Night - Elizer Wiesel/ Holocaust Essay

In the memoir “Night”, Elizer Wiesel describes what he and his father had to endure when they were captured from their homes and brought to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. The situations he describes are terrifying. One that really attracted my attention was a single sentence. “Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets.”(Wiesel, 4).This one single sentence is certainly the most disturbing event I have ever heard in my entire life. How could it be that a human being is capable of performing an action such as this?

In today’s society, a majority of people would say that a scenario like the holocaust would be impossible; some say that the holocaust never even existed. Philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”(George, 1). Because of the denial of society today, situations similar to the Holocaust have been repeated. Even today, there are acts of genocide happening in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur (Modern, 1).

Denial played a huge role in the holocaust itself, if Elie and his family hadn’t denied what other people were telling them, their outcome could have been much different. Chance and choice is part of every person’s life. Family is a matter of chance; biological parents cannot be chosen. Friends, on the other hand, can be chosen. One can choose their path in life; they may have their mind made up, and are faithful to the path they have chosen. Even though it may seem as everything will go perfectly, chance could play a role and they might not have the ability to conquer their goal. Someone could make a choice to drink and drive, and chances are they will get into an accident. It could be chance that someone was gifted with incredible talents, and it is their choice to put those talents to use.

Chance and choice play a huge role in Elie’s journey throughout the holocaust. He makes choices that saved his life. He made the choice to use a fake age, which allowed