Night, Night By Markus Wiesel, And All Quiet On The Western Front

Since the beginning, humans have been fascinated by war, having not only participated in the bloodshed themselves but detailing them in works of literature in the hopes that others may learn from those dark times. Books such as The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Night by Elie Wiesel, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque focus on a specific war: World War II. During a time of fighting between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers, the authors of these books detail the different point of views of life in the twentieth century in a time of endless bloodshed. The Book Thief shows the perspective of a fictional young girl growing up in Nazi Germany whereas All Quiet on the Western Front shows what it was like to be a German
Night, a memoir written by a holocaust survivor, demonstrates a young Jewish boys experience in the concentration camps. War is a unignorable factor that causes uncomfortable truths such as the inhuman capabilities of people fueled by hate, the hardships that come with questioning a personal moral code in favor of one’s own country, and the lasting mental effects of a war on the people who participated after it is finished to be exposed.
REWRITTEN THESIS - When people go to war, it will becometh the enemies and the allies are capable of horrific extremities that many had believed to be impossible due to the sheer inhumanity of the actions. Elie Wiesel, a survivor of World War II, explains his Jewish community “doubted his [Hitler’s] resolve to exterminate us. Annihilate an entire people...So many millions of people! And thus my elders concerned themselves with all manner of things….but not with their own fate” (Wiesel 8). This quote is a true account of the
In The Book Thief, the family unit of the Hubermanns decide to take the ultimate risk of hiding a Jew in their basement. The Jew named Max was taken in by Hans Hubermann as an act of trying to save the young boy’s life. While all of Germany, their neighbors, and even their children believed in the persecution of the Jewish people in the name of their country and the Fuhrer, Hans and Rosa Hubermann went against their country in favor of their own beliefs. This was a dangerous act that could have resulted in death if someone were to find out. While there was a great amount of fear that went into the decision, the Hubermanns sacrificed their own safety to ensure the safety of another. This type of sacrifice is largely present in a war setting. War between countries will always produce non-believers who must face the choice of whether they listen to their hearts or simply follow the crowd. Another example of this is when Paul, a German soldier recounts his regrets of stabbing and killing a French soldier. Paul says, “Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony--Forgive me,