The Effect Faith Can Have in Survival
Many would say that throughout the Holocaust there were numerous individuals who were stripped of their beliefs. Prisoners strayed from the basic path of their natural instincts. Individuals who at one time gave everything for a spiritual leader, now wept at the feet of an unconquerable enemy. Some people blamed god for their terrible circumstance while others held onto their beliefs. In the case of Elie Wiesel in his memoir Night, those who gave up their faith were the ones able to survive.
In the beginning of the memoir Night, Elie Wiesel and the others around him are fully indulged into their religion. Wiesel goes to the synagogue everyday to pray and wants to get into the study of the Cabala even though he is
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The same can be said for Elie Wiesel. As he has time to think about his current situation, he starts to feel as if God is at fault for this injustice which has fallen upon his and his Jewish allies. A boy who once was one of the most religiously devoted youth in his town was now giving up all hope that there is even a god at all. While being surrounded by death and sorrow, Wiesel comments, “Where is God?’ ‘Where is he” (86)? Even though Wiesel's faith is the main focus point in the Night, other prisoners struggled with the same issue. For example afters months in the camps one of father’s friends, a man named Meir Katz, is starting to give up. He is not so much giving up on his beliefs towards God as he is giving up on life itself. He believes death is so guaranteed that there is no point in continuing to live. During this point in his thoughts Meir Katz goes on to tell Mr. Wiesel, Elie Wiesel's Father, “Why don’t they shoot us all right away” (Wiesel 98). He was also not the only one of the prisoners to believe in this principle. None of the people at the camps wanted to struggle, and the easiest way to escape struggle was to