Universal Declaration Of Human Rights In Elie Wiesel's Night

After reading the memoir, Night, it is impossible to deny the fact that there is a need for a declaration of human rights. Throughout the memoir, Elie Wiesel shows readers how horribly one group of people can treat another if left unchecked. His first hand account of how Jews are treated by the Nazis at death camps is painfully raw. The Holocaust proves that a formal declaration of human rights is entirely necessary. This event in history is the catalyst that compelled the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Eleanor Roosevelt and her committee. It is unfortunate that humans need a guide or book to know how to treat others humanely. This need is embodied in a quote by Nelson Mandela: "To deny people their human rights

As an adolescent, Elie is forced to bear witness and experience unspeakable horrors; things that no child should ever have to go through. Seemingly overnight, Elie and over six million other Jews are stripped of their identity, faith, and humanity. Starting at his arrival in Auschwitz, Elie realizes the world’s capability of cruelty as he helplessly watches hundreds of men, women, and children alike being thrown into pits of flame. Left in utter horror, Elie questions “how it [is] possible that men, women, and children [are] being burned and the world [keeps] silent” (Wiesel 32). Years in malicious concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald, result in detrimental physical and mental repercussions as prisoners are deprived of the most basic human rights. However, even after experiencing the atrocities of a Nazi death camp, Elie is still able to find light in humanity. Readers can take away many positive lessons after reading Elie’s memoir. For instance, Elie wants readers to know that there is always hope, no matter how desperate one’s circumstances are. Elie finds hope in his father’s smile. He writes, “I shall always remember that smile” (Wiesel 90). This quote also demonstrates the importance of relationships as Elie and his father lean on each other in the face of death, pain, and

While the Holocaust was not the first time in history such a need was apparent, it was the most blatant example of atrocities against humans. The purpose of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is to “establish rights to life, liberty, property, security, education, employments, and freedom from torture, freedom of thought, conscience and religion” (UDHR pdf). It is designed in such a way to protect people from ever being treated so inhumanely again. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (UDHR pdf). This is one of many basic rights that was violated as described by Elie in Night. He relates instructions given by an SS officer in the following way: “Here, you must work. If you don’t you will go straight to the chimney. To the crematorium. Work or crematorium—the choice is yours” (Wiesel 38 & 39). As unbelievable as this sounds, it is the reality of Jewish prisoners in concentration