didnt believe in him anymore. He was also blaming God for killing innocent men, women, and kids. After months and years of suffering, Elies father was having to deal with dysentry which is a bacteria infection which affects the intenstines and causes diarrhea.
Lets begin with how Elie was forced by the Nazis to go to Auschwitz at the age of only 15 years old. The Auschwitz concentration camp is located in Poland, where they didn't even think about feeding him, and treated him harshly. Both of Elie’s parents and a younger sister passed away in the Holocaust because they were getting treated like dolls. It was the most horrific time in time for the Jews. Elie Wiesel is very lucky that he lived through the Holocaust for us we have proof and information about what they did to Jews and for Elie, he spared his life and lived through it telling the world what happened to him.
When they struck her, people shouted their approval: “Keep her quiet! Make that Madwoman shut up. She’s not the only one here…” She received several blows to the head, blows that could have been lethal (page 26).” This quote shows Madame Schacter’s Self vs Society conflict because she’s terrified, not only for herself but for her husband and her other 2 children.
When the Blockälteste tells Elie that there was nothing he could do for his father and that he should stop giving him extra food, Elie listens because he realizes that if he keeps giving his father extra food, he is just hurting himself. Wiesel writes, “‘Let me give you good advice: stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father.’ ‘You cannot help him anymore.’ ‘And you are hurting yourself.’ ‘In fact, you should be getting his rations…’ I listened to him without interrupting.
When they first arrived at Auschwitz Elie and his father looked to each other for support and survival, Sometimes Elie’s father being the only thing keeping him alive. In their old community Elie’s father was a strong-willed and respected community leader, as the book went on you could see how the roles were becoming reversed he was becoming weaker and more reliant on Elie to take care of him. Their father son bond had always been strong and only grew stronger with the things they had to endure. “My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” Elie was disgusted when he saw Rabbi Eliahou’s son abandon his father to help improve his chances of his survival he prayed he’d never do such a thing, but as his father becoming progressively more reliant on Elie he started to see his father as more of a burden than anything else.
This is just one example of the internal conflict going on endlessly within himself. When thinking of family, there are good times and bad times. When experiencing the moments that are extremely difficult for Elie and his father, he often thinks how great life would be if he could just get rid of his father’s dead weight. One evening when Elie’s father is very ill, the had of the block approaches Elie and tells him, “‘Don’t forget your in a concentration camp. Here, every man has to fight for himself and not think of anyone else.
They had to live off of the fallen snow after, “...[being] given no food.. ”(Wiesel 67). Elie is affected by this conflict because he is getting
In Wiesel’s Night, a teenage Elie describes his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald during the Holocaust. Night is Wiesel’s testimony on his loss of innocence and faith, the confrontation of Jews with evil, and the acts of dehumanization that occurred in the concentration camps. Human rights defender, Elie Wiesel, also demonstrates his unforgettable
On page 110, the blockalteste said to Elie, “Stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father. You cannot help him anymore.” This explains that even though the blockalteste told Elie not to share his ration of bread with his father, he was worried and loved his father so much that he did not listen to what other people were saying to him. Even if the consequences of his actions were starving himself. Never shall I forget was a poem Elie wrote in Night.