John Dalberg-Acton, an English historian, politician, and writer, once stated, “In every age [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies: by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.” The previously shared quote mentions many of the key aspects behind the start and duration of the holocaust. Prisoners in Hitler’s harsh death camps often found themselves forced to make one-sided choiceless choices. They were presented with false options as both paths lead to one final predetermined fate, death. However, despite the exorbitant odds, a few lucky prisoners have survived under such tyranny. Elie Wiesel was one of the fortunate individuals who had pushed through the forever-narrowing hope of survival. In Elie Wiesel’s Night, a memoir, Elie ultimately survived the holocaust through many choiceless choices. These choices ranged from willingly changing his age, choosing life or faith, and marching with little hope of another day. One of the first instances that required Elie to …show more content…
While the prisoners were stuck in the concentration camps, a major Jewish holiday was to be celebrated. The holiday of Yom Kipper is often celebrated with a fast. The already starved Jewish prisoners must decide if their faith or stomach is more important. For many prisoners fasting was not an option, as missing one ration meant death. Elie found himself choosing his stomach over faith, “And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. 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). Elie shows the other option within this choiceless choice. If a prisoner fasts they risk physical death, but if a prisoner chooses their stomach they will spiritually
The Jews made the decision to disobey their religion and eat food on a day they were supposed to be fasting. On the jewish holiday the people in camp discussed whether they should fast for the day, or if they should have disobeyed and eaten food. Wiesel knew that “to fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death” (30). Wiesel was smart. some of the other Jews in camp did fast and ended up dieing a lot faster.
In his autobiography novel, “Night”, author Elie Wiesel writes about the horrors of his past, and towards the end he saw himself as a corpse when he looked upon the mirror which reflects his current state; he no longer believed in God’s goodness nor His justice. Elie Wiesel was a Jewish boy who had strong faith in God, but over the course of his life when he went through catastrophic events such as losing his mother, father, younger sister, starving, and being in concentration camps he declined God’s justice and blamed him for everything that was happening to him. In 1944 Elie and his family were deported to Auschwitz, a concentration camp, and that was where the horrors began. In the first instance, when Elie and his family arrived at the
Lastly, by choosing not to fast on the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, Elie was able to maintain enough strength to continue working and stay alive. If it was not for these choices and staying with his dad the entire way through, Elie would not have made it out of the camps alive. His father guided him in his decisions and helped him remain safe in such a dangerous area. Even though it seemed impossible to make it out of the Holocaust alive as a Jewish person, Elie Wiesel did it. He was beaten, starved, forced under hard labor, watched many people die, and had to watch his own mother die, and yet Elie Wiesel accomplished the
Everything is a choice. Everything is a choice, from what you got to eat in the morning to believing in God. In the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, each choice was a choice of life and death. All decisions people make change their lives forever, no matter how big or small. Elie’s lying, staying, and leaving left him to be living today, but what if.
Throughout the entirety of what we see in the novel Night we can observe the vastness of the struggle of life, death and decision. It is there in the camp that one decision, one action, one choice a person makes could dictate the outcome of their mortality for the future. How do you survive such a horrid period of agony? What choices can even you make to remain sane and alive? Eliezer, a young jewish boy, must make countless decisions in the course of his time at the concentration camp.
The Nazis gave out limited rations—one bowl of soup and one slice of bread daily. This quantity of food did not suffice, yet some people decided they would fast, weakening them. Elie and his father did not fast. Elie had a few reasons; the memoir states, ‘I did not fast. First of all, to please my father who had forbidden me to do so.
Elie Wiesel, a young and naive Jewish boy in the novel Night, is unfortunately entangled in the dark, inhumane atrocities of the Holocaust during the period of World War II, losing his family in the process. To his demise, he turns the last of his hope to God in search of any sign of progress in the favor of the Jewish prisoners, gaining nothing in return for his once undying fidelity. Throughout his experience in various camps, Elie encounters both individuals akin to himself and those with vastly different perceptions of society. Due to these clashing ideologies, his mindset began to diverge in two: questioning higher powers and self-preservation. His people were in a forced regression of dehumanization as the Nazi Germans enact a policy
Chance can make or break our lives, while choice can help us escape and survive something extreme. In Night, a non-fiction memoir, written by Elie Wiesel in 1956. Wiesel shares his story about the nightmare he experienced when he and his family were deported to Auschwitz, one of the many Nazi death camps during WW2. He tells his horrific life story of how he survived the Holocaust, witnessed, and endured the mistreatment of European Jews and prisoners of war. Wiesel wrote this memoir to make people see the bravery, courage, and guilt of the Jews.
The heart wrenching and powerful memoir “Night” by Elie Wiesel depicts Elie’s struggle through the holocaust. It shows the challenges and struggles Elie and people like him faced during this mournful time, the dehumanization; being forced out of their homes, their towns and sent to nazi concentration camps, being stripped of their belongings and valuables, being forced to endure and witness the horrific events during one of history’s most ghastly tales. In “Night” Elie does not only endure a physical journey but also a spiritual journey as well, this makes him question his determination, faith and strength. This spiritual journey is a journey of self discovery and is shown through Elie’s struggle with himself and his beliefs, his father
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in history. It just so happened to be the cause of six million deaths. While there are countless beings who experienced such trauma, it is impossible to hear everyone's side of the story. However, one man, in particular, allowed himself to speak of the tragedies. Elie Wiesel addressed the transformation he underwent during the Holocaust in his memoir, Night.
Fasting can be physically and mentally challenging, particularly for those with certain medical conditions. It can lead to dehydration, low blood sugar, and other health issues. In "Night," Wiesel was in a concentration camp where he was subjected to starvation and other forms of physical abuse.
Traditionally, Jewish people fast during this extremely important holiday. When the day arrives, Jews in the concentration camp are conflicted: should they fast as they always have, or do circumstances outweigh traditions? Wiesel recounts this argument in Night: “...there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises. I did not fast...
To find a man who has not experienced suffering is impossible; to have man without hardship is equally unfeasible. Such trials are a part of life and assert that one is alive by shaping one’s character. In the autobiographical memoir Night by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, this molding is depicted through Elie’s transformation concerning his identity, faith, and perspective. As a young boy, Elie and his fellow neighbors of Sighet, Romania were sent to Auschwitz, a macabre concentration camp with the sole motive of torturing and killing Jews like himself. There, Elie experiences unimaginable suffering, and upon liberation a year later, leaves as a transformed person.
Sometimes situations occur in our lives that happen because of chance awhile other times they occur because of a choice made. This is especially true with Eliezer in Elie Wiesel’s Night. Eliezer has a series of events happen to him that have happened be chance or by choice. Eliezer never asked to be a Jew in a time when it was so fatal to be one but it happened by chance.
Starvation, death, anti- semitism, mistreatment, pain, forced labor, abuse -- all are situations Jewish people had to experience How did prisoners endure such hardships? Was it better to focus on one’s own survival or to work together to survive? In the memoir Night and the movie Schindler’s List, director Steven Spielberg and author Elie Wiesel explore this idea. They explore this idea by showing Jews helping other Jews to live and survive during the horrors of the Holocaust in Night and Schindler’s List.