Diminishing Faith The Nazis enforced horrendous cruelty upon Elie Wiesel and the rest of the Jewish people, therefore causing Elie’s faith in God to go from complete, to partial, to absent. The German soldiers chipped away at the Jews’ needs one by one, breaking them down to precisely bodies. In the beginning of the story, Elie shares his remembrance of being completely devoted to God, and even wanting to learn more about the Kabbalah religion than his father allowed. Elie’s love for his religion is shown when he explains that, “One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of Kabbalah.” (p. 4) Almost all young children or teens would not want to study more religion than what is enforced. So, Elie’s stray from this general interpretation shows that he truly cares about his beliefs and wants to spend more time …show more content…
At this point in his life, Elie had all of his needs and was sincerely loyal to his religion. While Elie was in Auschwitz, some of the other Jews began praying and saying that God is testing them, to see how much they are able to handle. Elie did not agree with praying to the person who was supposedly responsible for all of this. “As for me, I had ceased to pray...I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.” (p.45) Elie’s thoughts at this time in his life reflect how his feelings towards God were changing. Elie was not completely ignoring Him yet, but he was now holding God partially responsible for what was happening to the Jews. This is when the strategy of breaking down people’s needs comes into play. The way the Nazis were treating Elie was slowly but surely causing him to disregard his religion and blame the Holocaust on God. Instead of just killing the Jews, the Nazis took away everything they cared about, breaking them down so they were just bodies lacking souls, before finally killing them off. Near the end of Elie’s experiences, he begins to really