Holocaust And Wiesel Essay, Research Paper

In early 1944 the town of Sighet, Transylvania was overran by the Nazi war

regime as it rapidly expanded across Europe and parts of Asia. In this town a

young religious man named Elie Wiesel was questioning the intent of the German

army and the rumors that were circling about them. Although he had heard that

the Germans were planning mass genocide of the Jewish race, the common feeling

throughout the town was that Hitler could never exterminate every Jew. Early in

Wiesel?s Night, he recounts his experiences in the Holocaust and he expresses

his undying faith and belief that god would never allow Hitler?s regime to run

its course. When the Nazi army finally reached the town of Signet, the Jews were

forced from their homes and relocated into the town?s gettos. It was the

seventh day of Passover, and according to Wiesel, ?the race towards death had

begun.?1 The Jews were slowly removed from the large getto of Sighet and

shipped to the smaller, ?holding? getto where they were separated according

to sex, age, and physical ability, and prepared for shipment to Auschwitz. The

day that Wiesel and his family were to be moved to the smaller getto of Signet,

Wiesel demonstrates his faith in God by awaking early to perform his daily

prayers. As he prepared to leave his home he said, ?I looked at our house,

where I had spent so many years in my search for God; in fasting in order to

hasten the coming of the Messiah; in imagining what my life would be like. Yet I

felt little sorrow.?2 This passage is symbolic of his first parting with his

faith in God. Yet he still believed in God, he was beginning to understand that

a God should not let mass extermination happen to his people. While he was sub-consciencly

loosing his faith in God, he still felt that there was strength in humanity and

that human morals would never allow the burning of Jews. Upon Wiesel?s arrival

at Auschwitz he caught his first glimpse of the crematories he exclaimed to his

father, ?I [do] not believe that they can burn people in our age?humanity

would never tolerate it.?3 Yet after his father convinced him of the horrible

truth his faith in god could never be restored. Wiesel?s father, after fully

realizing the full horror of the concentration camps, said a small prayer to

God, and to this Elie reacted with utter defiance. ?For the first time, I felt

revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the

Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him

for??4 Although Wiesel still believed in the presence of God, he felt that in

God?s silence he was defying the Jews and their faith in him. How could

someone you are so devoted to be absent in your greatest time of need? Wiesel

said that he sympathized with Job, and I feel that the similarities between

Wiesel and Job are numerous. Both were very religious men who put their faith

before all other, and yet both found that their faith brought them nothing but

suffering. Both felt that they deserved a more peaceful and humane existence

because of their undying devotion, yet both lived in the cruelest situations for

some time. Wiesel felt that man was stronger that god because throughout the

Holocaust his fellow prisoners continued to praise God and believed that God

allowed the Holocaust in order to benefit the Jews in some strange way. Wiesel

felt that because of all the torture that the Jews were subjected to their

continued praise proved that they were ignorant to the fact that God was not a

source of supreme justice. Wiesel continued to despise God for the remainder of

the Holocaust, yet from this new independence he found power. ?I felt very

strong. I was the accuser, God the accused?I was terribly alone in a world

without god and without man.?