Coping With Loss, Mechanisms Of The Human Mind

Elie endured so much mental damage at his young age that it made their mental state irreversible. Elie’s story is truly inspiring, having survived one of history’s most heartbreaking, detrimental, and antisemitic events in World History. Before he was imprisoned by the Nazis, Elie lived a very religious life. God was whom he would turn to in need, and the Holocaust altered that. The division between men and women forced Elie to stay by his father’s side for the next two years in brutal, unhumane conditions.

| This passage, I think, describes how much a person can change once he or she has been exposed to the many horrors present in the Jewish concentration camps. These people in these camps might have easily become mentally unstable, because they would witness murder and beatings every day; the suffering of countless people. The people themselves also had to endure unknown numbers of days in cattle cars and barracks, which could also have been traumatic. Seeing and experiencing all of these things can change a person, and the way they think. No longer is Elie the innocent child who wanted to study religion in his hometown, but now has to deal with the living hell of his mind, which has ultimately changed him.

During the Holocaust, many victims endured horrifying experiences that changed their lives forever. In Elie Wiesel's memoir "Night," the narrator, Elie, and his father move in and out of several concentration camps, facing traumatizing moments that deeply affect Elie and reshape his identity. As depicted in "Night," victims undergo significant changes, particularly when they lose faith in their family and religion. Elie's faith in his family is challenged when he witnesses his father being beaten by Idek, a kapo in the concentration camp. Despite his love for his father, Elie struggles with conflicting emotions as he grapples with the harsh realities of survival in the camp.

Elie, his father, and the prisoners had to run in the snow more than 40 miles to another concentration camp, deeper in Germany. When they stopped a man, Rabbi Eliahou, asked if Elie and his father if they had seen his son. Elie had and he realized that the Rabbi’s son had “wanted to get rid of his father…to free himself from an encumbrance” (Wiesel 87). They then got on cattle trains that took them to the next concentration camp, Buchenwald. They passed by villages and when people threw bread in, the prisoners began to fight to the death for it. One son began to attack his own father for a piece and killed him, only to be killed the next moment himself. Soon after they arrived in Buchenwald, Eliezer’s father was very weak and sick. A part of Elie felt that if he could get rid of his father he “could use all [his] strength to struggle for [his] own survival” (Wiesel 101). He was very ashamed, even more so when his father died and he felt “free at last” (Wiesel 105).

The brutality of the Holocaust drives many to abandon a family member or loved one. For example, when the son of Rabbi Eliahou sees his father losing ground, limping, and falling to the rear of the column, he continues to run on, growing distant from his father. The son feels as if his father can no longer go on anymore. Elie’s feelings are mutual, for his father is taking him for granted. He is like a metal weight attached to Elie’s foot by a rope. Sooner or later, Elie must cut himself free, or else he won’t survive either.

During the beginning of this memoir, Elie describes the extent of psychological abuse he is subject to, plunging the reader into a theme of darkness. The brazen cruelty displayed by individuals and Nazi soldiers, is beyond all realms of rationality. Through strategic verbal abuses, Nazi soldiers slowly deprive the Jews of their stimulus and ability to react. The author reveals that “Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog…The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us” (Wiesel 36). This daily psychological pressure is intended to extinguish any trace of humanity in Jews. The Nazi soldiers know that if

While Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy subjugated to the violence of the Holocaust in Night, embarks on his atrocious journey in struggling to survive the brutality perpetrated on him, he loses his innocence in the traumatic circumstances. Wiesel’s main aspiration of writing about his development from childhood to adulthood is to showcase how cruelty within society can darken innocents’ souls. As Elie grows throughout the story, he starts to understand that he has changed from a pure, little child to a young man filled with distress and thoughts of danger. He reflects over what kind of individual he has evolved into because of the all the killings and torture he has witnessed: “I too had become a different

Then, throughout the middle of the novel, the strength of family bonds of the Jews is tested. After the run, a Rabbi asks Elie if he had seen his son, Elie tells him that he had not. Then Elie realizes that he had seen his son on the run, but he does not tell the Rabbi because his son left him behind on purpose. The text states, “He had felt his father growing weaker… by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel 91). This is where the reader begins to see the toll that the concentration camps are having on the families. Elie includes this to show, that now, family members see each other as burdens rather than a blessing. Later in the novel, family members go as far as taking a life. One old man

At the beginning of Night, Elie has a good and well-off life. He is not poor and lives comfortably with his family in Sighet, Transylvania. He may not have everything he wants, but he has what he needs. This changes overnight when Elie and the other Jews of Sighet are deported out of their ghetto and into concentration camps. The Nazis take everything from Elie, his family, name, hair, personal possessions, and confidence in his faith. Suddenly, Elie finds he is no longer the son of a well-respected Jewish community leader who has everything he needs, but rather a prisoner with no possessions or home to call his own. In minutes, he has lost everything and now finds himself in a camp where he owns just a bowl, shoes, and the clothes on his back. He doesn’t even have his own bed; that too he must share with others. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust” (Wiesel, 32). At this point, Elie has realized that the life he knew before was gone. He also probably wished he had appreciated something as simple as his name, as once he was in the camp, “I became A-7713. After that I had no other name” (Wiesel, 39). He even wished he had appreciated his sheets before the war, saying “They put me into a bed with white sheets. I had forgotten that people slept in sheets” (Wiesel, 74). All of Elie’s realizations of how good his life had been while in Sighet didn’t come until he had lost all the things he took for granted. Prior to his deportation, Elie was just like any other teenager. While he may know that he has a good life and has everything he needs, he usually doesn’t acknowledge or appreciate it. Most teenagers and adults alike take for granted their ability to provide for their needs. They don’t think about the event that

When Elie arrived at the first concentration camp, he was a child, but when left he was no longer human. Elie’s character changed through his encounter of the Holocaust. Elie idolized his religion, Judaism, one relevant identification for him. Elie spent hours praying and learning about Judaism, but it was the reason he and his family were tormented for. Elie was so intrigued by Judaism, that he wanted someone a “master” to guide in his studies of Kabbalah, an ancient spiritual wisdom that teaches how to improve the lives (Wiesel 8). Furthermore, he loses hope in God and in life. Elie only had a few items when he arrived in the camp, one being his family, but that would soon be taken from him. When Elie and his family arrived at the camp in Auschwitz, he was kept by his father. He always gazed after his father, caring for him until his death.

Elie Wiesel goes through physical transformations because of the Holocaust since he is forced to complete grueling tasks. In the beginning, Elie is a healthy 15-year-old boy living in Hungary, but his conditions plummet as soon as he enters the concentration camp.For example, a Kapo named Idek is very upset and takes it out on Elie like so, “Idek was venting his fury, I happened to cross his path. He threw himself on me like a wild beast, beating me in the chest, on my head, throwing me to the ground…”(53) This demonstrates how Elie was harmed for many reasons, some just out of fury, or to show power over another him. After seeing something he should not, Elie gets beaten until the state of unconsciousness. He writes, “ ‘Ten...Eleven!...’ His voice was calm and reached me as through a thick wall.’Twenty-three…’ Two more, I thought, half unconscious.”(58) This experience teaches Elie that the SS officers are not afraid to whip until he is unconscious to create an example to the other prisoners. Because of this, Elie Wiesel gets very hurt and has to be sent to the camp infirmary. Food at the camp also changes Elie physically. After running many kilometers to Gleiwitz, a camp far away, Elie explains his conditions saying, “The SS shoved us inside, a hundred per car: we were so skinny!” (97) This shows how the physical condition of Elie is just getting worse through this grueling time that seems like ages. In addition, Elie and his father are not being fed nearly enough. That leads to Elie’s father getting sick and getting dysentery. It is evident that Elie’s physical conditions changed greatly over his

During his time in the concentration camps, Elie’s outlook on life shifted to a very pessimistic attitude, showing emotions and actions including rebellion, forgetfulness of humane treatment, and selfishness. Elie shows rebellion early in the Holocaust at the Solemn Service, a jewish ceremony, by thinking, “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled” (Wiesel 67). Elie had already shifted his view on his religion and faith in God. After witnessing some of the traumas of the concentration camps, Elie questioned what he did to deserve such treatment. Therefore, he began to rebel against what he had grown up learning and believing. Not only had Elie’s beliefs changed, his lifestyle changed as well. When Elie’s foot swelled, he was sent to the doctor, where they put him “...in a bed with white sheets. I [he] had forgotten that people slept in sheets” (Wiesel 78). Many of the luxuries that Elie may have taken for granted have been stripped of their lives, leaving Elie and the other victims on a thin line between survival and death. By explaining that he forgot about many of these common luxuries, Elie emphasizes the inhumane treatment the victims of the Holocaust were put through on a daily basis.

The Wiesel family had been deported from Sighet and taken to the Auschwitz-Birkeanu camp, where all deportees were put into two different lines, males and females. This is where Elie and his father were separated from the rest of their family. It is after they realized that they had survived the first selection that Elie, looking back, says: "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 that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never" (P34). In this quote, the author applies visual, auditive and olfactory imagery to portray the theme of the horrors of war. Here, Elie reflects upon his experiences and how these have permanently marked him, making him feel haunted by such memories. On the other hand, the reader feels heartbroken and hopeless, seeing as Wiesel will have to shape his life around the impact that the camps had on

Elie’s father loses his strength quickly, “his eyes [grew] dim” (46) almost immediately after arriving. The horrors which he had seen were easily enough to crush the spirit of a former community leader. His disbelief of the horrors he saw questioned the very basis of his soul, and he began to despair. His father’s eyes soon become, “veiled with despair” (81), as he loses hope for survival. The despair of camp life shrouds the human within, showing only another cowed prisoner. Elie’s father no longer can see hope, having his vision clouded by cruelty and hate. Elie’s father is eventually overwhelmed by despair; he, “would not get up. He knew that it was useless” (113). The Nazis crushed his soul, killed his family, stole his home, and eventually took his life; this treatment destroyed the person inside the body. He could no longer summon the strength to stay alive, so he gave up, and collapsed.

In Elie Wiesel's memoire, instincts of self-preservation overwhelm all other human emotion. While at Auschwitz Elie and his father were transferred to new barracks were Elie's father was beaten by a gypsy inmate who was in charge for politely asking were the bathroom was. Elie describes his reaction of standing petrified and thinking "What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal's flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast? Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this. My father must have guessed my thoughts, because he whispered in my ear: 'It doesn’t hurt.' His cheek still bore the red mark of the hand." (3.117-120)Elie's lack of reaction showcases how the environment of the concentration camp was already conditioning Elie to put his needs of survival ahead of his human identity. Weasels description of the events show how the brutality of the camps have changed Elie's actions and thoughts because Elie knows that interfering in the encounter would mean sacrificing basic survival; love and human emotions are no longer a priority.