Do you know how many Jews died during the Holocaust? The answer is more than six million. In the novel night, Elie Wiesel describes his memories of this deadly period in history. But how did a fifteen year old boy manage to survive for eleven months in concentration camps? Elie Wiesel was able to survive due to three things: Wanting to keep his father alive, having a basic instinct to stay alive, and his cleverness. Elie wanting to keep is father alive is evident through so many ways. When the dentist from Czechoslovakia tried to collect his gold crown, but failed, another man named Franek came and tried to bully him into giving him his gold crown. Franek refuses to take no for an answer, he starts to beat his father until he will accept …show more content…
When the dentist came to take his gold crown, he tells him that he is not feeling well and that he has a fever. Wiesel states, “I had saved my gold crown. It might be useful to me one day to buy something-bread or life. I now took little interest in anything except my daily plate of soup and my crust of stale bread. Bread, soup-these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less that that even: a starved stomach.” Wiesel uses his cleverness and knows that he might need to sell his gold crown one day to save himself, whether he will sell it for food or clothes. Another moment when Wiesel uses his cleverness is when he is able to trade his ration of bread to be closer to his father in Buchenwald. This shows a whole other level of cleverness to understand the value of bargaining goods in order to achieve what is needed. Because of Wiesel’s cleverness, he is capable of surviving. Overall Elie Wiesel was able to survive due to the love and compassion he has towards his father, his survival instincts to keep living, and his ability to do what is needed. Out of the six million Jews who have passed a fifteen year old boy was able to survive for eleven months during the most deadly period in