The Way Faith Beats in a Heart
The Holocaust was the systematic killing, by Adolf Hitler and his followers; the Nazi, of six million Jews and one million other minority groups in Europe from 1933 to 1945. The Book Night by Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel is a first-hand account of the Holocaust. In 1944 young Elie is taken from his home in Sighet, Romania at the age of 15, and brought to the concentration camp; Auschwitz, in Poland. The book follows his journey as he lives through the horrors of the Holocaust. Elie sees his mother and sisters taken away to a crematory, men hanged for little to no reason, was forcibly whipped for defending another prisoner, and forced on a death march where he experienced many horrific things: he was almost killed over a small chunk of bread, his father almost died, he
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But Elie is also questioning why he believes. At this point Elie still has a small amount of faith. He has begun to question why God would let something as terrible as the Holocaust happen. “’… May His Name be blessed and magnified… ‘whispered my father. For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His Name? The Eternal, Lord of the universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?”(Wiesel 31). Elie has begun to hate God for the things that he has had to endure. Elie believes that God is no longer around, he is silent leaving all their prayers unanswered. He questions why he has to be thankful and bless God’s Name. Elie vowed his first night to never forget the moment that killed his God and his soul, and turned his dreams to dust. He would never forget, even if he was condemned to live as long as God himself (Wiesel 32). Elie states he will never forget the horrors he saw. They killed his faith in God, because he believed that in their moment of need God had abandoned