Brendan Chou Mr. Long English 1 April 17, 2024 I Can See Fire In the novel Night written by Elie Wiesel, Elie shares his experiences of the time period during the Holocaust. One of the experiences were warnings given to the Jews of the coming of the Holocaust, but these warnings were simply dismissed or ignored entirely. Elie describes two warnings given to the Jews, one given by Moishe right before the German force arrived, and another warning given by Mrs. Schachter way after when the Jews were captured. Elie uses these warnings to communicate a lesson to readers that he didn’t learn when it was happening to him: Always heed warnings that are given to you, as you may not know what will happen in the future. Moishe was a quiet person, who …show more content…
This quote demonstrates how Moishe wanted the Jews to heed the warning, “Jews, listen to me! That’s all I ask of you. No money. No pity.” (Wiesel 7). But the Jews didn’t listen. This quote demonstrates how the Jews responded to Moishe’s warning, “They think I’m mad, he whispered, and tears, like drops of wax, flowed from his eyes.” (Wiesel 7). Moishe experienced much trauma when the Germans invaded his small town, Sighet. He saw Hungarian transport trucks taking all of his fellow Jews away into the land of Poland. To Moishe's dismay, he wouldn't see them anymore. Later, he learned that the trucks drove into the forest and let all of the Jews get out. Then they were all massacred and left there to rot. No matter how he tries to convey his warning, none of the Jews will listen. Mrs. Schacter’s warning was much different than Moishe’s. Moishe's warning came early, before the Germans arrived to kidnap the Jews, Mrs. Sachter’s warning was later followed by warning of their deaths. She was a fifty year old woman who had turned mad when her family was separated. Nobody believed her warning because of her madness. All the time on the train, the Jews heard the moaning and crying of Mrs.
The townspeople of Sighet also could not comprehend how the Germans would exterminate them and with what means. They thought, "This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages." Since the war seemed so far away the Jews of Sighet remained optimistic despite Moishe the Beadle's warnings. To many of them, including Eliezer's father, it was not worth liquidating their lives in Sighet to move to another country over the possibility of what Hitler promised. Even as the German army came closer and closer the townspeople did not believe the Germans would come that far for strategic and political reasons.
Moishe spoke out to warn everybody about the Germans and nobody believed him. According to Wiesel “Without any passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks” (6). The quote expresses what Moishe saw when he was taken away from the Hungarian police and what they ordered him and the rest of the deportees to
He survived miraculously and tries to spread the news about the torture of the German police, or Gestapo. Because he is a pauper and considered insignificant, Jews don’t believe Moishe. Germany occupies Hungary and eventually moves into Sighet. Soon, the NAZI party established ghettos to confine the
Every Jew that survived the concentration camps was not only lucky, but incredibly resilient. Moishe the Beadle is an important character in Night, Elie Wiesel uses him to
Moishe the Beadle, Elie´s mentor and Kabbalist teacher. He is seized by Hungarian officers, and expelled from Sighet, as he was a foreigner. Moishe details the Jews being moved over the Hungary border, and being taken by the Gestapo. ¨He told me what had happened to him and his companions… The train had
In the beginning, witnessing the murdering of the foreign Jews causes Moishe the Beadle’s character to change. After the foreign Jews gather
In Night, an official account of life in a concentration camp, Elie Wiesel speaks about Moishe the Beadle, a homeless man who had earned the respect of the
Moishe decided to come back to his town and warn the only people he knew instead of being silent. Secondly, Elie shows courage by staying with his father and helping his father during his last days. Elie visited his father and gave him his rations of food. Finally, the French girl provides a courageous act by cleaning off Elie’s face
The joy in his eyes was gone. He no longer sang. He no longer mentioned God or the kabbalah.” (Wiesel 7). Moishe the beadle is a foreshadowing character that is a representation of Elie.
One day, Moishe was observing Eliezer pray, and proceeded to ask him “Why do you cry when you pray?”(4). Elie just replied with “I don’t know”, Moishe then asked him why he prayed. This sparked a million thoughts through Ellie's head, “Why did I live? Why did I breathe?”. All he could say is “I don’t know”. This was the first time Elie really got his faith questioned by someone, it was so taboo to him he didn’t know how to react. Faith engulfs Elie’s life, he prays and studies his religion. Moishe is Elie's mentor, showing him and teaching him the Kabbalah revelations, Elie really expected Moishe to help him reach eternity. One day Hungarian police forced all foreign Jews out of their homes and into cattle cars, Moishe was a foreign Jew. Days passed, and one day Elie was in the synagogue and saw Moishe sitting there, he had escaped. Moishe told Elie his horrific experiences of witnessing Jew dig mass trenches only to be their graves. For days he had gone to every Jewish household to warn them about what was coming, no one wanted to believe him, it was
Others flatly said that he had gone mad.” (Wiesel) This quote shows the effects of prejudice on Moishe because he and all the other foreign Jews were subjected to be exiled and terminated because of Hitler's unfair opinion of Jews, the opinion that he instilled in his army. The prejudice had also created ignorance in the other Jews of Sighet because they didn't believe Moishe's warning of what was bound to happen to them. They thought he was crazy, had gone insane.
Moishe the Beadle was a religious person prior to being taken away to the concentration camp. Even though Moishe was lucky enough to escape from the camp, after witnessing extremely malicious acts he lost his faith. The mistreatment of the prisoners at the camp left a scar on his memory which made him believe that god is unjust, consequently losing his faith. Hence, he felt like life was not worth living anymore.
Moishe gets back into town by train and starts crying when he prays. Elie sees Moishe crying and asks him what’s wrong. Moishe tells Elie his story through tears. Elie starts worrying if this will happen to anyone else. Everybody was losing their faiths faster in the concentration camps.
Throughout the story Night, we followed Ellie throughout his experience in the holocaust. On many occasions others were forced to watch other Jewish be killed. The first sign of this which caused loss of faith was Moishe the Beadle, who was a very religious man, after
In the book, Elie talks a little about life before the Germans came in and forced them to give up their humanity. During this time, life was fairly normal and Elie spent his time studying the Zohar with a man name Moishe. Even when Moishe was forced to leave, because he was a foreign jew, not much changed; he continued studying the kabbalistic works and building a relationship with god. It isn’t until Moishe’s return that people start becoming slightly worried, but it still wasn’t enough to really cause a stir within the community. Most citizens just assumed Moishe was crazy whenever he tried to tell people his experiences away from the town. When German police came into the city, people finally began to worry. It was known throughout the town that Hitler had planned to destroy the race of jews but people didn’t believe that one man could manage to kill an entire race. For a time people and the police coexisted with some amount of peace, but then came the ghettos.