Night Research Paper

Night Essay

Throughout world war two, thousands upon thousands of Jews around Europe were forcefully deported to inhumane concentration camps by the Nazis, who they believed were unequal to them. Millions died, however, many also survived and some spoke of their experiences. In his memoir Night, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel recounts the horrors and feats that he and his father encountered while imprisoned in numerous concentration camps towards the end of WWII. During that time, Elie faced many decisions that had pronounced impacts on his beliefs, faith in humanity, and life. From the decisions he makes, Elie's innocence and identity are both negatively, and positively changed throughout his experience as a concentration camp prisoner.

At their arrival at Birkenau, Elie is confronted by an inmate who asks him his age and tells him, “No you’re eighteen (Wiesel 30).” When an officer then asks Elie his age, he lies and tells him he is eighteen, his father also lies. This decision was positive in the moment, allowing them to be sent to a labor camp together instead of the crematorium, but in the long road, had negative implications. It is negative due to all the atrocities that he and his father experience in their fight to stay together and alive as prisoners in the concentration camps. Elie's innocence is also stripped from him afterward when he witnesses, “A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes ... children thrown into the flames (Wiesel 32).” Elie did not understand how people were doing this to others, this was the beginning of Elie’s lost hope in humanity after seeing this. During this, he also begins to question his faith in God, with anger he asks, “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? (Wiesel

Elie had the choice to remain at the camp but thought it was best to evacuate believing that those who remained would be killed. This choice negatively impacted his life because of the hardships he and his father had to endure afterwards such as marching/running through the snow, the deaths of Elie's friends Zalman and Juliek, near-death misses, and in the future, the death of his father. It was negative because he and his father could have been saved if they stayed, due to the camp being liberated two days after they had left. This affected his identity and innocence by causing him to further lose his faith in humanity. This is because on the journey to Gliewitz, Elie was taking shelter in a shed until Rabbi Eliahu came in asking people if they had seen his son. Elie then realizes that his son had purposefully left him while they were running to increase his own chance of survival. After telling Rabbi Eliahu he has not seen him, Elie then prays, "Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done (Wiesel 91)." He wishes he won't give into his own selfish desires and leave his father as well, this causes him to further lose his faith in humanity due to the discovery of Rabbi Eliahu’s son abandoning