The Holocaust was the wide scale murder and extermination of Jews during the Nazi
Regime. The Holocaust was undoubtedly a world-changing reality of World War II.
Approximately six million Jews died during the Holocaust. Jews were placed in concentration
(extermination) camps and forced to work until their subsequent, often inevitable, death. One of the most notable Nazi concentration camps was Auschwitz, which is also the setting for much of
Elie Wiesel’s Night. In the eyes of many Jews, concentration camps were places of abandonment: of family, friends, and even God. Abandonment and betrayal are major themes in Night, Gimpel the Fool, and Gospel According to Garcia. In Elie Wiesel's Night, Isaac Bashevis Singer's
Gimpel the Fool, and Ariel
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Elie decided to fight fire with fire. Because God had abandoned Elie, Elie abandoned God. Elie turned his back on his faith when his faith turned its back on him. Unlike how Elie turned his back on God when he abandoned him, Gimpel chose to be merciful to those who betrayed him.
In Isaac Bashevis Singer's Gimpel the Fool, Gimpel chooses to be naive to those who betray him, especially his wife, Elka, who cheats on him on multiple occasions. Gimpel is deceived daily by all the passer-bys in town, and is even tricked into marrying a “whore” against his better judgement. Elka, his wife, “[bore] a bastard” and Gimpel was fully aware of it, but allowed himself to become naive to this fact, and loved Elka and the child nonetheless. When
Gimpel finds “a man’s form…in [his] place…laying next to Elka,” he goes to the Rabbi who tells him to go divorce her, but Gimpel naively convinces himself he simply saw a “shadow.”
Later on, people continue to tell Gimpel that his “children” are not his, but he heeds his apprentice’s advice by “ignor[ing] it (the claims) as [he] ignore[d] the cold of last winter.” After the apprentice gives Gimpel this advice, Gimpel finds “the apprentice lying down beside