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Elie Wiesel Faith

Decent Essays

During the Holocaust, a few of the Jews who were imprisoned in the concentration camps managed to keep their faith, but for most it was not that simple. With all that the Jews had to endure, many fought a battle with their faith. In the novel Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie starts off very religious Jew during WWII. While he starts off very religious, his opinion changes throughout the novel. Elie Wiesel goes from loving and actively pursuing his faith to being angry at God and even losing all faith completely. In the beginning of the novel, Elie is very confident in his beliefs. He so faithful that he chooses to pursue his religion by talking to Moishe the Beadle. Moishe was a very religious social outcast. Despite this Elie would have meetings …show more content…

He has every right to as well, with everything that he and his fellow Jews had witnessed and endured; families seperated, loss of even the most basic rights, and murders and torture methods that even so many years later sound to horrific to be true. During one of the most memorable scenes of the book Elie is in a march toward a pit that everyone believes to be certain death. During this Elie contemplates suicide, many people around him are saying their own death prayers and Elie goes on to say “Why should I sanctify His name?” (p33). In this quote and given the context you can feel his anger with his once beloved God. Sadly, it does not stop there.
Strangely enough, things got worse. In both the camps and Elie's faith. In what is the most scarring scene of this novel, Elie has to witness a child being hanged. To add to the matter, the little boy is not heavy enough for the rope to break his neck so Elie and his fellow prisoners are forced to watch the boy slowly dangle and suffocate for almost a half an hour. After this someone cries out asking where God is and Elie replies, “Where is he? This is where-hanging here from the gallows.” (p65). In this quote it is obvious and heartbreaking what Elie believes, he believes God is

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