“The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (Wiesel 11). But the yellow star eventually would be the downfall and ultimate fate of many European Jews, including multitudes of teenager Eliezer Wiesel's friends and family members. In the memoir Night, Wiesel’s adolescent years are stained by the devilish mark of Hitler’s death camps, where prisoners endure torture and demise on a routine basis. As he witnesses son against father and friend against friend, he must control himself to not turn against his ailing dad. So how does Wiesel escape turning against his only remaining family member? Despite seeing the treacheries around him, Wiesel somehow manages to keep moral ground, even up to his father's sickly death. With the power of faith, family, and community, Wiesel keeps himself from betraying his father.
Elie Wiesel’s naturally faithful self is a key part in his struggle to keep morality. Before being sent off to the concentration camps, …show more content…
The whole time Wiesel is trapped in the walls of the concentration camps, he repeatedly states that his father is the only thing keeping him alive. Time and time again, Wiesel sticks up for his father and uses him as an anchor to sanity. “Please, sir...I’d like to be near my father.” (50). This begging by Wiesel to be near his father is just one piece of evidence that he uses his father as a compass for his morality. Wiesel and his father go through the thick and thin of the camps together, and when his father dies, Wiesel feels guilty. “His last word had been my name. He had called out to me and I had not answered. (112). After seeing Rabbi Eliahu’s son leave his dad behind, Wiesel prays that he must not turn against his father like the son of the Rabbi. All these things combined show that Wiesel really cares for his father and that his father is a important part to Wiesel’s survival mentally and physically in the