Night Essays - Holocaust Literature, Night, Elie Wiesel, Free Essays

Night Essays - Holocaust Literature, Night, Elie Wiesel, Free Essays Night Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that 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 these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never. -Elie Wiesel The Holocaust-the mass murder of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II. It was the unthinkable, the horrific murder of 6 million Jews and millions of civilians of different ethnic and racial backgrouds. It was average men entering the German army and turned into Nazis, cold-blooded killers. It was the connotation of Holocaust which became Night, by Elie Wiesel. This paints a picture, full of vivid imagery and truth, about the genocide of his own people. Elie witnesses the starvation, brutal beating, and eventual death of his friends, family, and fellow Jews. Wiesel, himself, survived Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, and Gleiwitz, all German concentration camps, where atrocities such as cremation and murder hung thickly in the air like a heavy cologne. Born September 30, 1928, Eliezer Wiesel led a life representative of many Jewish children. Growing up in a small village in Romania, his world revolved around family, religious study, community, and God. Yet his family, community, and his innocent faith were destroyed upon the deportation of his village in 1944. One of the main topics in this book is how Elie, a boy of strong religious faith, along with many of his fellow jews, lose their faith in God due to the horrific effects of the concentration camps. Elie Wiesel lived his early childhood in the town of Transylvania, in Hungary, during the early 1940s. At a young age, Elie took a strong interest in Jewish religion, while he spent most of his time studying the Talmud. Eventually he makes aquaintances with Moshe the Beadle who takes Elie under his wing, and also instructs him more in depth of the ways of the Talmud and cabbala. Elie is taught to question God for answers through Moshes instruction. Moshe is sent away to a concentration camp, and upon his return, Elie finds that he has changed dramatically. This is a foreshadowing of what will become of Elies faith in the strength and power of God. Moshe had changed...He no longer talked to me of God or the cabbala, but only of what he had seen.(4) The first evidence of Elies loss of faith, is while he questions God during the selection process. This process is concerned with separating the young, strong, and healthy Jews, from the old, weak, sickly, and/or infants. The Jews were separated from their loved ones who were immediately sent to the crematory or burned in large fire pits. Elie says goodbye to his mother and sister, unknowing that it will be the last time that he will ever see them again. Many of his fellow Jews began to pray and recite the Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead, with hopes to console their own grievances for the loss they had suffered. However, Elie questions, Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?(31) Elie witnesses a load of children being dumped into a pit of flames which he labels as the Angel of Death, and at this point, the diminishing effects of the first night of camp life are already taking a toll on Elies religious faith and personal self-worth. The final deterioration of Elies idea of God, where he renounces all belief in His existence, is during the funeral of 3 Jewish males who were hanged the day before. One of whom was a child, so mere in weight, whom struggled amidst the others for over an hour before death came to take him. Here the reader can sense the collosal loss that Elie is overcome by, having spent the majority of his childhood seeking salvation only to come to realize it was all