Religion and survival in Elie Wiesel's literature

Religion

"When I think of religion at all, I feel as if I would like to found an order for those who cannot believe: the Confraternity of the Faithless, one might call it, where on an altar, on which no taper burned, a priest, in whose heart peace had no dwelling, might celebrate with unblessed bread and a chalice empty of wine. Everything to be true must become a religion. And agnosticism should have its ritual no less than faith." Oscar Wilde (Critchley).

Wiesel compelled to write Night, saying his "duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living." "(Wiesel)

Night is a powerful, thought provoking narration of unforgettable and horrific experiences that Elie Wiesel lived through, during the last year of the Second World War. The story invites the reader to relive the life and death of the prisoners in the concentration camps run by the Nazi. Growing up in Sighet in Romania, then known as Transylvania, Elie was a deeply religious child. He was born in 1928 on the 30th day of September, the only son of his father. As with many in his community, he pursued his religion with enthusiasm and took a lot of time studying his religious books and praying (Biography.com). He recounts his thoughts when forced to leave his home. "I looked at my house in which I had spent years seeking my God, fasting to hasten the coming of the Messiah, imagining what my life would be like later" (p.19).

His town had experienced the expulsion of foreigners, one of whom had come back to warn the town's Jews of the horrors meted out by the Nazis. His name was Moishe. Unfortunately not being of great standing in the community, he had been dismissed as a mad man. Elie and his family were forced out of their home when the Nazi were rounding up Jews in their country and the surrounding nations of Bulgaria and Hungary, into concentration camps in Poland. This, ironically, was toward the end of the Second World War. Thus, in 1944, just aged fifteen, the teenager's life was interrupted by the uprooting of his entire community, which would be headed ultimately for Auschwitz. Described in the book are unimaginable horrors of children being burned alive, selections of who would be headed for the crematorium, a starvation diet, nakedness and cold (Mongredien)..

The Nazis transferred fifteen thousand Jews from Elie's village to Poland. He recounts how he was separated from his mother and sister as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz and the tragic fact that they were killed a few hours later. After several months working as a slave laborer, mostly remaining close to his father, he was transferred to Buchenwald. This was towards the end of the war, when the Nazis were retreating. He was still alive when the Allies reached Buchenwald, though his father had died a little earlier from Dysentery (Mongredien).

Body

Elie Wiesel describes the first time that he had the book published as when "the subject was considered morbid and interested no one"(Wiesel, Preface).

It was a few years after the end of the Second World War and it seemed that the world had been keen to put the unpalatable events of the holocaust (CelesteK).The Jews in the synagogues felt that "it was senseless to burden our children with the tragedies of the Jewish past" (Wiesel, preface).

Yet it was this very thing that Elie sought to correct. He felt that he had a duty to permanently record the events of the war and the horrors therein, so that future generations would prevent a similar tragedy from occurring."Today, there are anti-Semites in Germany, France, and even the United States, who tell the world that the 'story' of six million assassinated Jews is nothing but a hoax, and many people, not knowing any better, may well believe them, if not today then tomorrow or the day after ..."(Wiesel, n.p).

Wiesel describes the repeated warnings that his friend Moishe gave the village about the Nazis without anyone regarding them (Lombardi). "Moishe was not the same. The hoy in his eyes was gone He spoke of only what he had seen. But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen" (Wiesel p.5).

Thus one can experience the regret with which the author describes how the tragedy might have been foregone had the people of his village taken the warning. It seems opportunities arose to evade the camps, but the family never saw them then. In one incident, he narrates how Maria their former maid, clearly a Hungarian non-Jew, came to see the family in their new ghetto before they left for Poland. She "begged" them to go with her "to her village where she had prepared a shelter"(Wiesel, p.20).

He then describes the growing anguish of the Jews when the Nazis came upon them (Lombardi)."We no longer had the right to frequent restaurants or cafes, travel by rail, attend synagogue, or even be on the streets after six o'clock in the evening" (Wiesel, p.11).

Wiesel then goes on to describe how their treatment deteriorated from the removal of these freedoms to the abuse of their bodies. "The Hungarian police used their rifles butts, their clubs to indiscriminately strike old men and women, children and cripples" (Wiesel p.16).

The ill treatment led to many Jews doubting their faith. "It's over. God is no longer with us"(Wiesel p.76).

In another incident, he speaks of refusing to fast on a religious day as "he no longer accepted God's silence," and how he used this act into a "Symbol of rebellion."(CelesteK)