The Never Ending Night

3 Pages 833 Words

In the autobiographical novel Night by Elie Wiesel, the young teenager Elie underwent the transformation from a boy who had faith and honored his God to a man who no longer believed in that God. Elie was a Jewish boy who lived in a small Hungarian town called Sighet, during World War II. When Elie was fifteen, Germans invaded Hungary and sent all his friends and family to concentration camps. During this devastating time in his life, Elie saw a great deal of inhuman deeds done to the Jews by the Germans and he started to lose faith in God. By the time he was finally liberated, he was starved, lost most of his family, and lost all faith in the Jewish God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion.
The first example of Elie loosing his faith is when he arrived at Auschwitz. Elie and his father are directed to go to the left. A prisoner then informs them that they are on their way to the crematory. Elie’s father recites the Kaddish or prayer for the dead. Revolt rises up inside of Elie and he questions God.
“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?” (Wiesel 31).
Another example of prisoners in the concentration camp loosing their faith in Night is when the pipel, a young child, was hung in front of the whole camp. The pipel was the Oberkapo’s servant. The Oberkapo was the leader of the fifty-second unit. He never struck or insulted the prisoners who worked under him ,that is why the prisoners loved him . Even though most pipels were cruel and hated, this one had the face of a sad angel and was loved by all. The Oberkapo was suspected in the intentional explosion of Buna’s electric power station. He was transferred to Auschwitz but the pipel was left behind. The pipel refus...