Examples Of Religion In Night By Elie Wiesel

Religion is Lost Children are capable of phenomenal potential. However, for many children this potential was never achieved. Their flame of life was blown out, along with millions of other children. Jews knew that death would be coming, and their fate was inevitable. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel, was able to escape death. To do so, he had to change his perspective on life. Wiesel realized that life was easier without guidance from his god. The dehumanization of the Jews is what caused Elie Wiesel to lose his faith. Throughout Wiesel’s youth, he tried to grow his faith, however; his father didn’t give him the support that he needed. Wiesel’s father was “unsentimental” and “more concerned with others than his own family” (Wiesel 2).

Wiesel explains, “He was a man of all work at a Hasidic synagogue […] He was very poor and lived humbly” (1). The people of Sighet look up to him, and go to him for advice because no one is embarrassed around him. However, when Moshe the Beadle is deported, he manages to escape and return home. He comes back to warn everybody that the conditions in the woods are not what they have been told. Moshe the Beadle was brutally honest to his friends, but nobody would believe him. He tells everyone that “Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets” (Wiesel 4). His details were honest, yet difficult to believe because of how awful the conditions

The belief in a god that stands by while millions of people are being murdered seems merely impossible. Wiesel indicates, “ You died because you had to die. There was no fuss” (85). It eventually got to the point that the prisoners were no longer afraid of death. They did not have any emotion left because what they were going through is challenging to understand and live through. Before they would die, the prisoners would be treated like “automatons” and “filthy sons of bitches” (Wiesel 81). Wiesel writes, “Pitch darkness. Every now and then, an explosion in the night. They had orders to fire anyone who could not keep up. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of this pleasure. If one of us stopped for a second, a sharp shot finished off another filthy son of a bitch”