Night, By Eliezer Wiesel

“I have not lost faith in God [despite] moments of anger and protest; sometimes I have been closer to him for that reason.” Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel explains the struggle of his changing beliefs in God during the Holocaust in his memoir Night. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a religious boy, is taken to several concentration camps along with other Jews, and separated from everyone in his family except for his father. He and his father live dangerous lives in the concentration camps, from being beaten, watching other prisoners die, and being close to death, until eventually Elie’s father dies and the camp is liberated. As Elie Wiesel’s time in the Holocaust lengthens, his devoutness in God begins to diminish.

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” - George Bernard Shaw. George Shaw’s famous quote describes that to achieve, you must change yourself. On May 1944, Elie Wiesel and his family were forced out from his home in Sighet, Romania to live in Auschwitz, Germany. He and his two older sisters survived the holocaust, Elie then wrote his experience in 1960. During the span of the book, “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the novel demonstrates that traumatic events can change a person drastically. In the beginning, Elie lived with his family in Germany, his mother, his father, and his three siblings. The Germans forced the Jews to hand over their valuables, live in ghettos and finally moving them to concentration camps, including Elie’s family. He was disunited from his mother and three siblings, but managed to stay with his father. At first when he entered the camp he was pessimistic and discouraged when he saw the townspeople crying including his father. After, Elie then learned to take care of himself and his father during tragic events, he stuck to his ambitions and values which led him to go through many obstacles , despite the limitations, and be free of the camp of Auschwitz. As he set out Eliezer was an immature and carefree 15 year old who developed into a responsible young adult.

The Jews are then marched to Auschwitz, where Elie witnesses many horrendous things happening. Elie and his father are put to

Night by Elie Wiesel focuses on giving the reader a precise understanding of the Holocaust from the perspective of a man who endured it. In order to vividly describe the situation, Wiesel uses specific words or phrases to signify the importance and value behind it. Wiesel writes, “Night. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes” (Wiesel 21). “Night” is used abundantly throughout the book. In today’s American society, night is for rejuvenation, peace,

Forty-two years after entering the concentration camp for the first time, Elie Wiesel remarked, “Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope” (Nobel Lecture 1). This means a lot from someone who endured almost two years of the terror in the WWII concentration camps. During these two years, Elie endured the sadness of leaving his former life and faith behind, the pain of living off of scraps of bread, and the trepidation of the “selections”, where he almost lost his father. He watched the hanging of innocent people, was beat by Kapos and guards time after time, and marched in a death march right after having a foot surgery. Through all of this, he survived because he remained hopeful. Hope was all the Jewish people

Referring to the quote, “never shall I forget those moments that murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes,” (Wiesel 34) it is relevant to the struggles faced by the Jewish people during their imprisonment in a holocaust camp, particularly Eliezer’s struggles. When he and his father arrived at their first camp they were greeted by an immense crematorium, with black smoke rising from its chimney. Jews stood in the freezing cold with only the miniscule amount of clothes on them, waiting to be told to go somewhere. Eliezer watched as many small children, as well as women, were herded into the crematorium, and turned into nothing but smoke. He came to realize that this could have easily been his fate, had he not lied about his age. Seeing innocent people turned into nothing but ashes and smoke made him question life itself. He had the belief

During the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie has a complex relationship with God. In beginning of the book, Elie’s has a strong connection with God and wants to strengthen his faith by practicing Kabbalism with Moishe the Beadle. His father forbids Ellie from doing so, but Ellie thinks that studying Kabbalism is worth the risk of getting punished by his father. Latter in the book, Elie’s faith is tested.

Throughout Night, Elie struggles with his faith in his God. He never totally stops believing in Yahweh even though his faith is put to the ultimate test. With the others around him pressuring him to give up on his God, what will Elie do? In Night, Elie Wiesel uses repetition, characterization and tone to illustrate how living in horrific conditions can change a person.

Almost every human being has went through a period of time in their life when their faith in god was nonexistent due to experience with hardship. The novel, Night, was written by Elie Wiesel to depict his ghastly experiences at a concentration camp during the holocaust. He goes through a number of changes when it came to his faith in God. Elie’s beliefs change from being deeply devoted to God to questioning his devotion to completely repudiating him. Throughout the memoir, there are very clear examples of Elie’s struggle with faith and religion.

The tragedy of the Holocaust is the murder of the six million Jews and five million Gentiles. The Holocaust traumatized and changed many people. Elie Wiesel, the author of the memoir Night, is one of the most famous survivors of the Holocaust. Elie’s relationship with both God and his father alters tremendously throughout the course of the Holocaust and the memoir, Night.

Before Eliezer's family left for the concentration camps, he wanted to learn more about his religion and become a religious leader. He did this by seeking the advice of Moishe the Beadle. “and why do you pray, Moishe?’ I asked him” (Wiesel 5). “Together we would read, over and over again, the same page of Zohar. Not to learn it by heart but to discover

From the opening of the first German concentration camp in 1933 to the annihilation of the last concentration camp in 1945, up to 6 million Jewish people lost their lives. Millions of people suffered terrible, inhumane treatment and experienced horrifyingly unimaginable events during this time. In Night, an autobiography by Elie Wiesel, he recounts his experiences as a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust. Although the Holocaust was gruesome and appalling, there were some positive lessons learned from it.

Last year in English class we were required to read the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel. I have read many Holocaust journals and memoirs in the past, but none of them had quite the same impact as Night. The book opened my eyes to the freedom and the comfortable lifestyle that I take advantage of everyday. It was hard for me to fathom the pain that he and the other prisoners suffered, and the possibility of my entire world changing overnight the way Elie’s did.

I feel like the book Night lets off a very sad a depressing mood. The setting of this book is a various amount of concentration camps that Elie and his dad go to. The main central idea of Night is to explain the experiences in the Holocaust. I personally think that this book is a good book for young adults and not kids because it uses some language and it’s very descriptive.

The main character is Elie himself as a young boy. Elie is a Hungarian Jew who deeply believes in his religion. When the novel starts he is only