...Elie’s Faith Throughout His Life Elie Wiesel’s Night tells the haunting tale of a young man being turned into an animal because of his religion. Elie was a passionate teen boy who was devoted to Judaism living in Czechoslovakia. But soon, Nazi Germany begins the Final Solution, a meticulous plan to eradicate all Jews and any other unorthodox humans in Europe. Thus, Elie and his family is transported to the concentration camp, Auschwitz. He faces the horrors of the camp, and his faith begins to waver as he and God watch innocent lives being stripped away. Throughout the book, Elie is constantly battling his devotion to God, changing from the faithful teen in the beginning to the animalistic man who hated his god and back to a man who was able to regain his faith. Eliezer was extremely devoted in his religious studies in the beginning, almost as if all his trust and hope went into God. He had a fiery passion to pursue and study the ancient, holy texts of his people, keeping his faith close to his heart. He spent his time either studying or staying at a place of worship. Elie began at the early age of twelve, saying that “I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue...
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...next second they are locked up in cages and are tortured. This brutality created by the Holocaust tore relationships between children and parents. In the two novels Night and Sarah’s Key the two main characters, Sarah Starzynski and Elie Wiesel, suffer through the Holocaust, which impacts their relationship with their parents and their close connections are affected by death and torture in the death camps. Sarah Starzynski starts out with a wonderful life in France, but soon is rounded up in the Vel d'Hiv and sent to a death camp with her family. Likewise, Elie Wiesel, is a religious teenager, that is taken away to the Auschwitz death camp where he struggles to survive. To begin with, Sarah was a young Jewish girl, around eleven, with blond hair and was protective of her little brother, Michael whom she locked in a cup board in order to protect him from the police. Before the Holocaust, Sarah asserted that, “ She was safe, with her mother, with her father.” ( Rosnay, 19)This statement suggests that Sarah was just an innocent, and clueless girl before the Holocaust which made her relay on her parents more. Thus, the close connection between Sarah and her parents was still strong because of Sarah’s...
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...Revival To humans, the cause of suffering will always remain a mystery. Calamities, persecutions, hardships, insults; humans live to suffer. Elie Wiesel is an American Romanian-born Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, who tells of his horrific tale in the novel, “Night.” Throughout the novel, Wiesel tells a journalistic story about suffering and death as he endures dreadful experiences in Nazi death camps. At one point in the story, Wiesel compares himself to Job, a character of the Bible who he feels he can relate to. At first, Wiesel fights the urge to reject God in his suffering which is an uncommon action when all hope is gone. Firstly, within the pages of the Bible reads a narrative story called, “The Book of Job.” In Job, there is a man who God allows to be directly attacked by Satan. He is an illustration of devotion as he is stripped of everything yet he remains devoted to God. By allowing Satan to attack Job, God testifies his faithfulness to him. Job was abundantly blessed by God. He had a wonderful family, a huge house, plenty of animals, and food on the table. Through...
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...In today’s day, we respect the past but rarely delve into it except for certain days. Elie Wiesel’s book Night is the self-account of Wiesel’s life in the Holocaust. It reflects back to the time through the eyes of a Jewish boy living in the awful conditions. It tells the story from the first few steps that Hitler takes, to when the camps was liberated. Wiesel delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity. The Final Days is a film about resistance in Nazi Germany of one woman in particular. The movie starts off showing the main character having fun and there is light and laughter. This quickly changes as it shows her with members of the White Rose, an Anti-Nazi organization. She was caught and found guilty. This movie is a true story based on an actual Sophie Scholl who lived throughout this and was a member of the White Rose. Although one is about standing up for your rights not matter the consequence, and one is about knowing when hope is but a lost phrase, barely living in your mind. While that is all true, they also have a lot of differences, for instance, they have very different main characters who come from different parts and are effected by the war in different ways, each story is told in very different ways and each has its own meaning, and they have different messages that are portrayed throughout each. In the memoir Night, Elie starts off as a regular Jewish boy in Sighet, Transylvania. He was a teenager when his family...
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...1st Period Mrs. Bryant LOVE OR HATE Hate is stronger then love because when there is no love present hate shows more than anything. In the books , examples were everywhere , of peopling showing hatred. Hate is present everywhere in this world not only in these books. In “Briar Rose” by Jane Yolen there were many prime examples of hatred being shown by not only a few people , but millions. The Germans , Jewish , and Polish , and gays were the groups. The main two were the Jewish and Germans who displayed so much hatred that it led to millions of deaths. Love was obviously not present in these times. Another reason for my belief that hate is stronger emotion than love , was in the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel. The best example shown was towards the end of the book. Elie lost all the love he had for everyone , including his dad. He watched his father die and let it happen to keep his belongings for his self. In “The Chosen” by Chaim Potock the love started off strong at the beginning then hatred over powered it. Especially during the baseball game. The players wanted to kill each other rather than playa fair game of baseball! When Reb banned his son from seeing Rueben was also hate being shown by all 3 characters. Although love plays a role in these books , I found that hate played a greater role. No matter the reasoning , people will always show some sort of hate towards the...
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...Elie Wiesel’s Loss of Innocence There comes a time in one’s life where a tragic event results in the loss of innocence and an increase in knowledge. Unfortunately this is one of life’s few promises. Some experience this ablution a lot sooner than they should. In children who survived the holocaust in concentration camps, their innocence was taken as soon as their ordinary everyday life was imposed upon by the Nazis. In Elie Wiesel’s book Night, he describes himself as an innocent teenager, a child whose innocence was taken from him as the result of the nefariousness performed by the Nazis in World War Two. Elie and his family were transported to Birkenau where his family was torn apart, leaving him with his father, his sisters and his mother. Once they were separated, he began to slowly lose his innocence. Towards the end of 1941, in the small village of Sighet, Hungary, twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel spent most of his time studying the Talmud. Elie was one of four children born to his mother and father. Hilda was the eldest, then Bea, he was the third, and Tzipora was the youngest. The two eldest sisters helped the parents run the family store while Elie stayed home to study. Elie was very passionate about the theology of his religion, Judaism. He studied Talmud by day and by night he would go to the synagogue to pray. One of his main interests was Kabbalah which is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. Elie asked his father to find him a master to guide him in his...
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...devastating events in world history. The Holocaust was a horrific event that occurred in European countries. The German army, then led by Adolph Hitler, captured and tortured thousands if not millions of Jewish men, women, and their children, including Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank. Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel both suffered badly, but had different outcomes. They have many similarities and differences. Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel have many similarities. Firstly, Elie was "not yet fifteen" when he and his family were arrested by Hungarian police and sent to a concentration camp (Wiesel 22). This shows that Elie was tortured at a young age. This is why he wanted to stay with his father, because he was so young. Secondly, Anne Frank was thirteen years old when "she and her family went into hiding to escape persecution by the Nazis."(Frank 97). This shows that if she was found, the soldiers would not take her age into consideration. This is why she learned to act more mature. In conclusion, Elie Wiesel and Anne frank shared some similarities. During the Holocaust, Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel had just as many differences as similarities. For example, " An American tank stood at the gates of Buchenwald." (Wiesel 83). This shows that even though Elie Wiesel had experienced horrible things at a young age, such as the hanging of a pipel, he survived and was rescued. This is why he is able to describe the events that happened to him during the Holocaust. Also, Anne Frank "died peacefully . She was not...
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...Nick Han Date: 3/28/12 Night Reading Chapter#: 5 Pages: 62-80 Significant Title: Survival of the Fittest Setting (who, when, where): The setting is in the camp in Buna where most of the Jewish prisoners are located. In this chapter, the main characters are Elie and his dad because throughout the story they have had to face many obstacles to try and stay together. Summary of Plot (events): The beginning of the chapter starts of as the end of the summer, which marked the start of a New Year for all the Jews. But even though it was supposed to be a joyous moment for all of them, they were all secretly mad at God because he had done nothing to help them throughout all the torture. But later on it gets harder for all of the to survive because winter starts to come and they are all extremely cold because of the strong winds and many people are hospitalized like Elie. Later on, they find out that the border has been moved closer and they will have to evacuate from Buna to Gleiwitz. Quotation (re: Capacity for Evil) that surprised you: “…I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused” (Wiesel 65) Reaction (why that specific quote?): At this point the author, Elie, had completely lost faith in God because to him God is supposed to be helping all the Jews in their time of need, but nothing is happening. Because of this lack of faith many people start to get some what frustrated because they don’t know what else they have to live for because most...
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...“Auschwitz, Death Camp” In the movie “Auschwitz, death camp”, Oprah Winfrey interviewed Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel when they visited the Auschwitz Museum which used to be the biggest Nazi concentration and death camp. Elie talked about his personal experience at Auschwitz. He also explained more about the meaning of the Holocaust which he wrote in his book, Night. The movie started at the entrance of Auschwitz where a young Elie arrived in a cattle car with his family, friends and neighbor. He smelled the stench of burning human flesh and saw the crematorium throwing its flames into the sky and he thought “This is the end of the history, the end of Jews”. During the time at the camp, his body and his soul suffered by SS soldiers. He saw people (up to 1.5 million) including men, women and even babies were killed. Women and children including his mother and young sister were sent immediately to a gas chamber which killed them in fifteen minutes. While men starved and worked to dead. Their bodies were burn in crematorium. All memories of Auschwitz haunted him day by day. He was confused that why the Nazi did everything like that. He didn’t understand why it happened. Were they human being? And then he decided to write and to teach so that the man kind will remember and everything in Auschwitz never happened again. Throughout the movie, I felt the pains of the Jews and Elie in the death camp. The pictures of people starved to dead, the burn bodies and the personal items, everything...
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...The novel Night presents how Elie Wiesel changes in response to his concentration camp experiences. The separation from his loved ones and the horrible conditions of these camps affects Elie immensely, altering his perception on faith and transforming his physical appearance throughout the experience. The overall ordeal Elie experienced desensitised him to violence and death, affecting his emotions. Elie was transformed by his loss of faith in god and humanity. His loss of faith in humanity and god can first be identified when he arrives at Auschwitz and isolates the ‘smell of burning flesh’ and watches as they throw a load of ‘little children’ into the flames and begins to understand that ‘the world is not interested’ in those of Jewish faith. Elie begins to reject his faith and blame god for what was occurring. ‘Why should I bless his name…What had I to thank Him for?. The hanging of the ‘pipel’ boy was possibly the most critical moment where Elie lost his faith in humanity and belief in God altogether. As the boy ‘struggled between life and death’, Elie realized his God was ‘hanging here on the gallows.’ Elie’s loss of faith was complete. The suffering Elie underwent ‘consumed’ his ideals and beliefs, therefore altering his emotions. Elie’s had to ‘become a different person’ to survive the ordeals of Auschwitz leaving only ‘a shape that resembled [him]’, his emotions ‘devoured by a black flame’. Once being a ‘spoiled child’ Elie was forced to adapt to the situation...
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...he book Night by Elie Wiesel is a story about the Jews during the time when the Germans were trying to rid the world of all the imperfect people. The biggest group of people they were trying to get rid of was the Jews. There were many different reactions from the survivors/victims of the Holocaust. I know if it was me that was caught up in a disaster the scope of the Holocaust that I would have many different feelings and reactions. I know a few people who have suffered a personal tragedy, me included. In some ways there are similarities to Night whereas some of it is not. Some people say that the Holocaust should be seen as different in kind from the tragedies common to human life. A good question to ask oneself is, how great of a tragedy would it take to lead you to question the goodness of God? As the story of Night develops Eliezer’s understanding of God changes. Eliezer’s relationship with his father changes as the story progresses. Some might say this change is related to his understanding of God. His reaction to his father’s death is different than how most people would react. The scene at the mirror at the end of the story suggests that something happened to Eliezer during the story. Wiesel makes the remark “man questions God” which has a suggestion on Judaism’s attitude toward God. I believe that it is ironic in light of the story. The story of Night suggests that there is a problem with being a survivor. Some people believe that Wiesel was justified in his change of...
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...symbol. In Night by Elie Wiesel, the word “night” uncovers these bigger ideas through both the literal meaning and symbolic purpose. Like the general storyline of a book someone is interested in, the literal meaning of night is well-known to most readers. Many contrasting events can take place at night, differing on the character and the surrounding. For the character, Elie, “so much has happened” in “one single night” that he subconsciously stops differentiating night and day, while other prisoners see night as a time to reminisce with old friends. Elie may be overwhelmed with all the sudden changes in his life and that causes him to think about nighttime many times throughout the story, because of the chain of events that happen at night. The other prisoners may want to spend their nights socializing because they have a feeling that night could be the last time they may see a fellow prisoner, another feeling Elie could relate to. The symbolic purpose of night is not like the literal meaning because it has to be searched for to understand. Night is not just a time, but a symbol. Nighttime is a dim and dreary phase that had turned Elie’s “life into one long night”, where there was hours before the sun would come out and Elie, a dying horse, would have to continue working. The dark night symbolizes the mood at the concentration camp, and the lack of differentiating night and day gives off a lack-of-hope feeling for the bad days to ever end. Once day appears, Elie can use his past...
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..."Night" by Elie Wiesel is a terrifying account of the Holocaust during World War II. Throughout this book we see a young Jewish boy's life turned upside down from his peaceful ways. The author explores how dangerous times break all social ties, leaving everyone to fight for themselves. He also shows how one's survival may be linked to faith and family. The novel starts out in a small highly Jewish populated Hungarian town named Sighet. The people's lives and community somewhat revolve around each other and religion (Judaism). More importantly we see immense care and concern among the citizens; they all help one another and are true to their similar beliefs and values. Eliezer's life starts out revolving around God, as he goes on his journey studying the cabbala and other forms of Jewish religious texts. Initially Eliezer's belief is a product of Jewish mysticism that God is everywhere and that nothing exists without God, and in the start his faith in God is absolute. During the Holocaust, things change irreparably. The peaceful calm Jewish community that Eliezer once grew up with was shattered into a realm of chaos and selfishness. Eliezer believes that if all the prisoners were to unite to oppose the cruel that the Nazis inflicted upon them, then maybe he could understand the Nazi menace as an evil abnormality, but instead he sees that the Holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil, and cruelty of everybody; not only the Nazis, but also his fellow Jews, and even himself. I...
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...Dear Mr. Wiesel, I just finished reading your book Night. I read it in my English class. I found your story hard to read because of all that you and your family went through. It really made me think about what I would have done if I were in your situation. I’m not sure I could have been as strong as you. I don’t think I could relate anything in my life to that terrible time in yours. So in this letter I will be thanking you for you sacrifices in order to tell your story. When I was reading your book Night I couldn’t help but to think of my own family. It truly broke my heart when you said that was the last time you saw your mother and Tzipora forever. I couldn’t imagine having to go through that with my own family. But if I had to I would try to stay strong like you. I learned a lot more about the holocaust when I read your book. I learned that Hitler didn’t directly control each camp. Your experience has taught me so much. It has taught me to stay strong when I feel weak. A question I would like to ask you, Mr. Wiesel, is do you still have the tattoo the Nazi’s gave you? Did you get it removed? Personally I would keep it to remind me everyday that if I could survive the holocaust I could survive anything and thrive. Your story hit me on a personal level. I hate racism or anything of that nature. When I read this I got mad at Hitler. Mad at the entire Nazi party. Mad at other countries with the means to stop this massacre and didn’t. Is it okay to be mad Mr. Wiesel? You...
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...Faith plays a big role in times of trial because it gives someone a fighting force behind conquering whatever they are going through. In the articles read in class, through all of the times of trial, faith came shining through the storm. In the article “The Making, and Unmaking, of a Child Soldier” by Ishmael Beah, Ish becomes a child soldier and goes through years of death and killing without even really knowing it. One day on his road to recovery he started befriending a nurse named Esther. At first he did not want to hear a word she said, but she soon started to grow on him; “At first I detested her intrusions. But slowly I came to appreciate them, even looked forward to them. It was like at the center; most boys found a staff member whom they eventually began to trust. Mine was Esther.” (Beah-9). Ish’s family had been killed when he was a boy and he had nobody for a family, he fought for himself and had no one. So when Esther came along he naturally did not trust her but it took faith to branch out and connect, and after he did he became reunited with his uncle. Another example of faith is in the article “Rwandan Genocide Survivor…” by Bob Simon. A woman by the name of Immaculee hid out in a tiny bathroom for three months with six other women. Reading the paper chills to the bone about her experience and the fear she had of being found. When Bob asks Immaculee how they escaped she told them that “‘We stood up first of all, never really much standing up. I remember...
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