Night by Elie Wiesel is a book written about one of the biggest genocides in history, the Holocaust. Elie wrote about the horrific experiences him and his father suffered at the Nazi German concentration camps in Auschwitz and Buchenwald from 1944 – 1945. Before he was caught up in this, Elie never questioned God and was extremely devoted to his religion. He believed that everything was a result of Gods work and should never be doubted. By the end of this memoir, Elie has lost all faith in his God and is no longer as religious as he once was.
The first time Elie started to lose faith was when him and the other Jews in the camp realized their prayers were not being answered. After hours of labor and being beat and tortured, they were hesitant of believing in their faith. This could really change him as a person because he was always extremely loyal to his religion ever since he was a kid. Being religious was always apart of his personality so by the end of this massacre, he would not be the same. One example of how seriously he took his religion is “ “For Gods sake, where is God?” And from within me, I heard a voice answer. “Where is he? This is where — Hanging here from these gallows”.
Another time Elie Wiesel showed signs of losing faith was when his father died. He was dreading his fathers death for the longest, and when it finally came it broke his faith completely. This broke his faith completely because after a loved one dies, he would usually pray in honor of their death but this time he did not. Elie always wanted do everything he could to keep his father alive and safe, but there is one moment he regrets more than anything. In the beginning of the book, Elie was laying down near him silently afraid of getting beat by the SS. He was ignoring his fathers cries asking to hold him and be next to him in one of his weakest moments. “ The SS had flown into a rage and was striking my father on the head: “Be quiet, old man! Be quiet!” My father no longer felt the club’s blows; I did. And yet I did not react. I let the SS beat my father, I left him alone in the clutches of death. Worse: I was angry with him for having been noisy, for having cried, for provoking the wrath of the SS.”
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Although he wishes he could’ve done something, he also wishes that he wasn’t being so loud. It caused him to get even more hurt even more than he already was which could’ve caused his death to come sooner rather than later. But in his fathers last moments, Elie was doing everything he possibly could to try and save him and when he finally passed away, Elie felt free for the first time. He said he did not weep, and it pained him that he could not weep, but he was “Free at last!”.
