Death In Elie Wiesel's Life Is Beautiful

What would you do if you and your family were singled out for who you are? Would you retaliate, or stay silent? Now take this to a global scale; in 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. He strived to create a perfect country with only pure Germans in it. Hitler despised all people who were different, whether it be based on race, religion, or sexual preference. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, one sees the true horrors of racial discrimination and the constant gloom of death. Similarly, in the movie Life is Beautiful, directed by Roberto Benigni, death is a theme that is shown throughout the entire movie. Therefore, although we typically think of life as normal and death as abnormal, those who experienced life in a concentration camp became so used to death that this became normal.
Typically, death is not seen as normal, expected, or desired. When a young boy was hanged in the concentration camp, other Jews looked on and couldn’t fathom the death before their eyes. As a result of the trauma they experienced, “That night, the soup tasted of corpses” (Wiesel 65). Similarly, in Life Is Beautiful, Guido makes a game of their experiences in order to shield Joshua from death because it is unexpected and painful for them as they arrive at the camp. When Guido and Joshua are

separated from Uncle Leo upon arrival, viewers recognize that the idea of selection and death are traumatic. In other words,
At concentration camps, inmates suffered so much that death became a release.

They desired the freedom death offered. Elie recalls with hatred for the Nazis that he will never “forget that smoke...the small faces of the children whose bodies [he] saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky” (Wiesel 34). Similarly, in Life is Beautiful, Guido sacrificed himself to free his son. Joshua will never forget what his father did for him. Joshua will live his life knowing that he is alive because of his father. These pieces illustrate innocence effectively by showing the transition from pure to damaged. An adult has to bear the world on their shoulders, while a child doesn't quite

understand.
In conclusion, the Holocaust was filled with death and suffering. In a Holocaust memoir and dramatic film, one sees the grotesque lifestyle a prisoner lives. Inmates constantly lives in fear of death for themself, their family, and those around them. They would be in so much physical and emotional pain that they craved the release of death. One should remember the Holocaust because forgetting would be killing twice. We must let the deceased rest, knowing that these deaths were not in vain.