Discrimination In Elie Wiesel's Night

In the heartbreaking time of history known as the Holocaust, millions of Jews were taken by the Nazi regime and forced to live in terrible concentration camps. The Nazis killed approximately two-thirds of all Jews living in Europe, including 1.1 million children. As one victim explains his feelings during his father's suffering, “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live” (Wiesel 109). This victim was Elie Wiesel. Upon liberation from a concentration camp at the end of World War II, Wiesel recorded the terrible ordeal in his memoir, Night. During the Holocaust, Wiesel and millions of other Jews were forced to view their culture and religion as “wrong.” His memoir illustrates what it was like to survive the …show more content…
During this time, the Germans are slowly taking away the Jews civil rights. The Jews do not know it yet, but tension is going to rapidly increase. The Jews are stripped of their moral right to walk around freely. They are discriminated against and treated differently than other Europeans. Another way in which the memoir Night demonstrates discrimination is by recounting an SS officer explaining to the Jews what will began to happen to them. The officer yells, “From this moment on, you are under the authority of the German army” (Wiesel 23-24). Using something as simple as words, the officer changes the way in which the Jews look at each other, and how they view the Germans; they are now victimized. A final time when the memoir Night strongly emphasizes the discrimination towards the Jews is during the time when Wiesel is getting assigned a number. As Elie states, “I became A-7713. From then on I had no other name” (Wiesel 42). He uncovers the feelings of thousands of Jews who have no name and no identity because the German officers have taken it from them. The Germans have names, but the Jews did not. The Germans caused discrimination by allowing something as simple as a name to one group, but refusing it to the other. During the Holocaust, the Jews experienced one of the most discriminatory periods of all of history, but …show more content…
The most significant example in this memoir of characters demonstrating their doubt in God is when Elie and other Jews are discussing prayer. Elie contemplates after discussion, “As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45). The experiences of the Holocaust were causing Elie to question his relationship with God. Nonetheless, Elie’s faith survives. Despite all the challenges that Elie and the Jews face, they plod on, even at the most grim of times. Without their faith, the Jews would lose part of themselves. Finally, a refection occurs when Elie reflects on his time imprisoned up to this point. He writes, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever” (Wiesel 34). The memories of the Holocaust will live with Elie forever. Even though some Jews overcame their religious struggle, they leave the concentration camp with a blemish on their faith. As a result of this horrific experience, Wiesel had difficulty with his faith in God, but he revived it later in life. Even