How Did Elie Wiesel's Faith Changed Throughout The Book Night

The Holocaust Encyclopedia believes an estimated 1.5 million children were separated from their families and killed throughout the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, discusses his experience of living through the Holocaust. Elie was a young boy who loved his family at his home in Sighet. Additionally, he was exploring his faith. All of these things changed in 1944 when he was put into a concentration camp. Now, he struggles through his relationship with his father and with his faith. The novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, illustrates the tragedies of the Holocaust, providing a valuable lesson for teenagers that even the strongest of bonds can be damaged when hope is lost. Before 1944, Sighet was a community full of devout followers

Elie had a mentor, Moishe the Beadle, who guided him through his relationship with God. Elie and his mentor's relationship was broken when Moishe was taken by the Germans. Even through all of this, Elie still makes it a priority to pray. When they had to leave early, he “was up at dawn”. I [Elie] wanted to have time to pray before leaving,”(Wiesel 18). Elie’s faith and relationship with God is one of his top priorities. Elie believes he will find answers and strength in God. After this morning, Elie, along with many others, took a long, tiring, and grueling journey to the concentration camps. When they arrive at the camps, Elie can already see the awful things going on. He sees malnourished people, guards yelling, and people being carelessly beaten. When looking around, Elie sees the flames of the crematorium. It is a sight “Never shall I [Elie] forget those flames that consumed my faith forever,”(Wiesel 34). Elie, a once strong believer in his God, realizes that his relationship and belief in God will never be the same again. Elie can not begin to understand how his God would let something this awful happen to his followers. Elie believes he will die in this

He no longer believed he could feel the same levels of joy and happiness he once did. Through all of this, Elie becomes tired and does not have the energy to feel anything; this causes even his strongest bond to deteriorate. Wiesel explains the one thing that kept him going through all of the agony, the thing was a person, his father. Elie makes many sacrifices for his father throughout the course of the story. Elie and his father have made it to the part of the concentration camp sorting process where their line of work will be chosen. When the men are being sorted into their Kommandos a guard comes to Elie and asks, “‘Would you like to get into a good Kommando?’ ‘Of course. But on one condition: I [Elie] want to stay with my father.’,”(Wieselt 49). It likely would have been easier for Elie to be put into a highly classified Kommando without bringing his father along, however, he knows his father is his only source of light, hope, strength, and motivation. This strong bond slowly deteriorates as both Elie and his Father grow weaker. Elie’s father is old and struggles to keep up with the others. In the camps, it was vital to be selfish to