Examples Of Faith In Night By Elie Wiesel

All life changing events seem to happen suddenly, but for the Jews during World War II they were eased into their eventual doom. German soldiers slowly started to occupy Jewish communities, then the Jews were forced to live in ghettos. Still the Jewish people stayed in their bubble of delusion. They convinced themselves that the Germans came to protect them and that it was a good decision to keep them with people like them. Normal everyday lives, like Elie Wiesel’s, were ruined by the cruelty of the Nazis. Elie Wiesel decided to fight back against the regime that killed thousands of Jews by writing his book Night. Elie’s experience in the concentration camps changes his faith, how he perceives other people, and how painful silence can

In the beginning of the book his faith in God is absolute. His faith is a result of him studying Jewish mysticism, that teaches him that nothing exists without God. When he is asked why he prays, he replies, “Why did I pray?... Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” He cannot imagine living without believing in God, but his experience during the Holocaust changes everything. Elie cannot imagine that the cruelty in the concentration camps could reflect divinity. He constantly wonders how a God could be a part of this and how could they let this cruelty take place. His faith is also shaken by the cruelty and selfishness of his fellow prisoners. If the prisoners were able to come together and rebel against the Nazis, then Elie believes he would be able to understand the Nazi’s menace as an evil aberration. He would also be able to still believe that humankind was essentially good. Elie realizes that the Holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil, and cruelty of which everybody is capable of. If the world is disgusting and cruel, then God himself must be disgusting and cruel or must not

As the Gestapo hang a young boy a man asks, “Where is God?” yet the only response is “total silence throughout the camp.” Elie and his companions are left wondering how God can allow such horror and cruelty to occur, especially to devote worshippers. There are no angels swooping down to save people from the crematorium. Elie and the other prisoners call out for God and they only receive silence. In his first night at Birkenau, Elie says, “The Eternal… was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” Eli feels that God’s silence means there is no divine compassion, this leads Elie to question the existence of God. There is also the silence of the prisoners in Night and the lack of resistance towards the Nazis. When his father is beaten Elie remembers, “I did not move. I was afraid,” and he feels guilty about not acting. In the text it is implied that silence and being passive are the reasons why the Holocaust continued. Elie writing Night is an attempt to break the silence that surrounds the