Elie Wiesel
Essay by review • November 2, 2010 • Essay • 455 Words (2 Pages) • 1,672 Views
Near the end of Elie Wiesel's time in the concentration camps, Wiesel began to question
many things. He had questioned G-d, not because he believed in him so much, but because he
almost had no belief left. He also questioned himself when thoughts of leaving his father came
to mind. Had Wiesel left his father, life would surely have been easier for him to survive. But
throughout all these immoral thoughts going through his head, he "had done well to forget" them.
(87)
His time in the Holocaust left him questioning G-d many times. Wiesel went from a
religious young man to a near atheist adult by the end of his torturous time at the camps. Wiesel
felt that G-d was powerless and silent during the Holocaust. G-d wasn't going to save anyone
this time. The only people who were going to get out of this alive were the ones who were
physically and mentally strong enough. Wiesel was lucky enough to be one of the very few who
made it out to tell his story. However, he still watched as his mother and sister were taken away
to the crematory and his father died in his bed.
Wiesel's weakest point mentally was when he heard that Rabbi Eliahoo's son abandoned
him during the death march from Buna. He also heard that a nameless child beat his father to
death for a small portion of bread. It was there an then that he gave minor consideration to
getting rid of his father. It is the brutality of the entire Holocaust that led Rabbi Eliahoo's son
and the unnamed child to do such things to their fathers. A father/son bond is one of the
strongest bonds known
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