Understanding the Holocaust through Elie Wiesel’s “Night”

Introduction to “Night” and Elie Wiesel’s Experience

The autobiographical book “Night” by Elie Wiesel tells us about the rough lives of living in the concentration camps. This book is about a young boy witnessing the gruesome of innocent lives being taken, who survives the Holocaust and loses his father for three months. During World War II, millions of innocent Jews were prosecuted till their death which led to many Jews having a loss of faith. Everyone tells a story about themselves in their own head. This story makes you who you are. We, humans, are responsible for presenting the messages of our past times to send information to ourselves and our future generations. For example, it may be to prevent a repeat that had happened, such as the Holocaust.

Identity Transformation Amidst Atrocities

The physical and mental appearance each individual has is created from the choices he/she has made since the day they were born. Elie said, “Since my father’s death, nothing mattered to me anymore “(113). This story has changed the identity of Weisel. He had lost all of his faith. This sends a message of how he lost his dad. Wiesel wrote this book to not gain the compatibility of the world for the victims or the survivors of the Holocaust. He reached to awaken our moral sense. This is his perseverance in measures aimed at preventing something as tragic as the Holocaust. Wiesel has given us not only an onlooker explanation of what happened but also an analysis of the destructive powers which lay behind the action. In these events, his main worry is the question of what type of capacity we can take to prevent repetition.

Loss of Innocence and Faith

Wiesel starts off by being an innocent child and devout Jew to a denied spirit, a soul, and human dignity, and even their bodies are denied the aid needed to survive. Wiesel said, “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (115). Wiesel states his old identity of being an innocent Jew has been taken over by this unpleasant corpse. He will never forget his story from his past. He also says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” . He couldn’t believe his god could let such horrid things happen to such a young boy.

The only thing that kept Elie and his father alive was the existence of each other. If one died, the other person probably could not make it and would die eventually. ‘My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me… I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support”. The connection between Elie and his father had made a relation with their identities. Overall, Wiesel educated people’s minds on how unique stories like his were a witness to history and a courier to mankind.

References:

1. Wiesel, Elie. “Night.”