Elie Wiesel's Genocide

History likes patterns, and has a habit of repeating itself. The book Night, by Elie Wiesel, takes place during Hitler’s execution of genocide. The city of Aleppo was caught between presidential supporters and opposing rebels in Syria. Though the events are not related, they share many common points though. Each had countless victims and lots of artillery. They both were detrimental to the physical and mental integrity of large cities. Aleppo was one of the most important cities in northern Syria. The people under fire were treated very similarly and had the similar reactions.
Elie Wiesel and thousands of other are trapped under Hitler’s reign. It begins when the community Elie lives in is turned into a ghetto and people are trapped in their

houses. This is not permanent, as they are then transported to concentration camps. The people in the camps suffer. They are always afraid of being shot, not keeping up with the rest, or simply withering away until they can no longer stay alive. People are dying, their bodies remaining in the streets until they can be dragged away by officials. Some constantly pray for it to end. Some wait to see what their god has in store for them, to see if this is just a torturous test. Some have lost faith in their god, wondering how he could put them through something like this, questioning why they suffer. Elie qualifies most as the last of the choices, recalling in the book that he thinks to himself, “What are You, my God? How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance?” (Wiesel 66). Though the people around him pray, he has already lost his faith, wondering how his god could do such terrible things to them.
Over 250 thousand people were cornered in Aleppo. They were stuck in their homes or other safe points, as many of their houses had been previously destroyed. The people were afraid of the airstrikes and artillery attacks that made the streets unsafe and left them without access to supplies. People were begging for help, like one civilian that said, “Save us, people. Save us, people, world, anyone who has even a bit of humanity. We beg you, we beg you, the dead and wounded are in the streets and people’s homes have collapsed on top of them. Save us. Save us,” (Shaheen). They could not escape. Many had died, but many remained in the town. In a phone call, one civilian said he was "at home waiting for the inevitable fate that Allah wills,” ("Aleppo Civilians Facing Execution Plead, 'Oh, God, Help Us'"). Like him, many waited to see what their god had in mind. The citizens did not know what may happen next and they waited for answers.
The civil Syrian war and the holocaust had terrible results for the people caught in the middle. Though entirely unrelated, these tragedies have many similarities. The way the victims are handled and what they feel shows that history has patterns and likes to repeat itself. Elie Wiesel and those around him and in other camps witnessed some of the same things those trapped in Aleppo have seen. These and many other events expose the fact that history often does not rewrite itself, merely changes a few words and republishes the story.