...In Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir Night, Elie witnesses the dehumanization of the Jewish people by the Nazis as he experiences the loss of his humanity by the Nazi party.Elie first experiences dehumanization when he is forced into living in the local Ghetto in his hometown of Sighet Transylvania. As he is deported from the Sighet Ghetto, the Hungarian Police pack the Jews into the cattle cars where they experience brutal conditions and many die. After their long and grueling trip to the concentration camp they are subject to more dehumanization in the form of slave labor and mass killings of their friends and relatives. Thus being a few of the may reasons why dehumanization is a terrible act that cannot be allowed Dehumanazation was a terrible...
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...Elie Wiesel’s Loss of Innocence There comes a time in one’s life where a tragic event results in the loss of innocence and an increase in knowledge. Unfortunately this is one of life’s few promises. Some experience this ablution a lot sooner than they should. In children who survived the holocaust in concentration camps, their innocence was taken as soon as their ordinary everyday life was imposed upon by the Nazis. In Elie Wiesel’s book Night, he describes himself as an innocent teenager, a child whose innocence was taken from him as the result of the nefariousness performed by the Nazis in World War Two. Elie and his family were transported to Birkenau where his family was torn apart, leaving him with his father, his sisters and his mother. Once they were separated, he began to slowly lose his innocence. Towards the end of 1941, in the small village of Sighet, Hungary, twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel spent most of his time studying the Talmud. Elie was one of four children born to his mother and father. Hilda was the eldest, then Bea, he was the third, and Tzipora was the youngest. The two eldest sisters helped the parents run the family store while Elie stayed home to study. Elie was very passionate about the theology of his religion, Judaism. He studied Talmud by day and by night he would go to the synagogue to pray. One of his main interests was Kabbalah which is an aspect of Jewish mysticism. Elie asked his father to find him a master to guide him in his...
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...A normal 12 year old boy would have never seen a man shot to the ground or eaten by dogs, Elie Wiesel unlike any other boy went through this, not in the comforts of his home but in the filthy concentration camps. Surrounded by death itself Elie held onto any life available, could you? Elie Wiesel the author of Night went through the horrors of inhumane treatments Through his book, Wiesel changed from an innocent boy to a mature man only at 15. Wiesel was like any other boy in the beginning. He held a stable life while living with his family in Sighet. In the beginning of the book, Night, Elie Wiesel was not immune to the nazi treatments, He doubted that what had happened to him would eventually become his reality. Wiesel lived with his two sisters and his parents, They lived in a jewish town, Everyone in the town knew of Hitler and his goals, but, they abandoned the idea of him accomplishing any of his plans.Wiesel too believed this, Moshe a friend of his, warned everyone the terror the Nazis were bringing to the jews. Everyone just pitied him. Wiesel explained, “Even I did not believe him I often sat with him after services and listened to his tales trying to understand his grief but...
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...Two-thirds of Jewish people living in Europe at the time of World War II were killed by Nazis. It was a cold-blooded extermination attempt of people of the Jewish faith and non-aryans( blonde, blue eyed, individuals with physically strong bodies and white skin) that hurt many people across the world physically, mentally, and emotionally. The book titled Night by Elie Wiesel is a strong representation of this. The book details the attitude of the people running the camp, the circumstances that could make one give up on religious faith, and the growth of frustration and overall sadness. Being a prisoner at a Nazi camp was one of the worst experiences imaginable. When Elie arrives he is quickly given an obvious message that his time here will not be very pleasant. "Remember it always, let it be graven in your memories. You are in Auschwitz. And Auschwitz is not a convalescent home. It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work. If you don't you will go straight to the chimney. To the crematorium. Work or crematorium—the choice is yours” (29). This quote clearly illustrates the intentions of the camp higher-ups. At this place, Mr.Wiesel and his fellow prisoners were not perceived as a people, but rather slaves and animals used for Nazi agenda development. Anyone that protested for their basic human...
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...English 1302 29 November 2013 Losing Faith There were a lot of Jewish people who had a large faith in humanity or in what we all called God and Elie Wiesel was one of them. Their faith in humanity ended up being lost during the second Great War, which is commonly known as War World II. Though, after the war and after they were saved by the Allies, little by little their faith in humanity and God slowly came back. Even the truest believers, like Elie Wiesel, can lose their faith in all of humanity and even who they call God, but once you are shown even a slightest bit of kindness, you can gain it all back. In the very beginning of Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, based off his experiences during the World War II, all he wanted was someone to help him in his studies of the Kabbalah. Even though his father thought him to be too young that did not stop Elie from pursuing his dreams. He ended up finding a teacher for his studies of the Kabbalah in Moishe the Beadle. Elie was not the only Jewish child whose studies meant a lot to him. David Weiss Halivini was another child who had big dreams and an even larger faith. He had a dream of being a rabbi of a small village in the Carpathian Mountains (Fox). Though he had to put his dreams on hold after the Germans came and put his family into the ghettos, just like Elie’s family. Also like Elie, he continued with his studies, not wanting to put his dreams on hold because he was moved into a ghetto. Not only did Jewish families have a strong...
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...losing grasp of it can greatly influence them. In Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night, he relives his experiences in which he’s compiled during the Holocaust that the German Nazis were held accountable for. On May 1944, towards the end of the Second World War, he at the age of fifteen, his family, and other Jews are forced by the Nazis to detach from their homes to attend their first concentration camp called Auschwitz. It was situated in Poland and his mother and youngest sister will die there while he and his father carry on their lives with the only priority of survival in their minds; little do they know, a dark future awaits them. It is in camp Buchenwald, located in Germany, to where Elie and his father transfer in the progressing years, that Nazi brutality becomes more conspicuous. This leaves him the last motive to remain alive, his father. As Elie continues to inhabit the surreal and agonizing environment with tortuous occurrences at every step, he finds it difficult to survive as an adolescent which leads to his quick transition into adulthood; thus leaving his state of innocence. Because of Elie’s loss of innocence, he is impacted by having his relationship with God suffer, being desensitized to deaths and atrocities, and reversing roles with his father. One way that Elie is impacted by his loss of innocence is his relationship with God suffers. God, though present, is prejudicial in Elie’s perspective. It appears to Elie as if God’s protection fails to liberate the Jews...
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...English 10 Rough Draft Essay In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the author uses symbolism, and metaphors to show the theme loss of faith. Both Elie and his father express signs that they have lost faith in the Jewish religion. This is important because religion is supposed to help people through hard times, and give them faith in the world around them. The first example of this is when all of the Jewish civilians are forced to wear the yellow Star of David. When Mr. Wiesel was asked what the community should do about being shamefully forced to wear the star. His response was rather nonchalant stating. “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal…” (11) This shows that Mr. Wiesel is not holding the offense to his religion in high regard, showing...
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...individuals were involved that you can't just blame one person. The nazis managed to build a society that created monsters who were convinced that the killing of innocent jews was practical. Elie Wiesel’s story in the memoir Night is a horrifying one, which displays the true ruthlessness of the nazis. The Hungarian police show up to Elie’s town and start the regulate everything that the Jews do. They do not let them own valuables, they have a curfew on when to be home, and they even each have to wear a yellow star. Some believe the yellow star is a marker of death. They believe they have been already marked for slaughter. Elie’s...
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...Title of Your Report Elie Wiesel’s novel Night, he lies to his cousin Stein and tells his family is alive when they really are not. Elie goes through a sad time and does not want his cousin to be any sadder. Although he made the choice to lie to Stein, it is never okay to lie because a person can get in trouble, it is not nice, and it makes people not trust that person anymore. The first reason someone should not lie is because they can get in trouble. A person can get in trouble for lying at home and at school. A person can also get in trouble at work. It is important to not get in trouble because a person wants another person to be able to trust them. Another reason a person should not lie is because a person knows when another person...
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...beliefs. Elie Wiesel in his novel Night, a novel about Wiesel’s life during Holocaust, displayed many of these bonds. Wiesel documented people’s bonds with their Jewish faith to stay alive for the majority of those who suffered through the holocaust were Jews. He told of bonds to oneself to stay alive although quite selfish. Finally, Wiesel utilized the close relationships between family members to argue that family bonds give individuals a reason to live. Wiesel first proves that family bonds help individuals survive by showing the father son relationship between Elie’s father and himself. This is seen throughout the entire novel. It is seen when they reassure each other that Elie’s mom and Tzipora, his sister, will be alright as they are separated. They are being sent to certain death but Elie and his father try and comfort each other so that they do not breakdown and basically die at the loss of their family members. Another instance of the family bond saving one of their lives is when they were on the train cars going to Buchenwald. The Nazi’s had just shouted to drop all the dead into the snow. Two men came to take Elie’s father for he looked dead, but Elie saved him saying “’No’ I cried ‘he isn’t dead! Not yet!’… He was breathing weakly. ‘You see…’” (Wiesel 94). This clearly shows that because of Elie’s family bond with his father made him save his father’s life by shouting to the two men to leave his dad. A final instance of the connection between Elie and his...
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...Historical Background on Night and Eliezer Wiesel In Sighet, Transylvania on September 30,1928 a Holocaust survivor was born. Eliezer Wiesel who is 85 years old, grew up with three siblings, all girls. Shlomo, Elie’s father was a shopkeeper. When he was 15 Elie and his family were forced to a concentration camp. Wiesel's parents died and so did one of his sisters. When Elie was freed from camp Buchenwald in 1945, he went and studied in France three years later. His friend, Francois mauriac, later convinced him to write about the events and his story about what all happened in those camps. Wiesel is a writer and a world activist. He has written plenty of books including: The Oath, The Gates of the forest, and Town of Luck. Eliezer is also...
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...(Goldsmith, n.d.). This quote by Oliver Goldsmith (n.d.) focuses on how every life is a journey that they need to go on. No matter what happens in live, the only place to go is forward. In the movie "Life is Beautiful" (2000) and Elie Wiesel's (2006) book Night, Elie and Joshua's lives are not bright. They are going through one of the hardest times of their lives, whether they know it or not. God provided for both boys to keep their paths straight and keep them moving through the torturous times. With love, life is hard to live; thankfully, both Elie and Joshua had their fathers to stand beside them and give them the encouragement to...
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...Night by Elie Wiesel is a novel of post-Holocaust literature. It is a story about a Jewish man and his family and of the unspeakable horrors that they endured during World War II. Night is a retelling of a terrible story, everything that leads to Wiesel and his family entering Auschwitz, the most notorious death camp to this day, and the aftermath of liberation. Night is an incredibly well written novel. It twines together the power of fear and the loss of faith. It touches on how humanity changes in the face of power and oppression. This novel is able to not only testify, but discuss the atrocities of events that are not easily spoken about. Wiesel manages to takes many difficult subjects like murder, religion, and false hope and force people...
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...Josh Thompson History Ms. Kadlecek 7 April 2014 Remembering The word holocaust means “sacrifice by fire” and comes from the Greek words “holos” meaning whole and “kaustos” meaning burnt. The Holocaust of the 20th century was the mass murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi command during World War II. In Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, he states, “…in their early days of their accession to power, the Nazis in Germany set out to build a society in which there simply would be no room for Jews. Toward the end of their reign, their goal changed: they decided to leave behind a world in ruins in which Jews would seem never to have existed” (viii). The shock and horror does not lessen regardless of how many times a book or article is read or a movie watched about the Holocaust. Learning about the horrible, dark period from 1935 – 1945 is important in several ways. On one hand, it has been said we must learn about the past in order not to relive it. However, we are also told not to dwell in the past. When studying the Holocaust, both adages have truth. Chilling questions occur when learning about the Holocaust. They are questions that Elie Wiesel repeated in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Wiesel says he remembers asking his father, “Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?” (118). Millions of Jews were killed by overwork, starvation, torture, and cold blooded murder just because they were a different race and...
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...introduction to the humanities i: philisophical thought final paper [Draw your reader in with an engaging abstract. It is typically a short summary of the document. When you’re ready to add your content, just click here and start typing.] Kimberly Watkins Kimberly Watkins Over the last 12 weeks I have spent a lot of time pondering the questions that have been presented in this course. What is the meaning of life? How do we live a meaningful life? Is there a meaning at all? Before this course, I can honestly say that these questions never really entered my mind. I always felt that I was here for a reason, but I could never clearly define what that reason was. Perhaps I never will. I grew up in a household where religion did not exist, my parents had been catholic in their younger years but throughout time they had lost their faith. They never prevented me from engaging myself in organized religion, but I had always found myself drawn to more of a non-believing science based thought process. Growing up I believed that I was an atheist which is simply defined as “a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings” (Merriam Webster, 2014). But that definition is so rigid and unmoving, and life is not like that, it’s not simply black and white. If I were to have to identify myself as having a particular belief now I would have to say that I believe in a combination of agnosticism and pantheism. An agnostic person is simply defined as “a person who holds that...
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