Why Do We Have Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

Have you ever been in a tough situation, where you lost all your hope and faith? People in the Holocaust did. The Holocaust, located in Auschwitz, was the most horrific event in the 20th century, which killed about six to ten million jews. In the memoir Night written by Elie Wiesel, a book about his experience in Auschwitz, his faith plays in an important role in his survival at the hands of the Nazis. Some of the major effects that challenged Eliezer’s faith was his dad. He wanted to stay for his dad but he also didn't want to live because he lost hope that they wouldn't be free, yet he endures through his belief through God.

Eliezer, in the book Night by Elie Wiesel was a very religious boy and always prayed to God when they were still living in Sighet and he says, "Man asks and God replies.". When they were forced to leave their homes in Sighet he says, "God alone could answer you.", which he is telling us that he still believes in God and prays to him. Eliezer said, "Oh God, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us...", when they arrived in the Ghettos because he didn't know what was going to happen so he was praying for the best. When they arrived at Auschwitz Eliezer said in the book, "Confidence soared. Suddenly we felt free of the previous nights' terror.

In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the author describes his own regression of faith while imprisoned in Auschwitz, the Jewish concentration camp. As a thirteen-year-old boy, Wiesel is a devout orthodox Jew living in a tight knit community within Transylvania. Wiesel’s life, before taken to Auschwitz, bases on his personal adoration of the Jewish religion and his pursuit to find a teacher of the Kabballah regardless of his father’s persistent discouragement. In the forward of the memoir, Wiesel explicitly declares that as a young boy “he lived only for God” (xix). Throughout Wiesel’s confinement in the concentration camp, his faith wavers as he bears witness to horrific and hostile crimes against humanity, which contribute to the thorough resentment and rejection of God in his own life. Wiesel’s shows his loss of faith through his diction, tone, and figurative language he

In the book “Night” Elie Wiesel’s loss of faith and spiritual struggle throughout the narrative demonstrates a personal experience that ties into the more general struggle of the wider Jewish community, the challenge of how their religious faith and spirituality played a role in their survival in the face of extreme suffering. Before the Nazis took control of the German country, the Jewish community lived quite peaceful and successful lives even despite the anti-Semitism during the time. Looking at sources, many talk about how large the Jewish community was in eastern Europe but separate from the country’s culture. However, in western Europe the Jewish community were more integrated with their own countries culture. As stated by the Holocaust Encyclopedia the Jewish community in western Europe “ tended to adopt the culture of their non-Jewish neighbors.

Throughout Elie Wiesel’s Experiences at the concentration camp his views on faith, life, and himself altered significantly. The Nazis strategized how they were going to exterminate and torture the prisoners physically as well as mentally. Although the prisoners were devalued by the nazis they often devalued themselves. The Nazis deprived prisoners of basic human rights in order to brainwash them into devaluing themselves.

Elie Wiesel’s experience during the holocaust was extremely harsh. During this experience he fought with his own thoughts on whether or not he should believe in God. In the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel’s view on God would often change. Wiesel would go from believing God would do all for a reason, good or bad, to why should he even believe in God’s existence if bad things were happening all around him. It is completely understandable that Wiesel would question his faith every so often because he had undergone so many horrible experiences during the holocaust. It affected him so much more because he went from a young boy full of innocence to a young boy in a concentration camp in Auschwitz, where he had everything from his family to being treated

Over the course of his time there, he is worked hard and witnesses horrific deaths. Because of all the traumatic events that occurred, he lost faith in the God he once believed in unconditionally. John Roth, author of In the Beginning, explained that the holocaust could only have happened if there was no God (35). However this is not true. In actuality, Eliezer explains that there is a God, he just does not believe in His power anymore. Elie does not say that he has become an atheist or that God had died as many people believe” (Brown 72). Elie simply does not believe in Him because of all the events that occurred while he was in the concentration camps.

The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel shows how strength helps one survive through the most horrendous of events. This strength is achieved by the Jews through religion. Religion is based on structure and the Nazis took this structure away from the Jews, making many of them lose faith in God. Elie, being quite young, was influenced by the entire event, which causes his to question his faith, just like many other Jews during the holocaust. As a quite innocent boy, he was introduced to the concentration camp with a pure heart, and originally was a person who truly was the definition of religious. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, however, Eliezer's faith falters by witnessing the painful death of many innocent lives, the harsh conditions of the

Indian civil rights leader, Mahatma Gandhi, once wrote, “Faith is not something you can grasp, it is a state to grow into.” In this quote, Gandhi explains how faith is not only a strong concept, but also an individual journey one must take. However, since faith is described as a state of change, it is necessary that one can let go of the burden of religion. In the memoir, Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, details his personal experiences with God and faith. Set during the Holocaust, Wiesel was one of millions of Jews persecuted for his faith; he was thrown into one of the deadliest concentration camps at age 15. In the beginning of the memoir, Elie Wiesel attempts to study the Kabbalah and pursue numerous religious endeavours; as the memoir continues, Elie begins to lose his religion. Although many people in the world may rely on faith and religion, Elie Wiesel presents the memoir, Night, along with its many symbols to show that even in the most dire of circumstances, faith cannot always help an individual in need.

In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the Holocaust and its atrocities are presented to us in a detailed manner. However, this book takes us deeper than just the physical triumphs and horrendous encounters, but also the pain of loosing complete faith in God. Wiesel goes as far as saying “In the depths of my heart, I felt a great void” (60). Anyone who went through such an atrocity, where the most unfathomable things occurred, where children and families were ripped apart and murdered, would question or even loose their faith in a God.

While the Holocaust was going on someone wrote a quote on a cellar wall, and that quote read, “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when he is silent.” Whoever wrote that quote had so much faith in God that even though nothing was being done about what was happening to them at the time, that he still believed God was doing everything in His power to help them. Elie Wiesel was put through so much through the few years he was in the concentration camps, yet he still managed to pull through and write a book about his experiences. Dehumanization occurred many times throughout Elie’s books, he went through not eating or drinking anything but snow for seven days,

In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel the main message is that many people are losing faith in each other and everything. Once someone lose their faith, they lose their faith in God and they start to just give up on what their main focus was. People can start losing their faith once they see things that should be seen. It starts to scare them and their faith is lost. Elie started to slowly lose his faith once he was separated with his mother because he was brought to a place where inhumane things were happening. Once people start to lose their faith, they start doing things that leads to the loss of humanity.

Faith is like a little seed; if you think about the positive aspects of a situation, then it will grow, like a seed grows when you water it. However, if the seed does not receive water anymore, it will die, which serves as a parallel to the horrors and antagonism of the concentration camps that killed Elie’s faith. After the analysis of the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, the reader can visualize the horrors and slaughter of millions of innocent people that occurred in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel explains how his faith in God was tested, as he was forced to leave his home, separated from his family, and observed the death all around him; he even witnessed children being thrown into huge ditches of fire alive. Elie felt abandoned, betrayed, and deceived by the God that he knew who was a loving and giving God. It was then he started to doubt His existence. Elie tried to hold on to his faith, but the childhood innocence had disappeared from within him, and he lost his faith in God completely.

In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, Elie writes about terrifying and heartbreaking experiences that took place during the time of the Holocaust. The Jews were actively involved in prayer, attending the synagogue, and almost every single person had a firm belief in God. When the Nazi’s invaded Sighet and started tearing away their liberties, the Jews were hopelessly optimistic and completely depended on God for a good outcome of the war. Throughout the entire time that the Jews were deported, transported, beaten, starved, and murdered, they cried out to God and worshiped Him in the most difficult times. Elie, a young man who devoted much of his time to studying the Zorah and developing His relationship with God, began to question and despise God when he, his family, and his friends endured such horrible pain and suffering during the Holocaust. Elie reminisces about the flames that he saw many Jews tossed into. He quotes, “Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.” (34). When Elie witnessed the bodies of many Jews be incinerated in a furnace, he said that the same flames also consumed his faith forever. The reasons that he said this are because Elie was stripped of his spiritual groundings, Elie lost hope in God’s providence, and Elie’s surroundings didn’t reflect the God that he thought He knew.

In the beginning of the book, Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer’s faith was very devout. “Why did I pray? Strange Question. Why did i live? Why did I breathe?””(4). Eliezer prayed when in need and looked to God for answers, just like when the jews were evacuated to the ghettos. “Oh god, master of the universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us...”(20). While in Auschwitz 1, Eliezer was starting to feel changed. He still believed in the existence of God but ceased to actually pray to him. “Some of the men spoke to God..but I doubted his absolute justice”(45). Eliezer then went on growing more questionable about God and his abilities.