The Holocaust was a horrific period of time, a genocide so great that two thirds of the jews in Europe were murdered and a whole world was drawn to war. With so many dead, those left are given the responsibility of passing on the lessons that the Holocaust taught us, so that it may never be repeated. Elie Wiesel is one such person. He was a young boy when the Holocaust started, yet he managed to live through the travesty and is now informing on it in his memoir, Night. The Holocaust changed Wiesel in three main ways. In his life-altering journey, Wiesel was emotionally diminished, physically drained, and spiritually transformed (and not in a good way). Wiesel and other Holocaust survivors were emotionally destroyed in no time at all, living through what they did. A Shmoop video on Elie Wiesel’s Night states that Wiesel and other Holocaust survivors “developed resentment, mistrust, and plenty of hatred toward pretty much every gentile” (2:21 - 2:27). Negative
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When faced with illogical torments, one’s system of beliefs is dramatically challenged, or, in other words, one’s “logical system of beliefs can be rocked to the core and [one’s] faith in humanity can be severely tested” (Shmoop 0:26 - 0:33). When Wiesel witnessed such a quantity of innocent people being murdered, his faith not only in humanity, but also in God left him. Elie is a devout child all his life. But when he is taken from hig moe, he begins to question God’s intentions, and then completely rejected God. On Yom Kippur, a Jewish Day of Atonement, Wiesel refuses to fast as some others do to praise God. He states that he “no longer accepted God’s silence” (Wiesel 69; ch. 5). Over the course of the story, Elie loses his contact with religion, and this is the main spiritual change he
When faced with illogical torments, one’s system of beliefs is dramatically challenged, or, in other words, one’s “logical system of beliefs can be rocked to the core and [one’s] faith in humanity can be severely tested” (Shmoop 0:26 - 0:33). When Wiesel witnessed such a quantity of innocent people being murdered, his faith not only in humanity, but also in God left him. Elie is a devout child all his life. But when he is taken from hig moe, he begins to question God’s intentions, and then completely rejected God. On Yom Kippur, a Jewish Day of Atonement, Wiesel refuses to fast as some others do to praise God. He states that he “no longer accepted God’s silence” (Wiesel 69; ch. 5). Over the course of the story, Elie loses his contact with religion, and this is the main spiritual change he