“‘For God’s sake, where is God?’... ‘Where He is? This is where - hanging from this gallows’…” Although these words once came from Elie Wiesel’s mouth, they matched up with what many, many Jews around the world were asking. Where could God possibly be during the time the Jews needed them most. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, readers are introduced to the process that Jews went through that caused Elie to lose his faith, for a long time, if not forever. The theme of Night, therefore, is the loss of faith. There are multiple pieces of evidence to show that loss of faith is the theme, including what the Jews endured from the Germans in the concentration camps, what they endured from each other, and finally, how the Jews reacted to the cruel,
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They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns...How had he, Moishe the Beadle, been able to escape? By a miracle. He was wounded in the leg and left for dead” (6). After that, as Elie put it, he was never the joyful man he once knew again, and he most definitely did not return to his religious habits after returning to Sighet. This proves that the theme is the loss of faith because, before his scarring experience, Moishe the Beadle was a mentor of sorts for Elie, and Elie looked up to him as a man of religion. But, after his experiences, Moishe lost his faith and, as far as readers are told, never seemed to get it back afterward. To continue, Elie had multiple times where he strayed further and further from his faith in God and his Jewish values, due to multiple experiences he was put through by the Germans. For instance, as Elie and his father walked to what they thought was their German induced death, Elie overheard his …show more content…
To start out, when the inmates got to Auschwitz, as described in Night, they were assigned numbers. This was done by three fellow prisoners, and they tattooed the number onto all of the inmate’s flesh, just as someone had done to them before (42). Although this was not faith consuming, it was a step in that direction, thanks to the dehumanizing nature it had. What really makes it a supporting piece of evidence is that their fellow prisoners did it to them, knowing how it hurt to be left with nothing but a number. Next, sometimes, “model inmates” were given jobs as Kapos, inmates who were in charge of work teams, or Kommandos. A lot of times, Kapos were jerks and just as heartless as most of the Germans. At one point in time, Elie was whipped by his Kapo, Idek, for catching him with a Polish girl (57-58). Elie did not fight back, he would have to deal with even worse punishment. This as well was not faith destroying, but every experience that caused Elie pain or suffering is an experience that proved to him more and more that God was not strong enough or too lazy to help him. Finally, during the last leg of Elie’s long concentration camp history, Elie, his father, and 98 other inmates crammed into a cattle car headed to Buchenwald. During one stop, a crowd of workmen thought it would be nice
They were forced to dig huge trenches. When they had finished their work, the men from the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns...How had he, Moishe the Beadle, been able to escape? By a miracle. He was wounded in the leg and left for dead” (6). After that, as Elie put it, he was never the joyful man he once knew again, and he most definitely did not return to his religious habits after returning to Sighet. This proves that the theme is the loss of faith because, before his scarring experience, Moishe the Beadle was a mentor of sorts for Elie, and Elie looked up to him as a man of religion. But, after his experiences, Moishe lost his faith and, as far as readers are told, never seemed to get it back afterward. To continue, Elie had multiple times where he strayed further and further from his faith in God and his Jewish values, due to multiple experiences he was put through by the Germans. For instance, as Elie and his father walked to what they thought was their German induced death, Elie overheard his …show more content…
To start out, when the inmates got to Auschwitz, as described in Night, they were assigned numbers. This was done by three fellow prisoners, and they tattooed the number onto all of the inmate’s flesh, just as someone had done to them before (42). Although this was not faith consuming, it was a step in that direction, thanks to the dehumanizing nature it had. What really makes it a supporting piece of evidence is that their fellow prisoners did it to them, knowing how it hurt to be left with nothing but a number. Next, sometimes, “model inmates” were given jobs as Kapos, inmates who were in charge of work teams, or Kommandos. A lot of times, Kapos were jerks and just as heartless as most of the Germans. At one point in time, Elie was whipped by his Kapo, Idek, for catching him with a Polish girl (57-58). Elie did not fight back, he would have to deal with even worse punishment. This as well was not faith destroying, but every experience that caused Elie pain or suffering is an experience that proved to him more and more that God was not strong enough or too lazy to help him. Finally, during the last leg of Elie’s long concentration camp history, Elie, his father, and 98 other inmates crammed into a cattle car headed to Buchenwald. During one stop, a crowd of workmen thought it would be nice