Book Review: Elie Wiesel's Internal Struggles as Depicted in "Night"

[Image Description: "'Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.' -Elie Wiesel" in left-aligned white text with a blurred shadow. There is a blurred shadowed white circle with a skinny Star of David outlined in dark blue with a blurred shadow on the circle on the top left side above the text. There is a yellow and black star on the top right side above the text. The rest of the image has a dark gray background.]





Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on January 27 every year. Besides the Jews, there were many other diverse communities that were held captive and tortured in the concentration camps as well. The disability community was one of them and all of the prisoners were forced to wear badges sewn onto their jackets and trousers. These badges had different colors and designs to identify each prisoner's reason for being held captive in the concentration camps. The black and yellow triangle above is what the badge looked like that concentration camp prisoners in the Jewish disability community along with other Jewish "asocial" communities were forced to wear (Wikipedia 2006). The non-Jews in the disability community being held captive in concentration camps were forced to wear a badge with just a black triangle on it. I recently found an essay that I wrote in eleventh grade English class about this part of history after reading the book called "Night" written by Elie Wiesel. In honor of today being Holocaust Remembrance Day, I decided to upload this essay as a blog post to honor the survivors/warriors and individuals who were taken from traumatic part of history.


TRIGGER WARNING: In addition, if you are affected by the Holocaust, discrimination, and/or violence, this blog post may be triggering. If you need support right now, please seek help from a therapist or other mental health professional or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.










    Man vs. Himself is the main conflict of Night written by Elie Wiesel. Elie lost his faith in God and mankind. Elie Wiesel was struggling with many issues while in a concentration camp. While Elie was in the concentration camp, he saw many horrible things causing him to question things that he believed in. His time in the concentration camp caused Elie to question his belief in God, belief in mankind, and his innocent view of the world. Elie's loss of faith in God and mankind caused him to lose his innocence.

    Elie was struggling with his faith in God while he was in the concentration camp. Before going into the concentration camp, Elie had a strong faith in God. The concentration camp caused Elie to question his faith in God after seeing all of the horrors in the camp such as the gas chambers, shootings, and hangings. After seeing the pipel hanging, Elie thought, "Where is merciful God, where is He?" (pg. 64, Wiesel 2006). At the end of Elie's concentration camp experience, he still believed in God, but did not understand God, so during Rosh Hashanah, he did not pray and during Yom Kippur, he did not fast.

    Another internal struggle that Elie faced while in the concentration camp was his loss of faith in mankind. Before the Nazis came, Elie thought that mankind was decent and honest. While he was in the concentration camp, he saw many other horrible things including all of the prisoners being starved and forced to work until death causing him to lose his faith in mankind. At one point, the SS officer said, "Poor devils, you are heading for the crematorium" (pg. 32, Wiesel 2006). That was when Elie realized that people can be awfully cruel at times and that there was even some evil in himself.

    Another internal struggle that Elie faced was his loss of innocence. Before the Nazis arrived in Sighet, Elie viewed the Nazis as not so bad. While in captivity in the concentration camp, Elie saw the evil in the Nazis of how they treated all of the prisoners, the evil in the other prisoners who beat his father for not being able to get to the bathroom and for his food, and he saw evil in himself because he abandoned his father during the first night at Buchenwald. Elie ignored his father who was being beaten by the other prisoners when he yelled, "Eliezer . . . Eliezer . . . tell them not to beat me . . . I have not done anything . . . Why are they beating me?" (pg. 109, Wiesel 2006). After Elie's concentration camp experience, he realized more evil in the world and that he was capable of being selfish.

    Elie lost his innocence from losing his faith in God and mankind. After Elie's concentration camp experience, he did not pray during Rosh Hashanah and he did not fast during Yom Kippur because he still believed in God, but he did not understand God. In the aftermath, Elie also realized more of the evil in the world and that he can be selfish as well. Even though the Holocaust has ended, the tragedy has not been forgotten.



To learn more about how the Holocaust affected the disability community, other concentration camp badges, and more information about the Holocaust, click the links below:





If you are affected by the Holocaust, discrimination, and/or violence, remember that you are not alone and there is hope. If you or someone you know needs support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.

You can also visit The Mighty's hotline resources page by clicking on this link: https://themighty.com/suicide-prevention-resources/






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                                                                       Citations

1. Wiesel, Elie. Night. 2006.

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