Examples Of Choiceless Choices In Night By Elie Wiesel

Surviving a series of Choiceless Choices The appointment of Adolf Hitler to chancellor sparked one of the darkest times in recent human history. Under his rule, Jews and others not seen as “pure” by the nazi ideology were first crammed into ghettos and months later, forced into concentration camps. In the nonfiction novel titled Night by Elie Wiesel, the narrator, Elie himself, describes the extreme hardships faced by prisoners at these camps. Prisoners not killed on arrival had mandatory labor and lived off small rations of bread and soup. The prisoners were constantly faced with choiceless choices, situations where both options are a loss. Despite all this, some prisoners, such as Elie Wiesel, found a way to survive. Knowing that the Soviet

Kapos chosen by SS guards were always in “perfect physical condition” (Pg 72). The Kapos were instructed to keep absolute control over their camps, which meant carrying out gruesome tasks such as choosing who would get food, giving out ruthless beatings, and, worst of all, “killing a certain number of prisoners every day. And every week - selection. A merciless selection,” (Pg 70). Many Kapos felt immense guilt and remorse as they beat and massacred their fellow prisoners, with the only solution to terminate this nightmare being death for

This result was accomplished due to his profound resiliency and an incredible amount of luck. Elie’s greatest test of his resilience was the death march. On top of not being fed or given any time to rest, Elie’s foot was in terrible condition, and he felt it throb with every step. Elie knew that ceasing to run would cause an immediate death that would end his suffering, but his will to live for himself and his father fueled him with the motivation to march on. One of many examples of luck was on arriving at Auschwitz; prisoners were sent to one of two lines. Elie and his father were directed to the line on the left, which they soon found out was headed to the crematoria. Elie and his father slowly approached the pit one step at a time until “Two steps from the pit, we were ordered to turn left and head to the barracks,” (Pg 34). Against all odds, Elie narrowly escapes the crematoria along with his father after being just a few steps away by virtue of an incredible amount of