Changes In Night By Elie Wiesel

The book Night by Elie Wiesel teaches many different lessons about the human nature, human condition, and society. Elie is a boy who grew up in Sighet, Transylvania (present day Romania) during the time that the Nazis and Adolf Hitler came to power. After being placed in ghettos, the Jews of Sighet eventually got shipped off to the concentration camps, the first being Auschwitz/Birkenau. When the Jews first arrived at these camps, they made sure to keep their friends and family close, and they looked out for each other. After months passed by, many began to grow weak due to the lack of food and harsh conditions that they faced. Because of these conditions, the relationships between many changed dramatically, as one needed to do whatever they

When people are forced into unbearable conditions, they often must abandon those they love so they can use their strength for their own survival. In the camp, there was a man named Rabbi Eliahou who was there with his son. When they first arrived, they made sure to keep each other very close, as well as they cared for each other. However, after the prisoners went on a long march in freezing temperatures, the rabbi’s son noticed that his father was getting weak. This forced him to make a very difficult decision, which was whether or not to abandon him. The following actions performed by the rabbi’s son are able to be shown with, “...he felt that his father was getting weak, he had believed that the end was near and had fought for the separation in order to get rid of the burden, to free himself which could lessen the chances of his own survival. And he continued to run in the front, letting the distance between them grew greater” (Wiesel 87). This explains how the son abandoned his father while on a death march, all because worrying about him

After the prisoners left Gleiwitz, they were placed on a train that would eventually take them to Buchenwald. While on this ten day excursion, they were given no food or water. They had to rely on the snow for survival. This brought along a lot of craze to prisoners. Because so many were starving, whenever one caught sight of another having food, they were willing to do anything to get it, no matter who had it. A common riot for food between father and son is able to be displayed with, “I’m your father...you’re hurting me...you’re killing me...you’re killing your father...I’ve got some bread for you too!” (Wiesel 96). This shows how a son attacked his father for bread. Although the fight was between father and son, it still happened. This is because when people were at the camps, in order to survive they needed food. By not receiving any, they risked death. If the relationship between the father and son was not challenged, then the son would have died of starvation. When it came to the amount of suffering that these prisoners endured, any piece of food they ingested gave them a larger chance of survival. These prisoners were left with the difficult decision of whether to attack and potentially kill someone they love so they can live, or leave them alone so they can eat the food they have and live themselves. As