Ryder Hanks
Mrs. Starkey
Language Arts I
6 January 2023
Surviving the Holocaust Night is defined as "the period of darkness in each twenty-four hours; the time from sunset to sunrise." For Elie, his Night was more unalike than even imaginable. The Book Night written by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor himself, educates readers on just some of the many struggles and difficulties the Jews went through, through the eyes of the main character. The author likes to describe many of the sights that Elie saw giving us some emotion and empathy by telling us his experiences he creates some sort of empathy for him. Elie Wiesel survived because he possessed the traits of bravery, integrity, and perseverance. When separated from the rest of society
…show more content…
Elie was exhausted along with the other prisoners after the officers made them do a death march because they needed to be transferred to a new camp once again like other times. When they reached their stopping destination they came to the choice of either staying awake and living or sleeping and dying. It was now up to Elie to choose. They would sleep and die in the snow due to three things. Starvation, dehydration, and or hypothermia, but if they stayed awake they had a better chance of surviving. “But deep inside, I knew that to sleep meant to die. And something in me rebelled against that death”(89). This can also show some of the integrity Elie possessed by showing how even after marching tens of miles with no water and an empty stomach and freezing temperatures, he survived. He saw all the other prisoners who made the wrong choice to sleep and die and he would not be a follower, he would choose to be a leader and stay awake and watch over his father and be the reason they both would survive that night. Another instance is when Elie displays his integrity again in Gleiwitz. Elie, his father, and hundreds of other prisoners of Buna were forced on a 42-mile death march when they were transferred to Gleiwitz, a concentration camp in central Germany. Elie, dressed in only layers of pajamas and a torn sheet that was protecting his right foot that was operated on two days prior, ran …show more content…
The prisoners of the camp were sent on a “Death march” where they marched their way to their next destination. Elie and his father lasted the whole journey, the Officers gave them a break when they hit their point and many of the prisoners wanted to use their break to take a nap but little did they know, they would not wake back up from their long-awaited sleep. They would settle down in the snow and die from many different causes like hypothermia or dehydration and or starvation. Elie and his father wanted to nap so they laid down until they noticed all the dead bodies next to them in the snow. They were smart enough to use their strength to go to a nearby shed. “I had neither the desire to nor the resolve to get up. Yet I obeyed”(88). This can show some of Elie's endurance and integrity. Despite not even having the drive or motivation to stand he did it because he knew it was better than death and laying down in the snow. One more time Elie sought out advice and presented his perseverance. Prisoners of the concentration camps were transferred from Birkenau to a new camp, Auschwitz. When the prisoners arrived at the new camp they were surprised with the pleasure of nice greetings and signals which flooded them with confusion. Their new young pole guard stumbled upon them and the prisoners expected furious yelling but in fact, it was the opposite.“Hell does
After Elie and his father are forced to run for miles they are able to take a small break to rest when his father says, “Don’t be afraid, son. Sleep—… I’ll look after you myself” (85). While being transported from their camp to another the Nazis force the Jews to run for miles without stopping. By the time they are able to stop they are all very tired.
The travel to Auschwitz was 2 days. It is estimated that fifteen of the twenty million casualties occurred in all the Nazis concentration camps. Some of the people that were fortunate enough to live were temporarily held as prisoners until liberation and or death. If people were fit to work, they were among the lucky ones, if not they were likely to be sent to the crematories or put in the gas chambers. Fortunate for Elie and his father with a bit of lying survival skills, they were sent to the side deemed fit and able to work until almost the end of their
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie experiences horrific events at the hands of the Nazi Party. Opposite of what might be expected, rather than be cruel and hate the world, Elie instead takes his experiences and turns them on the positive side. He uses his tragic and horrific experiences to write the book Night and teach the world about what happened during the Holocaust. Elie’s goal was that we all remember and learn from what happened. The end result was that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for this book.
He then portrays his day by day life and the severity of the death camp. He depicts the savage beatings, hard work, starvation, the passing, and loss of his confidence. Elie repudiates his confidence in God and lives for his father's purpose. He then tells how the SS powers expected that the Russians were progressing and they must be moved. Elie portrays the "Passing March" to Buchenwald.
One of the many ways Elie prevailed through the holocaust is because he had bravery. They had just finished their march from Buma to Glewitz. They had been in Gleiwitz for 3 days at that point. Later in the day they
He showed his hardships, and his losses, all while fighting to survive. Something that Elie wants to ensure is that this
While Elie Wiesel was relatively fine, considering the fact that he had gone days without any food or water, his father had been too exhausted to even take a hot shower, something they had not done for over a week. Instead, he chose to lie down in the snow, even though he had warned his son against doing exactly that a few days before. This camp was the same one where Wiesel’s father eventually died from dysentery,
It was very brave of him to go through all the trauma. "I shall not describe my life during death; nothing matters to me anymore." (113) When Elie's father died nothing else mattered to him. He became an unemotional man because of all the trauma he had been through and the loved ones he had
Elie was beaten countless times by other people. No one was safe from the anger and hatred that fueled the Nazis. But what stood out to everyone in the camp was the tragic death of the young boy who was hanged. His death lasted longer and the horror the others had to witness as they walked away. Nothing could be done, this moment is where Elie no longer believes his religion.
As an illustration, he exchanged his shoes to be put in a good unit. He was also forced to get his gold crown removed. However he played a trick on them but the eventually found out his weakness was his father. Many times Elie would give his father his food so his father would be stronger and didn’t have to be taken away. Furthermore, even though Eliezer was very young he never gave up.
These death marches seemed so hopeful to the prisoners because they thought this could be their one chance to escape this harsh reality. However to those of us that are looking from the outside in we notice that death marches were not for liberation from the camp but instead liberation from this reality, from this world. Although Elie and his father survived the death march the death toll continued to rise by the second, but who was counting at this point. As soon as Elie reached the end of this journey he realized that this was not a liberation trail because he ended up where he started. At a concentration camp.
Even after his willingness to survive for so long (over a year!) in the concentration camp, the prospect over continuing on in the snow was too much to bear. Honestly, it is remarkable at how much the human body can in fact endure. Elie was able to push himself through the pain and exhaustion and made it to the next
In ‘Night’, Elie and his father are placed in the concentration camp together and rely on each other's emotional support to survive. On page 86, Elie and other prisoners were running in the death marches. If they stopped running, they would simply be killed. Elie could not endure the pain as he quoted “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be me, began to fascinate me…. My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me”.
In this book Elie speaks of his hardships and how he survived the concentration camps. Elie quickly changed into a sorrowful person, but despite that he was determined to stay alive no matter the cost. For instance, during the death
In Night. People in concentration camps tried to protect each other but struggled very hard to do so. Sometimes, they barely had a chance to begin with. For example, Elie witnessed someone kill himself because they already committed all he had left to taking care of a family member and was stuck. “A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?