Holocaust

Victor Muscia

Holocaust Class

8/2/05

Night

By: Elie Wiesel

I believe "Night" shows the religious view of the Holocaust and how many Jews including Elie lost their faith in God while going through such the nightmare of Auschwitz and the other camps. I think the main reason why Elie stayed alive as long as he did was because he didn't want to leave behind his father not because of his faith in God. Throughout the book Elie speaks of his loss of faith in the Lord and doesn't understand how, if there was a God, he could allow such dreadful and inhumane actions by the Nazi's continue or even happen in the first place.

This is one topic that I believe Botwinick does not cover in her book. She talks of Einsatzgruppen, the mobile killing squads, in which in "Night" Moshe the Beadle miraculously escapes from. She talks about how the Hungarians Jews were sent to Auschwitz for annihilation, and she even speaks about "the death march" in which the remaining survivors at Auschwitz were forced to march mile after to mile in the snow leaving many dead behind them. All of which were obstacles that Elie faced throughout the book. Yet Botwinick never discusses the many Jews who lost their faith in God while trying to survive in Auschwitz or any other concentration camp. Maybe because there were some Jews who still held on to their religion, but it seemed to me after reading "Night" that many wanted nothing to do with God after seeing their own people being burnt alive and the other atrocities that happened in the camps. Also in Primo Levi's book "Survival in Auschwitz" there are very few references made about God and Primo's religious faith. Maybe that was mainly because Levi and Wiesel came from two totally different areas with very different religious backgrounds. Being from Italy Levi I believe was more a liberal Jew as to Elie he and his family were more the traditional Orthodox Judaism. Or maybe it was just that Levi believed that there was no place for God in Auschwitz. But "Night" definitely paints the picture of how Auschwitz, a living hell, strips Elie and many others like him of their dedication to their religion and their devotion to God.

In the beginning of the book Elie goes on to describe his profound belief in the Jewish religion and how he studies the Talmud endlessly. How he spends hours in the synagogue praying and searching for the secrets of Jewish mysticism. He consults with Moshe the Beadle, who works at a Hasidic synagogue, and soon becomes Elie's master to guide him in the studies of the cabbala. Soon after Moshe is rounded up with all the other foreign Jews in Sighet and taken off into Polish territory, there the Gestapo makes them dig their own graves and slaughters all the prisoners. Moshe miraculously escapes and when he comes back to the town he no longer speaks to Elie about God or the cabbala only of what he has seen. He says that he came back to Sighet to tell the story of his death, that he doesn't attach any importance to his life anymore and, that he is alone. This is the first instance in the book that shows how the carnage of the Nazi's, kills a person from the inside, stripping away their beliefs. Elie doesn't believe Moshe, but soon enough he too will feel the same loneliness.

When Elie arrives in Auschwitz, him and his family are led through the selection process, which happens to be the last time he sees his mother and sisters ever again. From there him and father, along with many others, were marched down towards the pits where he sees people, children and even babies being cremated. As they draw closer to the pits he hears the people around him starting to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. Elie says to himself, that in the history of Jews he has never heard of people reciting that prayer for themselves. This is where Elie first starts to lose his faith, he rises up against God, asking himself why should he recite a prayer that blesses and thanks the Lord, how could he thank God at this time when he was about to burnt alive. When they were about two steps away from the pits they were told to march towards the barracks. This is when Elie says to himself, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust." After that first night in the camp Elie sees how much him and father have changed, how the student of his religion, who led a life devoted to his Lord, had been burnt up inside of him. "There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered into my soul and devoured it."

While working in Buna, Elie witnessed many hangings but there was one in particular that he would remember forever. It was one day when they were coming back from work they saw three people in chains waiting to be hanged in the assembly area, one these people was a little boy who Elie said had the face of a sad angel. As they stood there to watch the three waiting for their deaths a person standing behind Elie said, "Where is God? Where is he?" Then the chairs were tipped, the two adults were dead immediately but the boy dangled on the rope. Then the workers were forced to march past three, the boy was still alive as Eli passed him, the same man from before then said, "Where is God now?" Eli then heard a voice inside of him then say, "Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here on this gallowsÐ'..." This is another piece of