Devastation In The Book Night

“..it shocks your brain out of reality, to a point where it doesn’t seem real”(Crystal 30). During the holocaust, many Jews were dehumanized and used for labor under the authority of the Nazi soldiers. This caused a huge disruption in the way that these people thought, functioned and behaved on a regular basis. In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character Elie struggles through many inhumane events, which caused him to lose his faith in God, man and himself. Elie responds negatively to devastation during the Holocaust, yet others respond to devastation positively; the difference is perspective. Elie was a very religious boy who dedicated his life to benediction. During the holocaust, the Jews were blind to what was really going on inside these “camps” like Buchenwald and Auschwitz, so when they were evicted from their homes they didn’t resist. All of the things that happened in the concentration camp, to Elie, or around him played a part in ripping him from his religious ties. “The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of
the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for?” (Wiesel 33). This quote describes how Elie felt at the beginning when all the Jews were starting to be forced into laborious work. Elie describes God as someone who isn’t sticking up for all of the mistreatment. He believes that, if God can’t stick up for him then why should he worship him? Although Elie lost his faith, there were Jews whose faith was strengthened by the attracties. Some prisoners decided to live their lives closer to God. They thought that this act would be rewarded in the end. “God is testing us. He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if He punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more…” (Weisel 45) On top of that, these Jews simply had nothing else to believe in. Therefore they chose to deepen their belief in God. “They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom” (Frankl 1). Elie’s journey through the concentration camps did not only rid his faith of God, but his faith in all of mankind.
The appalling destruction that Elie endorsed was done by humans. Humans just like Elie. “Still, I told him that I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes…” (Wiesel 33). As hard as it was for him to understand why God could let all of his people down he then realized man had let him down. Ellie soon lacked the trust in his fellow humans. On the other hand, there are some people who instead of turn away from someone who let them down they find a stronger pull to help them. They think that if they love them or tolerate them then whatever they did will go away or get better. For example, say a friend did something that got them in trouble. Instead of unfriend them you back them up. You find yourself loving them more even though what they did was
wrong. Elie still had one thing, himself. Even though he couldn’t fathom what the other people were doing he eventually became numb to it. He began to accept what was going on. In the end losing reliance on the one thing he had left. ¨But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.¨(Weisel 68) After all this misery and torture, the only thing he had left was himself. The way he was treated and the conditions he was put through finally broke him down and he lost himself. After he lost his father, he felt there was nothing to live for and gave up. All his emotions hit him like a train. To conclude, in times of desperation and sadness, people are bound to lose faith in God, man, and themselves. Although, some people’s faith is strengthened when these situations arise, it can be difficult to keep a right mind when experiencing these kinds of hardships. The way in which events affect one is determined on the severity level and the mindset of the person when faced with a difficult situation. “Shock was followed by apathy”(Williams 1). This order of coping was the same for Elie Wiesel. He writes the book with a negative light but the point of the book “Night” was to shed a true light of sympathy on everyone reading it.