Amidst the corridor of history, there exists a chapter so chillingly vivid that it grasps the narrator’s soul and refuses to release its strenuous hold on his heart: the Holocaust. Ellie’s memoir Night recounts the darkest time in his life, how as a 15 year old boy he and the Jewish people endured the hardships of the Holocaust. Wiesel was a Romanian-born Jew, his hometown of Sighet was controlled by the Hungarians for a majority of the Second World War. By May of 1944, all Sighet Jews were forced into cattle wagons and transported to Auschwitz against their will. Wiesel’s story breaks through the curtain of silence as the world retreats from the deliberate extermination of 6 million Jews, providing a graphic and unvarnished portrayal of his …show more content…
The smoke, the flames, and the small faces of innocent children dissipated to ash beneath a silent sky all paint a picture of the Holocaust's utter horror when countless Jews lost their lives in the crematoriums. Wieasel's mention of the flames consuming his faith sheds light upon the existential crisis he faced as the unimaginable suffering shattered his belief in a benevolent divinity. This part of the quote represents the innocent lives lost and the children he saw evaporate within the flames that destroyed his faith and love for a kind-hearted God. The Holocaust was a horrific experience which not only tested his endurance but also killed his faith and soul, burning his once vibrant dreams into a dark ash. In this narrative, Weasel's loss of faith and the brutality of the Holocaust are intertwined, each intensifying the others' anguish in a never ending cycle of despair and devastation. Wiesel's depictions of the flame represent a profound rupture in his relationship with God. The atrocities he saw with his own eyes challenged his belief in a compassionate God who would allow such suffering to