Analysis of Elie Wiesel's Night

Stories from the Auschwitz concentration camp serve as examples of some of the worst conditions and suffering faced by man. Millions of Jewish people were imprisoned and coerced into labor, starved, and beaten before being burnt alive as part of the Nazi ‘Final Solution.’ Prisoners hoped and prayed for God to take mercy on them, only to eventually succumb to their horrible fates and inevitable deaths. One such misery-stricken prisoner was fifteen-year-old Elie Wiesel, who’s experience in Birkenau took a drastic toll on his spirituality. The most profound and moving theme present in Night by Elie Wiesel is that of loss of faith after enduring endless torturing and pain as a punishment for one’s religion.

First and foremost, Elie and the rest of his community display an incredibly pure but blind devotion to their God, believing that their loyalty will save them from agony. Namely, mystics such as Moishe hold God in such reverence that they believe He will share his all-knowing understanding of the Universe in return for their faithfulness. Elie brings forward this idea, sharing, “[Moishe] explained to me, with great emphasis, that every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer [….] ‘And why do you pray, Moishe?’ I asked him. ‘I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions,’” he replies (5). Moishe’s answer implies that Jewish people have complete faith in the assumption that they are safe to share their worries and concerns with God, because He will answer them and provided them with solace. Truly, the Jewish world finds great comfort in the idea of a God watching over them. Additionally, Elie recalls his naïve hopefulness while living in Sighet, saying, “We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred spark” (x). This conveys how blindly Jews follow God before the onset of the ‘Final Solution,’ as they believe themselves to be part of His grand plan for existence. Considering their fidelity, they think it impossible that God will allow something disastrous to befall them. Thus, when imprisoned and taken to Birkenau from their ghettos, many Jews maintain the hope that their creator will send help from the heavens to bring them peace.

However, as suffering quickly becomes standard for Jewish prisoners confined in Auschwitz, the certainty of pain is seen as more indubitable than the purity of God. For instance, upon viewing the dreadful conditions of the concentration camp, Elie feels his vision of God crumble and change, never to be the same again. Elie recalls his first traumatic night in Auschwitz and the “[…] moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never” (34). Elie holds his God close to him, as if the knowledge of His existence alone can protect him from any troubles that come his way. In facing the lack of divine intervention in the brutal conditions of concentration camps, Elie’s mental picture of God shatters, replaced with an empty hole that used to be filled by his faith. More importantly, the Jews begin to accept the fact that no matter how they pray, no God is coming to help them. Giving into hopelessness and sorrow, a neighbor of Elie’s tells him, “‘I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people’” (80). The words of the faceless prisoner exhibit the damage that can be done to a person’s spirit when they repeatedly face abuse without salvation. Despite being the most cruel and hateful person possible, Hitler provides his greatest enemies with more conviction than God ever could. Therefore, the faith of prisoners diverts to the very source of their torment, as their religion is beat into the ground by heartless Nazis.

At last, having been physically and emotionally torn to pieces despite their continuing allegiance to God, the surviving Jews begin to view Him as an ungrateful and unreliable entity with no regard for the persecution of His followers. In particular, Elie starts to think of God as an impure being who cannot be trusted with the wellbeing of mankind. He further elucidates his thoughts, saying, “I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (45). This reveals how the image one has of something can be quickly altered when experiencing related trauma. Elie has not ceased to believe in the existence of God but cannot bring himself to dedicate his life to Him in the way he had before being taken to Auschwitz. Furthermore, when Elie reflects on his situation, he sees that there are no clear examples of religious dedication resulting in positive outcomes. He looks around the labor camps in despair and thinks, “What are You, my God? [….] How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance? What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery? Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?” (66). The anger Elie experiences becomes increasingly ubiquitous within the population of prisoners, who feel as though they have been abandoned by their creator. Many Jews spent copious amounts of time demonstrating their devotion, only to be cast aside to perish in the flames of Auschwitz. Consequently, God quickly loses trust among the Jewish community left to fight for their survival after having been faithful to Him for so long.

In the end, the untrustworthy nature of God combined with the horrific conditions of concentration camps results in the diminution of faith exhibited by Jewish Prisoners during the ‘Final Solution.’ In any case, one may feel defeated after experiencing no reward for putting effort into a cause. The feeling rightfully becomes even worse when a negative response results from their commitment, as it is considered to be the opposite of what is deserved. Such is the case of Jews during World War II who poured their hearts and soul into Judaism to preserve the protected and holy relationship they believed they had created with God. Unfortunately, this ideal safety that came from the Jews’ trust in God proved to not be enough to preserve their faith and religion in the gruesome conditions of Auschwitz.