Night - 2/24/16

Writing Prompt: How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person?

An effect the Holocaust had on Elie was the way he sees God. In the beginning, Elie has strong religious beliefs. Then in the middle you see Elie's transition as he starts to rebel against God and decide that God no longer exists. Then in the end Elie kind of revisits his previous beliefs as he prays to God once more.

In the beginning Elie has strong religious beliefs. On page one of the book it says, "I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple." Then Elie finds a man named Moshe the Beadle who acts as a religious mentor for Elie. On page three the book states, "And Moshe the Beadle, the poor barefoot of Sighet, talked to me for long hours of the revelations and mysteries of the cabbala. It was with him that my initiation began. We would read together, ten times over, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn by heart, but to extract the divine essence from it." This shows that Elie would work with Moshe for long periods of time as they would practice, and try to understand their religion together.

As the book goes on, Elie begins to question God. On page 31 when Elie and his father are in line for the crematory, Elie writes, "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?" This is when Elie first starts to question God. Then, on page 62, Elie sees God as being dead in his eyes: "'Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: ‘Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on the gallows…’" Elie continues to question the real justice that God has on page 63 when he writes, "'What are You, my God,’ I thought angrily, ‘ compared to this afflicted crowd, proclaiming to You their faith, their anger, their revolt? What does Your greatness mean, Lord of the universe, in the face of all this weakness, this decomposition, and this decay? Why do You still trouble their sick minds, their crippled bodies?'" Here Elie is thinking about how God has not helped the Jews because he is allowing them to die and get tortured. Elie comes to this full realization and conclusion on page 64: "Why, but why should I blessed Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because he kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days? Because in His great might he had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?…Who chose us among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, in the crematory?" God has done nothing but allow all these innocent people to die, and for that, Elie has stopped believing in him.

Although Elie no longer believes in God, there is a moment where he allows himself to believe in Him just one more time. After running non stop for several miles, the prisoners are finally allowed to rest. A Rabbi goes around asking if anyone has seen his son, because he lost him in the run. When the Rabbi says that he was falling behind and running towards the end of the line, while he saw his son continue running towards the front, Elie concludes that the Rabbi's son purposely ran away from his father because he felt that he was a burden to him, and he would have a better chance at survival without his father weighing him down. In this moment, Elie prays, something that he thought he would never do: "And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed. My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done." Elie wanted so badly not to become like the Rabbi's son, and leave his father, that he prayed to God that it would not happen.

The Holocaust had a big effect on Elie. It completely changed his religious views. He went from praying, practicing, and studying his religion constantly, to completely abandoning his views on religion and God. This shows how much of an impact the Holocaust had on people, and how it can completely change a person and the way they live their life. The Holocaust had strong effects on everyone who was involved.