His faith quickly waivered, Elie questioned God’s omnibenevolence after witnessing the acts of pure evil committed by Nazis. Elie began to think, “...I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name?The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for…”. As living Children were being thrown into fire to just burn.…
The Holocaust, which was the systematic persecution and murder of over six million Jews during World War II, is often cited as one of the worst atrocities committed in the history of human civilization. People speak of it in hushed, mournful voices as they wonder at how the German Nazis could be so malevolent as to annihilate a whole generation of Jews. Hundreds of eminent scholars have eloquently explained the horrific nature of the Holocaust and its effects on the modern world (Gerstenfeld). Yet, it can be said that emphasis should be placed on understanding why Adolf Hitler decided to exterminate so many Jews. Only by looking through the perspective of the Nazis can one begin to understand that the Nazi Party and its leader, Hitler, brutally…
Elie Wiesel’s Change of Faith Throughout the Holocaust A big question that comes to mind when learning about the genocide of the Jews in WWII is: “How can people still have faith after the Holocaust?” God is one of the most prominent themes in holocaust literature; holocaust theology found in writings from the Holocaust have been discussed and debated since the 1940s. The accusations of the Jewish people against their own God is something that might be hard to understand. There are many different beliefs that the Jewish people had after the genocide; some of them abandoned their faith during the Holocaust, while others forgave God and kept believing in him.…
(Pg.32) They didn’t know why God would let such cruelty happen to them, if he loves all people. Before Elie entered the camp, he believed that God is everywhere at all times, therefore the world should be good. During the Holocaust his views changed due to all of the evil and cruelty he had to go through and see. Therefore, Elie starts to believe God must be cruel, or not exist at all.…
Elie feels betrayed by God as he watches the Jews forgives the God that allowed Jews to die in despair. This shows Elie’s loss of religion and trust in God’s kindness and justice. On the day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Elie observes religious acts of Jews to bless the God and entreats for justice. However, Elie refuses to bless the God “who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers end up in the furnaces”(Wiesel 67). Elie’s image of God disfigures as he feels betrayed by God because God allows the Nazis to throw thousands of Jews into “the furnaces”.…
(33) Elie feels as if the Holocaust was not something you would thank God for. He didn’t understand why people would thank God for all the suffering and pain that was caused. Wiesel even accuses God, saying that he is “alone” in a world without God, referring to the tragedy of the Holocaust. Wiesel notes, “I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man.…
When the Holocaust occurred in the late 1930s and 1940s, it raised a question in the Jewish communities of the role of God in trials and tribulation. Why would a good god — a merciful god — allow such atrocities to occur? Had they sinned at such an exponential level that it required such a response from God? Because at times it felt like nothing good came from the event, a new discussion emerged entitled Holocaust theology, which proved to become a collection of philosophical and theological debates discussing in essence the role of God in both the lives of humans and the universe. Does he care?…
The Holocaust is a genocide in which Adolf Hitler 's Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed about six million Jews. Hitler did not like the Jews, so he felt the need to rule over Germany and the Jews. He experiences numerous things that one could never think a child would need to experience. In the wake of seeing the barbarities of the Holocaust, Elizer 's confidence is smashed making him reconsider his feeling of self-esteem. The things that Elizer saw made him need to address if God was there to get him through this intense a great time.…
Although the LORD might be the one that the people claimed was absent during the time of the Holocaust, the people were actually those who were silent. They were silent in their faith in God and they staggered and questioned how one so mighty as He, could leave them in a time like that. Just like the LORD left Jesus on the cross, He was leaving His people in the concentration camps as a result of sin. The people had betrayed Him first, and God was only giving them what they deserve; actually less than they deserve because what they deserve is eternal death in hell without the LORD, so He was being merciful. God finally returns in the end of the war to shine peace over the people and tells the survivors that He will never betray them even if that is what it feels like because the LORD completely betraying His people would feel like the Earth in crashing down and there is no escape to the sinful abyss that surrounds those who once believed in His…
The ones who abandoned their faith during war found peace in other possessions rather than God, but after war, the recovery of the horrors they witnessed came from finding faith again as a stimulus to heal their past. The article “God after the Holocaust” explains that by continuing to deny God’s existence and abandon Him would be admitting defeat to the Nazis. The article stresses that God works in mysterious ways in everyone’s life and the Holocaust is just an event that cannot be justified, but through faith survivors can forget the memories from the Holocaust. The article “God after the Holocaust” argues that survivors’ experiences in the Holocaust taught the survivors valuable lessons that challenge them to trust in God again when it states,…
Question 1 The holocaust began on January 30, 1933 –and went through to May 8, 1945. The word Holocaust means “destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war”. The Holocaust is the genocide of Jewish people throughout World War 2. There are some other meanings like: killing of Romani gypsies, homosexuals, Soviet Prisoners Of War (POWs) and civilians.…
“Nazis”, another word for terror which refreshes all the wounds in the history of humanity. Everyone in the world connect Nazis to holocaust which is absolutely true, but they aren’t aware of all the steps they took in order to reach to that position where they can get enough trust of people who will not fight back against them. Well, we all know that it didn’t work out well for them and ended up losing their lives as well. Nazis was a group made of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and some others who wanted all Non-Germans out of Germany. They wanted people who only had blue eyes and blond hair which according to them was a perfect example of true Germans.…
Questioning a belief sometimes is not always a bad thing. If we did not question something, we would not further understand something. Even though God’s presence is ubiquitous, his presence is not always felt. Sometimes this is why people begin to question personal things in their lives such as their faith, family, and lifestyle. It is human for people to ask questions, in order to further understand a certain topic.…
The Fight to Survive There were at least 800,000 Jewish deaths in the ghettos, mostly from starvation and disease (The Holocaust). In 1930 Germany’s economy was not doing well due to the treaty of Versailles and the great depression, so the citizens were willing to listen to any one who claimed they could fix it all and that was Hitler. Once Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933 he started brain washing people telling them that the reason for all Germanys economic problems was because of the Jews, so Jews were starting to get discriminated and then started getting forced into ghettos then concentration camps. But not all Jews just let this happen to them, they fought back with armed and unarmed resistance. During the holocaust there were various…
Being detained for fifteen years would habitually set the normal person back for several years and keep them wondering what to do with their lives. They result in giving up because they don’t know what is good for them, they know no other way of life but the small space that was home. Survivors from the holocaust were cast out of the world for so long. They have to figure out how to get back on their feet and recover from all their health issues from being dehumanized for so long.…