Survival In Elie Wiesel's Night

According to political scientist Raul Hilber, Holocaust survivors shared these common features: “realism, rapid decision making, and tenacious holding on to life.” This definably holds true in the book Night, by Elie Wiesel. Throughout Night there are countless examples of prisoner losing the will to live. The survivors in the book draw on external and internal forces to press on. This essay will focus on three examples of prisoners losing their will to live, the events that influence the lose of hope, and what forces survivors draw on to continue living.

Countless people die in Night. Many of these deaths occur when the prisoners simply lose their will to live and resign themselves to death. One of the most memorable examples of people …show more content…
The conditions in the camps are beyond imagination from malnourishment to inhuman punishment at every turn. Several events seem to be a culmination of all the horrific things the prisoners endure on a daily basis and these events set many prisoners over the edge causing them to lose hope. One of these events is the selection, which causes many prisoners, including Akiba, to lose hope. However, a more prominent event is the final run from Buna to Gleiwitz. "All around me, what appeared to be a dance of death. My head was reeling. I was walking through a cemetery. Among the stiffened corpses, there were logs of wood. Not a sound of distress, not a plaintive cry, nothing but mass agony and silence. Nobody asked anyone for help. One died because one had to. No point in making trouble." This quote describes the aftermath of the fateful run. The quote also shows how the run caused many people to lose the last of their hope and simply die. The line "One died because one had to," shows that many of the prisoners died because the run had showed them they had no reason to push on, no reason to live, no reason not to