Mrs. Balfash
English 9
12 December 2012
The Holocaust
If there was a god, why would he/she be so harsh? The text is compared to the book Night by Ellie Wiesel and from the poems “Night over Birkenau” and “Harbach 1944”. The book Night tells the story of a young boy and his father fighting for their freedom from the Nazis; Ellie Wiesel tells the story of his experience of the Holocaust. Both of the poems show the journeys of people and how they pictured all of the madness. Ellie fights through many hardships, but comes out of the Holocaust victorious! Ellie and his father were both willing and strong throughout the Holocaust, but his father escaped a different way. The theme states that during survival, people think about needs rather than wants. This is clearly developed in the poems “Night over Birkenau” By Janos Piliszky and “Harbach 1944” and Night to show harshness, survival, and fear. The theme explains how the poems and Night show harshness by the condition and way of life people had to live through. If God is all good, why do bad things happen? This question is asked because some people might have asked the same one in the Holocaust, such as Ellie when he states, “Our first act…was to throw ourselves to provisions we thought only of that. ” Ellie explained how no one thought for others, but only thought for their needs such as food, water, and freedom. Ellie Wiesel no longer has feelings of love or compassion towards others because of the Holocaust. The theme explains how the poems and Night show survival by the people of the Holocaust fighting for crumbs of food or eating snow. What has had the greatest impact on our lives? This question may have been asked by many people including Ellie when he states, “We lived on snow; into the pleasure of bread.” Ellie says this as he explains how they were tortured in a way by getting no food to a point where they had to resort to survival to live. Ellie Wiesel had to use great survival skills to stay nourished enough to live. The theme explains how the poems and Night show fear of the people in the Holocaust who were afraid to say or do anything about or for the dead. How do people get through bad times? This question may have been asked by many people of the Holocaust such as Ellie when he states, “The silence of three million dead men.” Ellie asks this question as he explains the millions of people dying, but everyone is too afraid to say anything in fear of getting killed. Ellie Wiesel is a lways fearful in the thought of the Holocaust happening again. Concluding, Ellie Wiesel explains how the deaths of others affect him and his life now. Ellie explains what torture is like and how cruel it really is. The poems explain the deaths and the conditions of the camps. The poems also share how man now has a different view of man because of the Holocaust. The theme states that during survival, people think about needs rather than wants. This is clearly developed in the poems “Night over Birkenau” By Janos Piliszky and “Harbach 1944” and Night to show harshness, survival, and fear.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
After Elie Wiesel and his family neglect to flee the Jewish town of Sighet, Transylvania back in 1944, they start to experience the very brutality of what is today known as the “Holocaust.” They were taken from their homes, stripped of their valuables, and severely tortured beyond human limits. In this dark story, the reader can experience pain and suffering like they have never experienced it before by looking through the eyes of the young Elie Wiesel. For a person to endure as much suffering as Elie did, they would have to be very strong. They would have to have very strong morals, and have something very important to fight for. People suffer everyday, whether it be lightly or heavily. However, it all is the same. In the story “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he utilizes the concepts of comradeship, love,…
- 670 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Elie Wiesel’s Night provides the reader with the perspective of a Jewish adolescent during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a historical time period of hate and fear projected by the Nazi party against Jews and other minorities from January 30th, 1933, to May 8th, 1945. During this time period, minorities were kept in concentration and forced labor camps. Those who could not contribute to the cause were executed. Elie Wiesel’s Night portrays the horrors faced in these camps as his faith begins to wane. The fundamental principle of Eliezer’s spiritual beliefs is that the Hebrews will never be abandoned by their God because they are God’s Chosen People; this core belief forms his inner spirituality. The character, Elie Wiesel, changes from unconditional…
- 1240 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
“Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my god and my soul and turned my dreams to dust….Never” -Ellie Wiesel. Ellie wiesel is a holocaust survivor, author, nobel peace prize winner, a inspiration and many more things. He just like any average boy had a typical family, standard house, religion, and loving friends. And along with many others he was clueless to what horror awaited him. In the Book “Night” by Ellie Wiesel, the main character, Ellie is affected by the events in the book by experiencing a loss of sympathy, loss of faith, and Ellies perspective on Death.…
- 749 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
People of America today are mostly sheltered from the poor reality of the world and are protected behind the safety of Laws and the standard social normality. Some people are so ‘protected’ from the real world that they have the impression that the Holocaust never existed. The denial of the Holocaust is assumably one of many reasons writers/prisoners of the Holocaust vocalized their stories. Eli Wiesel the narrator and author of ‘From Night’ expresses his experience as a prisoner of war, held by German Nazis, in his short autobiography. Wiesel employs imagery as a Literary device to reveal how they perceived the dehumanizing and harsh affects of the Holocaust and how they adapted for their survival.…
- 525 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Eliezer Wiesel, a boy from Sighet, has survived a horrible experience in the hands of the Germans. It all started in 1942 when Moishe the Beadle, his friend and instructor in the Kabbalah, was deported from Sighet. Moishe escaped to warn others of the horrors that awaited them. Sadly, no one wanted to listen, even though Eliezer “[had] asked [his] father to sell everything, to liquidate everything, and to leave” (Wiesel 08). A few months after that, the Germans invaded Sighet, promptly ordered the Jews to give up anything valuable, and then ended up making them stay with other Jews in a ghetto. After, Jews were eventually deported in cattle cars, not knowing where they were to end up. Eliezer’s first view of the concentration camp where they first arrived was “flames rising from a small chimney into a black sky” (Wiesel 27) and “In the air, the smell of burning flesh” (Wiesel 28). Life in the concentration camps was awfully…
- 392 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In Elie Wiesel’s novel ‘Night’ Wiesel gives readers a glimpse into the life of a Jew in a Nazi concentration. After being taken from his home town of Sighet, Transylvania in a cattle car, Wiesel ends up in the infamous Auschwitz. Throughout the novel Wiesel experiences a loss of innocence due to the traumatizing things he is exposed to, such as hangings and mass cremations. This loss of innocence results in a loss of faith. In the book, Wiesel employs the motif of religion to illustrate the idea that faith is easy to lose when faced with continuous pain and suffering because of feeling abandoned by a higher power.…
- 602 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, Wiesel estranges himself from his companions and morals to survive the Holocaust. It is expected that the Holocaust survivors would lose faith in God, their determination to go on living, and their reliance in others because of the horrific experiences that they faced day to day. It is understandable that a Holocaust survivor questions his faith in God when Jews are chanting the prayer of death for themselves. A person would question living when he sees the demise of loved ones and fellow Jews right before his…
- 960 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
One theme in Night is that inhumanity can cause lost of faith. To begin with when people are praying to god, Wiesel don’t pray. “ what are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their defiance?…
- 518 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
During the holocaust, many people suffered due to the loss of their loved ones. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel tells the story of what those who did not meet Hitler’s expectations while creating a superior race had to endure at the concentration camps. Thesis By using symbolism and setting, Wiesel creates the message that love is sacrificed in order to survive.…
- 365 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Night, the time when God broke promises to Jews and the Nazis kept the ones they made. Elie Wiesel wrote a heart breaking, mind boggling book that goes by the name of Night. Night tells the story of Elie Wiesel during the Holocaust. During that time the Jewish people were mistreated, betrayed, and dehumanized. The theme of a story describes the central messages of the story. There are many themes of Night. One that will be discussed has the horrid name of in humanity. During the Holocaust the Jews were treated very inhumane. They were beaten, dehumanized, and also killed. At the labor camps, the people were feed very little, had to work many hours and mistreated. They symbol of silence affects the…
- 375 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Night is not, however, mainly about making the reader depressed t. It is about remembering. Wiesel writes his memoir so that one could remember what happened and remember what civilized humans are capable of. Elie Wiesel’s Night is a direct testimony as to what extent a concentration camp can change a person - to what point the human mind can be perverted and to how far the human body can be twisted. Wiesel’s narration is so raw and candid one can actually sense Elie’s dramatic shift in character as he struggles to survive, dealing with both internal and external conflicts. God and the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel's Work is a study that captures the essence…
- 206 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Night,describes Eliezer’s journey of being part of the Holocaust. Through the novel, he faced many hardships and had to try and survive through the whole book. This was the reason he used, The Night, as the title of the book because the title conveys the deep darkness he went through at the camps. The night symbolizes the darkness that was mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. Eliezer faced many tough times and chose the title, The Night, for a reason.…
- 588 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
At a time when one should be energetic, lively, and healthy, Wiesel became exhausted to the point he would compare himself to a “withered tree”. However, Wiesel was not the only one like this. Witnessing everyone else lose hope, as they became more exhausted with each day passing, made it difficult for him to not follow suit. In other words, a loss of faith in humanity and himself, led to his loss of innocence. In addition to his loss of faith in humanity and himself, he also lost faith in God. Irving Halperin, an English and creative writer, as well as, professor at San Francisco State University, wrote, “'Why should I bless His name?' This outcry is the sign of, as François Mauriac says in his foreword to the book, 'the death of God in the soul of a child who suddenly discovers absolute evil.' And this breakdown of religious faith calls forth Eliezer's resolve 'never to forget'” (Halperin 32). Halperin argues that due to his loss of faith in God, Wiesel lost his innocence. During his time in the concentration camps, Wiesel witnessed people praying to God, time and time again. However, God did not answer them; children, women, and men continued to die as each day…
- 513 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Ultimately, Night by Elie Wiesel was a whirlwind of emotions. Although the most prevalent emotion displayed throughout his entire memoire was fear. This memoire exemplifies the most disturbing of fears experienced by the victims during the Holocaust: Fear of the certainty of losing each other was indefinite, as was fear of pain experienced, and lastly fear of death.…
- 693 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the memoir ‘Why I write’ in 1978, Holocaust survivor says, “The only role I sought was that of witness. I believed that having survived by chance, I was duty-bound to give meaning to my survival, to justify each moment of my life”. Wiesel believes he was destined to survive so he can share his experience and justify every part of it. In his novel Night, with his father by his side, Elie Wiesel been forced to survive the Holocaust. He’s been through up and downs through the experience with God as a Jewish man, himself, and his choices with the burden of surviving. Elie Wiesel’s novel Night deals heavily with the topic of survival. It is clear that mental strength, tremendous luck, and external motivation are what allowed him to survive this…
- 982 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays