Dostoevski, a Russian journalist and philosopher, once stated, “There is only one thing that I dread; not to be worthy of my suffering.” Suffering requires a certain amount of worthiness, and offers the sufferer vast opportunities to deepen the meaning of the individual’s life. Eliezer Wiesel, narrator and author of Night, an autobiographical memoir, recalls the events of the Holocaust which he personally went up against, when he lived in the small town of Sighet and in the Spring of 1944, the Nazis took over the Jews in Sighet, including the Wiesel family. The Jews were then evaluated as to see who was physically fit to work, and Eliezer and his father were deemed healthy and suitable for specialized work units. The others who were not fit, …show more content…
The SS officers bark at the prisoners to quicken their pace as they march through a harsh blizzard, and Eliezer can no longer bear the pain he feels. He desires to end his life by collapsing onto a pillow of snow, but he must keep persist and carry on for his father, as he recalls “The idea of idea of dying began to fascinate me… My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me” (86). Eliezer had someone worth living for, and he claims his father was the reason he made it out of the concentration camps alive after the Jews were liberated. If it were not for his father, Eliezer may have taken his last breath. Decades after surviving the Holocaust, Eliezer revisits the concentration camps and Auschwitz with Oprah for an interview in 2006, and is reminded that “If [he] survived this place until Buchenwald, it was because [his] father was alive, and [Eliezer] knew that if [he] died, [his father] would die” (Winfrey). This event changes Eliezer’s perspective on life, as he can realize that as long as he has someone or something worth living for, he will, unlike those who have lost all hope and reasons to live, keep living. Many of those had no motivation would not make it out of concentration camps alive, as his father and others who had lost hope did