Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the holocaust, nobel peace prize winner, and an author of many books including ‘Night’. Night is about Elie's experiences in Auschwitz. Elies spent nearly one year in the concentration camp, he was deported in May of 1944 and was liberated in April of 1945. Elie throughout his teenage years had an up and down relationship with his faith. Elie's faith before the concentration camps was very strong, he was very concerned about his studies of his faith. During his time in concentration camps his faith was weak from all he and what he has witnessed others endured. When he was in the death march his faith was faint and during liberation it was still weak but it was starting to increase. After the holocaust his faith …show more content…
At first he and most of the others thought that this was just God testing them or punishing them for their sins ‘God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign he loves us much more …’(45). Elie started to lose his faith after he witnessed the hanging of the pipel. A man asked after the hanging ‘For God's sake, where is God’(65) and inwardly Elies answers ‘Where He is? This is where hanging here from this gallows…’. Elie's faith continues to weaken while he is in the camp. His faith weakens from seeing so many people dying or dead. From seeing him and others starving, from seeing people abandon their family and friends for their own survival. Elie keep his faith God by being surrounded by death and suffering that seemingly God is …show more content…
The Rabbi’s son abandoned his father during the march, running faster to put distance between them. So because of this and in spite of Elie losing his faith he sent a prayer to God ‘Oh God, master of the universe, give me the strength to never do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done’(91). His father died a little later in January. Elie felt that his life didn't matter after that, so he did not speak of it. On April 11th liberation came and no one thought of revenge they only thought of food. After liberation his faith was probably still rocky. At that point Elie probably did begin the journey of regaining his
Night by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, is a powerful memoir about the Holocaust. The Nazis slaughtered six million Jews and five million Gentiles during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel underwent many transformations throughout the dreaded concentration camps, especially with his relationship with his father, and his faith in God. Throughout Elie’s experience at Auschwitz, his devotion and perception of God changed drastically.
In one of the book’s most famous passages, Elie states that “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live,” Elie finds it disturbing about the idea of God’s silence. He wonders how the all-powerful god can allow such horror and cruelty when the people devote their entire lives worshipping. This is when he notices that God is actually dead. The existence of knowing that God had the lack of divine responsibility shakes Eliezer into almost losing his faith with the hangings.
But life in Auschwitz grows deadly, and Elie begins to doubt his faith in God. During his first night in Auschwitz, Wiesel describes what he felt as he slept next to the crematorium that claimed the lives of innocent people, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed... Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes,” (Wiesel 34). As Elie watches the ashes of small children escape into the night sky, he feels his faith in God wither. One evening in Auschwitz, Elie doubts God and religion, “Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come.
Is having a strong faith possible after living through one of the most difficult times in the world? At the age of 15, Elie Wiesel was taken from his home in Sighet, Hungary along with his family by the Germans and was brought to a concentration camp. Wiesel was a very religious child. He wanted to study more advanced lessons that grown men would be learning. While being religious, Wiesel’s beliefs were starting to be questioned as so many innocent people were being killed every day right before his very eyes.
To strangle the doctor and the others! To set the whole world on fire! My father’s murderers! But even the cry stuck in my throat” (109).” This explains how Elie wants revenge against the Nazis that has killed his people.
Elie himself begins to lose his humanity and his faith in God and in the
Throughout both experiences, Immaculée and Elie struggle to keep their faith, but in the end, even the little hope in Elie that there is a God, helps him survive. Immaculée knows that without God, she would not be alive. “If I lost my faith, I knew I wouldn’t survive” (Ilibagiza 80). Elie is hard on himself because he is a Jew, and he believes he is overall worthless. But he stills speaks to himself knowing that if he made it this far, then there is a reason he is still here.
Elie’s anger and confusion obviously shows a loss of faith immediately after arriving in Birkenau. Another example of Elies loss of faith in God would be the hanging of the pipel. One day, the pipel’s Oberkapo was caught sabotaging the Nazi’s central electric plant. The Oberkapo’s punishment was to be tortured in order for the Nazi’s to get the names of the other people involved in the sabotage with him, but he would not say, so he was then transported t Auschwitz and never heard from again.
At the beginning of Night, Elie was someone who believed fervently in his religion. His experiences at Auschwitz and other camps, such as Birkenau and Buna have affected his faith immensely. Elie started to lose his faith when he and his father arrived at Birkenau. They saw the enormous flames rising from a ditch, with people being thrown in.
One that is already believing cannot simply stop believing in something like that. But one can change is opinion on and view on Elie’s faith was tested many times in Night. There was many a time where he questioned god and his belief in him. After going through so much he eventually lost his faith. Elie has gone through so much that his faith or even his will to live and survive after his father died are all gone.
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.
I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him” (69). An obvious split from God is in this quotation. Elie refuses to honor this sacred holiday to rebel against the God who appears to have left him. He rebels against God’s notion of grace and protection of the Jewish people, for neither of these ideals are apparent in the live he seems to have been cursed to live.
He feels almost anger that the others still put faith in God. He feels that God is lesser than man, that Man is stronger because they still worship God after all they have been through. He felt that he “was the accuser, God the accused.” This is the final stretch, and Elie no longer believes in God or religion.
Elie’s father should have faith that he would be getting out of the concentration camp sometime. After a child and two other men were being hung, a man asks where is God, and why is he letting this
Night Paper Assignment Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a tragic memoir that details the heinous reality that many persecuted Jews and minorities faced during the dark times of the Holocaust. Not only does Elie face physical deprivation and harsh living conditions, but also the innocence and piety that once defined him starts to change throughout the events of his imprisonment in concentration camp. From a boy yearning to study the cabbala, to witnessing the hanging of a young child at Buna, and ultimately the lack of emotion felt at the time of his father 's death, Elie 's change from his holy, sensitive personality to an agnostic and broken soul could not be more evident. This psychological change, although a personal journey for Elie, is one that illustrates the reality of the wounds and mental scars that can be gained through enduring humanity 's darkest times.