At the Mind's Limit by Jean Amery: Book Report

Eliezer Wiesel was a young Jewish boy who cherished his faith and family. During the Holocaust, Wiesel and his family were first taken to Birkenau where he and his father, Chlomo, were separated from his mother, Sarah, his older sisters Hilda and Beatrice, and his younger sister Tzipora. Throughout Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he uses many themes, techniques, and figurative language to express his time in the concentration camp. He develops the theme of struggle to maintain faith by using the foreign language, sensory details, and questions techniques.

Such a heinous event that has marked the world and the Jewish religion, Eliezer Wiesel as a young man recalls the story of the horrid occurrences that he went through in the concentration camps. He has been able to express throughout the book changes in himself, changes in his faith, and changes in his decisions as he went through the course

The Holocaust, yet another unpleasant time in history tainted with the blood and suffering of man. Human beings tortured, executed and starved for hatred and radical ideas. Yet with many tragedies there are survivors, those who refused to die on another man’s command. These victims showed enormous willpower, they overcame human degradation and tragedies that not only pushed their beliefs in god, but their trust in fellow people. It was people like Elie Wiesel author of “Night”, Eva Galler,Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser, and Solomon Radasky that survived, whose’ mental and physical capabilities were pushed to limits that are difficult to conceive. Each individual experiences were different, but their survival tales not so far-reaching to where the fundamental themes of fear, family, religion and self-preservation played a part in surviving. Although some of these themes weren’t always so useful for survival.

The Holocaust is one of the most darkened events in human history, as it serves as a horrible event that took place 80 years ago. It stands as a chilling reminder of unchecked bigotry and intolerance of humans across the years and how a supreme leader can influence hatred in the souls of others. In the book ‘Night’, Eliezer Wiesel endured physical and mental pain while he was living in the camp. He was treated inhumanely like the rest of the inmates in Auschwitz who had lived there for years. This event shattered families across the nation, leaving permanent scars for generations to come, Elie was one of the millions of people who were affected by this event, and he bravely shared his memoir of some of the horrifying instances that he endured

The author demonstrates that an adverse atmosphere can cause a person to relinquish their faith. The author establishes the purpose through the sufferings of Moishe the Beadle, Wiesel’s torment and plight of other prisoners in the concentration camp.

Greater than any war, plague, or catastrophe and it’s potential damage to human life is beyond calculation, the feeling of dehumanization is a feeling beyond description. Elie Wiesel a Jew Holocaust survivor from Sighet, Transylvania writes a memoir Night. In his memoir he writes about his own experiences in 1944 during the holocaust. Throughout this story Elie goes through lots of challenges that ultimately challenge his faith as a human. In resemblance, Jakob Blankitny a Jew from Maków Mazowiecki, Poland writes his take on his experiences in 1944 throughout the holocaust and how he and his family are treated by the Nazis and degraded as humans. In dire circumstances, these texts argue that dissolving one into a primitive with savage, animal characteristics are necessary for survival under inhumane conditions.

The novel Night by Eliezer Wiesel is one that will open up the readers mind to a whole new view of the happenings in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Eliezer, in the beginning of the novel had an exceptional dedication to his faith. He spent every day studying Talmud (central text of Judaism that focuses on Jewish law and history), but at night he would study Kabbalah (mystical interpretation of the bible) with his companion Moshie the Beadle. The exile of the Jews to the concentration camps took a huge toll on Wiesel, which caused his faith to shake and grow weak throughout the process of the events. This papers purpose is to dive into the journey of Eliezer Wiesel’s decline of faith during the Holocaust.

The memoir,”Night”, shows the perspective of Elie Wiesel, a young boy that was sent to a concentration camp alongside hundreds of other Jews, that lost their valuables , faith and family.The terror within the concentration camp slowly deteriorate the Jews ,physically and mentally.The jews had a choice to be selfish or selfless,given the jews’ situation it is best to do what was in their best interest. Throughout Elie Wiesel’s memoir, “Night”; many individuals had a hard time navigating the brutality within the concentration camps.Through these times of brutality, many people in the camp had to choose to either be selfish or altruistic. Given the jew’s situation, it is better to act selfish than to be altruistic.

The Holocaust was not only a way for the Nazis to purge the Jews, it was also a movement for a new way of thinking, that as long as the person in front of you holds a military-grade firearm there is nothing you can do to change your fate. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel recounts his journey through life in nazi concentration camps. Elie struggles with his faith and morality as he and his father witness the horrors of the Holocaust. Night reveals that it’s in human nature to hope for survival through religion and faith, however it can also fail in the most trying of circumstances when you have to relent to authoritarianism.

As the famous journalist Iris Chang once said, “As the Nobel Laureate warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.” After experiencing the tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust, Eliezer Wiesel narrated “Night”. Eliezer wrote “Night” in an attempt to prevent something similar to the Holocaust from happening again, by showing the audience what the consequences are that come from becoming a bystander. Elie illustrated numerous themes by narrating the state of turmoil he was in during the Holocaust. In Night, Eliezer provided insight into what he experienced in order to teach the unaware audience about three themes; identity, silence, and faith.

"Introduction to the Holocaust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.

Between Dignity and Despair, a book written by Marion A. Kaplan, published in 1998, gives us a portrait of Jewish life in Nazi Germany by the astounding memoirs, diaries, interviews with survivors, and letters of Jewish women and men. The book is written in chronological order of events, from the daily life of German Jewish families prior to when the Holocaust began to the days when rights were completely taken away; from the beginning of forced labor and exile to the repercussion of the war. Kaplan tries to include details from each significant event during the time of the Holocaust. Kaplan

“I only know that without this testimony, my life as a writer--or my life, period-- would not become what it is: that of a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory” (Wiesel, Night viii). As a result of the horrors that Elie Wiesel experienced during the Holocaust, he devoted his life to become meaningful. Wiesel’s decent disposition changes through atrociously inhumane conduct toward Jews during the Holocaust as he becomes a brute to solidify identity, levy fears, and boost morale.

Six million jews. Six million innocent men, women and children. Emerging from the ashes and corpses, one man had the intention of preserving this tragedy, yet at the same time preventing it. Elie Wiesel’s fulfilled his purpose of showing the heinous crimes of the Holocaust through the change of characterization of Elie before, during and after the events of Wiesel 's 1940 memoir-Night. The Holocaust is remembered as a stain on history, where a massive genocide occurred. but we must also recognize the souls and personalities that were killed and burned. Wiesel trembling hands picked up these ashes, personifying their ebony remains into a young child-Elie.

Everyone experiences emotional and physiological obstacles in their life. However, these obstacles are incomparable to the magnitude of the obstacles the prisoners of the Holocaust faced every day. In his memoir, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, illustrates the horrors of the concentration camps and their mental tool. Over the course of Night, Wiesel demonstrates, that exposure to an uncaring, hostile world leads to destruction of faith and identity.