Essay: Night
People’s experience shapes their identity and their outlook on life. Traumatic events can cause mental illnesses such as PTSD or depression, and negatively affects people’s view of the world; however, survivors felt that it’s their moral obligation to educate people so their experiences will become meaningful. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel and other survivor stories, traumatic events dehumanized people and made them question their faith.
During the Holocaust, the survivors experienced torturous events that led them to lose their beliefs and identity. In the story Night, Elie Wiesel saw children burning in the crematorium and he commented that “Never shall I forget the flames that consumed my faith”(34). His experience of
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Elie’s relationship with God was filled with hatred and damaged, for he believed God wasn’t protecting him. His thought caused him to become selfish and lose hope of surviving the Holocaust. Although he tried to maintain his humanity, Elie struggled due to his lack of faith and beliefs. A few of the survivors such as Edith Goldberg and Eugene Black from “holocaustlearning.org”, had a similar experience to Wiesel. When Edith Goldberg’s father and uncle returned after being taken away during the Kristallnacht, she observed that “they came back but they were never the same”(Goldberg). Her father and uncle had experienced trauma that led them to become different men. They were reluctant to talk about their experience, for they were still disturbed by their horrible incident. Edith Goldberg also started to question her identity after they were saved, and became terrified for her family. Another …show more content…
In the preface of Night by Elie Wiesel, he believed that “I need to give some meaning to my survival”(viii). After enduring the pain of this tragic event, Elie Wiesel wanted to preserve the history of the Holocaust. He felt like it was his moral duty to tell his story so that he can prevent history from repeating itself. Elie Wiesel didn’t want the experiences and stories of the Holocaust to be suppressed, in which he decided to write a book about his incident. In an interview with Edith Goldberg from “holocaustlearning.org”, she decided to tell her story and observed that if “they don’t teach it right it doesn’t come out right”(Goldberg). Edith Goldberg was hesitant to talk about her experience for 30 years, for she didn’t want to relive the past. However, she decided to teach the younger generation about the Holocaust to prevent a similar incident. She believed that if she didn’t speak out their experience, people will start to interpret and misunderstand history. Lastly, a survivor named Eugene Black from “holocaustlearning.org” said in an interview that “live and let live because we only here for a short short while”(Black). Eugene Black realized that people needed to acknowledge the tragedy of concentration camps, in order to preserve history. After his survival, he learned to forgive others so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed with hatred in his
All over the world people are faced with troubles. Some threatening to their lives, in these struggles many lose their faith during the fight. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, several prisoners struggled to maintain faith during the Holocaust. Throughout the novel prisoners witness horrific sights; through this they question who they are and what they believe. Many individuals struggled to maintain faith after witnessing starvation, beatings, and murders of the innocent.
Elie and his father are taken to Auschwitz where they are separated from the rest of the family and first hear about atrocities such as the incinerators and gas showers. In the beginning Elie believes that everything is a rumor, a lie, that humankind cannot perform such crimes, but he soon is forced to witness the demise in front of his eyes. This is when his outlook on his faith starts to waver. While watching the smoke billow up from a crematory, Elie hears a man standing next to him begging him to pray, and for the first time in his life Wiesel turns away from God. “The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” (31).
The book Night, a true story by Eliezer Wiesel, explains the horrific journey he and others had during the time of the Holocaust. It explains how harsh the Jews were treated in the concentration camps. The discrimination Elie Wiesel and so many others were faced with based on their looks and beliefs is very unacceptable and it’s important because many innocent lives were taken which is important to understand that the whole act of the Holocaust is a senseless act and should never nor any other similar tragedies take place again. Elie Wiesel and the others involved in the terrible journey of the Holocaust were treated with full disrespect in ways that they were brutally beaten, separated from loved ones, starved, and killed in such brutal ways. Elie Wiesel as well as others made the choice to have hope and keep their faith strong or to be overcome by evil keeping in mind that a person’s faith can be
Drastic events may change the way we view the world. It may cause us to lose our belief in God, family, and humanity. Loss of faith is displayed in Elie Wiesel’s “Night”. “Night” follows Elie’s teenage life in a Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Initially Elie has a great faith in family, humanity, and God. As days gone by inside the camp, he witnessed and experienced countless cruel acts by humans against humans. This acts have made Elie question his beliefs. In the memoir people have questioned their faith in humanity, family, and lastly God.
In 2006, Elie Wiesel published the memoir “Night,” which focuses on his terrifying experiences in the Nazi extermination camps during the World War ll. Elie, a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy, is projected as a dynamic character who experiences overpowering conflicts in his emotions. One of his greatest struggles is the sense helplessness that he feels when all the beliefs and rights, of an entire nation, are reduced to silence. Elie and the Jews are subjected daily to uninterrupted torture and dehumanization. During the time spent in the concentration camp, Elie is engulfed by an uninterrupted roar of pain and despair. Throughout this horrific experience, Elie’s soul perishes as he faces constant psychological abuse, inhuman living conditions, and brutal negation of his humanity.
The holocaust is one of the world's most tragic events, approximately 6 million Jews died and the concentration camp Auschwitz is the world's largest human cemetery, yet it has no graves. In Elie Wiesel's autobiographical memoir Night, he writes about his dehumanizing journey in the concentration camp, Auschwitz. Firstly, Elie experiences the loss of love and belonging when he is separated from his mother, sisters, and eventually his father. Also, the lack of respect that the Nazis showed the prisoners which lead to the men, including Elie to feel a sense of worthlessness in the camp. Finally, the lack of basic necessities in the camp leads to the men physically experiencing dehumanization. As a result, all these factors contribute to the
After Elie’s first night in camp, he believes God is dead; “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.” (pg 34). Here in the Holocaust, he witnesses the ‘death’ of God, or he rather recognizes it, and he thinks that he and God would never have died together. Wiesel thinks He is dead, and does not think he can escape. Then Elie realizes he is alone, “alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy… I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound…” (pg 68). It dawns on him that only he can help himself, no God, not another man, he then feels significantly stronger, than his God, as only he can save himself. Akiba Drumer, another victim of the Holocaust, who is in Elie’s camp, who is a very religious man, who begins to doubt God, and finally gives up. This is proven when Mr. Drumer was talking to Elie one day, and he uttered such cold, dry words, “It’s over. God is no longer with us.” (pg 76). Akiba was finally broken, after staying faithful with no reward, he willed himself into believing God was gone. Elie, along with many others, faith was gone, and God was
Can you imagine having everything stripped away from you, your friends, family, and all basic rights, all of it seeming like one long never ending night. Barely anyone today could, however this was a reality for Elie Wiesel, author of the award winning book Night. The book is a wonderful insight to the events of the holocaust. It is filled with grueling instances of survival, family, and even the inhumanity of man, however another kind of torture that is slightly less obvious is constantly referenced throughout this autobiography, and that is the loss of faith. Although this theme may seem less prevalent, it is in my opinion the most important one in all areas including importance to Elie Wiesel, prominence in the
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”, said Elie Wiesel the author of night. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor, he went through 5 different concentration camps. He was dehumanized, malnourished, and abused. He lost all his possessions, his family, and his humanity. In Elie Wiesel’s “Night”, the German Army dehumanizes Elie Wiesel and the jewish prisoners by depriving them of family, food, and self esteem.
The greatest change to Elie Wiesel’s identity was his loss of faith in God. Before he and his family were moved to the camps, Wiesel was a religious little boy who cried after praying at night (2). When the Hungarian police come to force the Jews to move to the ghettos, they pulled Elie from his prayers (13). Even on his way to Auschwitz, stuffed inside the cattle car with other terrified Jews, Wiesel gave thanks to God when told he would be assigned to labor camps (24). After a few days in Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel heard about the crematory and the fact that the Nazis were killing the sick, weak, and young. In his first night in the camp, Wiesel experienced his first crisis of faith: Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. …Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust (32).
“I forgive you. Not for you, but for me. Because like chains shackling me to the past, I will no longer pollute my heart with bitterness, fear, distrust or anger. I forgive you because hate is just another way of holding on, and you don’t belong here anymore.”-Beau Taplin. Elie Wiesel, author of Night and a survivor of the Holocaust, he tells all in his memoir, Night. In his memoir, he expresses his true feelings while living through the Holocaust. Wiesel gave the ones who persecuted and assassinated his family and millions of others, but he wrote his memoir to specifically let future generations remember what happen to 11 million people. In addition, Wiesel wrote Night to speak for the remembrance of the ones who died. Wiesel was a child when his family and friends were taken
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.
Traumatic and scarring events occur on a daily basis; from house fires to war, these memories are almost impossible to forget. The Holocaust is only one of the millions of traumas that have occurred, yet it is known worldwide for sourcing millions of deaths. Elie Wiesel was among the many victims of the Holocaust, and one of the few survivors. In the memoir, “Night”, by Elie Wiesel, Elie, the main character, is forever changed because of his traumatic experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camps.
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.
The Holocaust changed the lives of many. Those that survived have many terrifying stories to tell. Many survivors are too horrified to tell their story because their experiences are too shocking to express in words. Eli Wiesel overcomes this fear by publicly relaying his survival of the Holocaust. "Night", his powerful and moving story, touches the hearts of many and teaches his readers a great lesson. He teaches that in a short span of time, the ways of the world can change for the worst. He wants to make sure that if the world didn't learn anything from hearing about the atrocities of the Holocaust, maybe they'll be able to learn something from Elie's own personal experience. Usually, a person can internalize a situation better