Loss in Faith of God - Night

Elie Wiesel is one of the countless number of people affected by the Holocaust. He and his father were taken from their home and separated from his mother and sister. Elie Wiesel wrote the book Night which tells some of the struggles they had to endure. Throughout these struggles, keeping faith in God was not easy to do. Many times Elie doubted that there was a God to help. In chapter three, Elie and his father waited in line with the rest of the people to find out if they were to go to the prison or the crematorium. As they walk toward the crematorium, Elie sees the children burning in the pit, and then sees the separate one for the adults. Approaching the pit, Elie and his father think they are going to face their death, but right before it is their turn, they are instead sent to the prison to work. “Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” Elie is saying that moments like these make him doubt the existence of God. If there was a God, then why would he let the innocent children be burned to death? Even though Elie and his father had survived the selection at Birkenau, his dreams had been crushed by the lack of help from God. When Elie hits his low point, he loses all faith in God. At the end of chapter four, Elie, along with all the other prisoners, witness the hanging of a young boy. Everyone is silent, not a sound is made, and this was all because he was collaborating against the Nazis. “Where is He? Here He is – He is hanging here on the gallows. . . .” Elie feels that the boy’s hanging symbolizes the death of God. The hanging of this innocent child also symbolizes the innocence that was taken from Elie by the Nazis. Before the war, Elie cannot picture a world without God, and praying. Moshe asks him early in the book why he prayed, and Elie says that it was just part of his life like breathing. Now,