This book is a true account of what the holocaust did, not only to the Jews, but to humanity as well. People all over the world were devastated by this horrendous act, and there are still people today who have not overcome its effects. An example of the horrible acts of the Nazis that stands out occurs at the end of World War II, when Elie and the rest of the inmates at the Buna camp were being force to transfer to the Gleiwitz camp. The transfer was a long, tiring journey through bitter cold and heavy falling snow. The people were often forced to run during parts of the journey, and if a person was tired or injured he or she are executed. One image of this journey that will forever be in Elie's mind is when Rabbi Eliahou's son left the rabbi for dead so he could survive.
The rabbi and his son were running together, but Rabbi Eliahou became tired and had to slow down. As the rabbi slowed down his pace his son continued to run, and pretended not to see that his father was slowing down. This incident forced Elie to think about what he would do in the same situation. Elie decided that no matter how weak his father became he would always be there for him, even if he would die for it.
Throughout the novel Elie Wiesel shows the reader how the Nazis broke the spirits of the Jews. This caused Elie to lose his faith in God, as his time in the Nazi camps grew longer. The reader can see this in Elie's father 's confrontation with the gypsy. His father asked a gypsy where the lavatories were, but the gypsy did not even respond to Elie's father. Then the gypsy struck his father in the head, and knocked him down onto the floor. Elie watched the situation and realized that he was going to physically and mentally punished during his time at the camp, and his faith in God could not stop it from happening. Elie did nothing to the gypsy that struck his father although the thought did cross his mind. He decided that if he were to fight back at the gypsy the result would be physical harm to him.
The incident that probably had the greatest effect on Elie and the other inmates was the hanging of the pipel. The pipel was a young boy with an "innocent face" who is sentenced to death by the Nazis for being involved in a conspiracy to hide information that causes a German build to be destroyed. The hang was held in the middle of the camp and the Lagerkapo could not kick the chair out from the pipel's feet, so the SS officers had to do it for him. Although the two other people who are hanged with the young boy have their necks broken the boy's neck does not break and hang there for thirty minutes before he dies. The boy's suffering is one image that can describe the suffering the Jews went through during the Holocaust. Both the boy and the Jews fought for their lives but in the end the result was death.
When the war was over and the camps were freed Elie looked in the mirror and saw a "corpses". Elie felt he had no soul left. He felt that he was just a body and the Nazis had ripped his soul out of him. People all over the world felt like Elie felt. People that were not directly involved with the Holocaust were emotionally drained by the event. By the end of the war Elie had no faith left in God or his people.
Another change that Elie undergoes is his relationship with his father. The camp brings them together, but at the end it separates them for ever. Spending time at the concentration camps has bonded Elie and his father. They were together and they both were struggling to survive. Each other presence gave them strength and reason to go on. They had one another while many people were alone with out their family. As they spent more time as the camp they both grew weaker, do to the lack of nutritious food and excessive amounts of work. At the end Elie, his father, and other prisoners are moved to a different concentration camp, called Buchenwald. They have to travel in the bitter cold, which prevented many people from reaching the planned destination. The snow became their eternal resting place. Fortunately Elie and his father survived, or was it unfortunate? If they gave up death would become their way of escaping. When they finally reach Buchenwald Elie’s father becomes very sick and develops a disease called dysentery, which is an infection of the lower abdominal track producing pain. Even at this time Elie stays by him, but he discovers for himself it’s very hard to keep himself and his father alive. “I gave him what was left of my soup. But it was with a heavy heart. I felt that I was giving it up against my will”. He himself is very hungry, but he manages to share the food with his ill father. “Invalids were allowed to stay in the block. So I would be an invalid myself. I would not leave my father” Eliezer’s fear however prevents him from helping his father when the SS officer violently stroked him on the head. Even though he loved his father with all his heart he also found him a big burden, he became relived when his father died on January 29. When he learned of his father’s death those were the thoughts that occupied his mind,” I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in depth of my conscious, could I have searched it, I might have found something like-free at last!”
Elie's faith in God, above all other things, is strong at the onset of the novel, but grows weaker as it goes on. We see this when Elie's father politely asks the gypsy where the lavatories are. Not only does the gypsy not grace his father with a response, but he also delivers a blow to his head that sent him to the floor. Elie watches the entire exhibition, but doesn't even blink. He realizes that nothing, not even his faith in God, can save him from the physical punishment that would await him if he tried to counterattack the gypsy. If the gypsy's attack had come just one day earlier, Elie probably would have struck back. However, the effect of the spiritual beating by the Germans was already being felt. The incident that perhaps has the greatest effect on Elie is the hanging of the pipel. He is a young boy with an "innocent face” who is condemned to death because he is implicated in a conspiracy, which results in a German building being destroyed.
World War II and the diseased mind of Hitler were the factors the led to the Genocide. People who were not the superior race in Hitler’s opinion did not deserve to live. Jews were the target of the extermination. To establish his plan Hitler created Concentration Camps, where people were forced to work. Those that were considered useless became fuel for the gas chambers and crematory. Hitler’s long term goal was to wipe out all the Jews. In this novel, the author retells the unforgettable hardship and suffering that he goes through while he is in the concentration camps. Elie helps us realize and visualize the brutality and madness of the camps and SS officers. His struggle for survival and the horror that he is exposed to changes his life forever. Elie’s experiences at the camp have a dramatic impact on his faith, his relationship with his father and his innocence.
“Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget those things, even when I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” By reading this quote you can hear Elie Wiesel anguish and what an impact concentration camps had on his faith. Before he was exposed to other mans madness and brutality he had faith in God and lived for him. He revered God by attending synagogue, study of Talmud and determination to comprehend the Cabala. His own suffering and that of other people made him question is there God, in who he believed in for so many years. He wonders why has God abandoned His people, and why is he letting so many innocent people suffer. What have they done to deserve such punishment? Despite his questions he dose not get any answers from God. Elie feels like God betrayed them, and he stops praying to the almighty one.
Elie had no way of escaping the horrors that haunted him for the rest of his life. Concentration camps made a enormous difference in Elie’s life. He stopped believing in God, his father died, and his innocence was lost forever. Through Night, we understand how his life and that of other people was changed. The story of Holocaust, the systematic mass murder of six million Jews must not be forgotten. We only learn from history what we take from it, and otherwise, it’s a vicious cycle in which everything repeats itself.
Because of cruel incidents, people’s emotions go numb. They had no lives. The Jewish prisoners went to any length to stay alive; lying, killing, and even betraying family. Jewish prisoners knew nothing about how to survive the deadly camp of Auschwitz. Most Jewish prisoners were thrown into ditches to burn if not the right age or if they looked too weak to work. Elie and his father lied about their ages to pass the first selection. By lying about their ages, they were viewed as more fit to work. The prisoners actually came to realize “Work is liberty” at Auschwitz. Lying became common among the Jews to pass selections. Rations of food were scarce, thus killing for crumbs were occurrences that happened daily. For instance, a son fought his father for bread. “Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father... you’re hurting me...you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread...for you too...for you too....” This shows how the Holocaust made people genocidal. Feelings left their souls on the first day at camp, for when someone died no one cared. Family betraying family took place during marches to new camps. A boy and his father had to run as fast as they could for as long as possible until the S.S. soldiers said they could stop. The penalty would be death if a prisoner decided to slow down. A boy realized his father was weak and starting to slow down with him and instead of slowing down with him, the boy decided to run faster and leave his father for dead, for his own protection. Could you even imagine what the Holocaust would be like in todays world? After thinking about actions that took place during this time period, could there be another Holocaust? No one really knows what could happen. Aren’t their events that take place in racism crimes today around the world that makes us think there could be a Holocaust Two? Lets hope that our society doesn’t corrupt bad enough for it to happen again but, only time can tell.
Night is an amazingly thought-provoking and touching story. The descriptions of the horrors that Elie faced grab you and make you understand completely what kind of pain he and everyone else faced. This book was written to show how exactly horrendous the Holocaust was. It also shows you how evil can destroy persons belief in something that they hold dear, no matter how precious the belief is to them. I think the book clarifies how much hatred there is in the world. I think that people look simply at what is right in front of their face and take it for its value, forgetting that somewhere else, the hatred is intolerable. I don’t think that until many years after the Holocaust, did people start to realize what had happened. I don’t understand how powerful nations with common sense in their brains could have let such attrocities take place, especially when one single, solitary man is the cause of all of it. We have all herd stories of the terrible acts that were committed during the Holocaust but I think it is hard to imagine how horrible it really was until you read a novel such as this one. I wold have never thought that people would fight for their lives and their beliefs in such a way. To let themselves go through so much for so long because of their unlimited faith in God is unfathomable. To hear of their hardships and their undying strength gives me a feeling of hope and pride. People should not let their lives be judged by ignorant people. They should fight for as long and hard as they can for what they think is right. An example of this need to live, to keep going as if to see how much one can endure is in chapter six. Here Elie describes the forty-two mile march from Buna to Gleiwitz in the blinding snow. There were thousands of men running as fast as they could, with scarcely any meat left on their bodies or clothes on their backs. If they fell out of ranks or slowed the pace they were shot dead on the spot. “They had orders to fire on any who could not keep up. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not depriver themselves of this pleasure.” I think that this work is very important to the study of culture and society. You begin to understand that the holocaust was an extreme example of the damage that ignorance can lead to. I think that Mr. Wiesel has thoroughly covered and expressed how necessary it is to know about the horrors of the holocaust. He carefully writes the novel with the greatest of detail to stress exactly how terrible their situation was. With his descriptions you are able to picture everything vividly and nearly smell the burning flesh right along with him. Everyday we hear of hate crimes against people of color or varying sexuality. All of this hate is formed in ignorance. Fortunately, I don’t believe that in these modern times, any of us will ever see anything as horrible as the holocaust, which is why I think it is important for everyone to read this novel. It helps keep the words and memory of the victims alive in our minds and it may reach someone who has hate in their heart, it may make them realize the extent of pain that hate can cause.
