In fact, Wiesel thought to himself: "Don't let me find him! If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and only worry about myself. Immediately, Elie felt ashamed of himself. (Wiesel, 1972, p.106). One of the guards tells Elie something he has witnessed and now felt first hand: "Here, there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends. Everyone lives and dies for himself alone." (Wiesel, 1972, p.93). These words came to life for Elie as well as for his fellow prisoners. Everyone lives and dies alone in the camps because of the dire conditions which strip away a person's ability to moralize and to rationalize and to think and to empathize. Instead, all energy is focused upon survival, upon getting the next piece of bread, upon putting your next foot forward; and, even these tasks are not easy to do. Thus, Elie and the Rabbi's son simply did not have the wherewithal to do that which was right; and, instead they followed their instinct to survive as opposed to the instinct to empathize. In years, people would come to understand how...

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