Why do you think no one would listen to Moshe the Beadle's story?
After Moshe the Beadle escapes the Nazis, he returns to Sighet to warn the Jews of the atrocities being carried out by the Germans, hoping that they will flee and procure refuge. Instead, the townspeople rebuke his warnings. Moshe is not only a foreigner but is also a poor, humble, holy caretaker of a synagogue, therefore the Jews ignore his stories thinking that he’s just a simpleton. They say “He’s just trying to make us pity him. What an imagination he has!” or “ Poor fellow. He’s gone mad,” (5). Even Wiesel himself does not believe Moshe. In reality, all of the people’s justifications for the disregard his alerts are just excuses for their denial. The Jews are too stubborn, unwilling to believe humans would do such horrible crimes to others. They are fearful of the possibility that Moshe’s accusations could be true.
There were several opportunities for Wiesel and his family to escape before they were sent to Auschwitz. What were these opportunities, and why did the family not take advantage of these opportunities?
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Wiesel and his family are first given the opportunity to escape when Moshe warns the Jews of Sighet about the Nazis, but in their denial they refuse to believe such outlandish accounts.
The family then has the chance when Wiesel asks his father for them to move to Palestine due to his religious devotion, but his father responds, “I’m too old, my son, I’m too old to start a new life. I’m too old to start from scratch again in a country so far away….” (6). Another opportunity is when the Hungarian inspector, a friend of Wiesel’s father, knocks on their window in the ghetto to warn them, but they don’t open the window in time. Their last chance to escape is when their servant Martha offers them refuge, but Wiesel’s father stubbornly refuses to leave, saying that Wiesel and his older sisters can flee but he, his wife, and the youngest sister will remain in the little
ghetto. Define irony, and discuss Wiesel’s use of irony in the first chapter of Night. What message is he trying to convey about the Jews’ attitude, and how does his use of irony help him get his message across? Irony is a case in which the outcome that is expected to happen ends up being completely different. Irony is present many times throughout the first chapter due Wiesel’s frequent examples of the Jews’ unwavering positivity, which is only fueled more by all the news related to the war saying that it will end soon. The first use of irony is when the Jews don’t accept Moshe the Beadle’s warnings to be true, because of their denial and optimism. They also don’t believe that Hitler can hurt them, saying that, “The Russian army’s making gigantic strides forward… Hitler won’t be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to,” (6). Wiesel even says that they “doubted that he wanted to exterminate us” (6). Furthermore, the townspeople are told of the attacks on Jews in Budapest, but the short-lived anxiety caused by the news is soon replaced by optimism, once again. Not only that, but when the Germans reached Sighet, the optimists said, “Well, there you are, you see! What did we tell you? You wouldn’t believe us. There they are your Germans! What do you think of them? Where is their famous cruelty?” (7). All the positive news heard from the media and the politeness from the German soldiers blinds the Jews to believe any of the true horrific stories told from first hand or second hand experiences, such as Moshe’s experience or the turmoil in Budapest. This fact provides a huge sense of irony since they have no clue of the terrors they are about to endure. Define foreshadowing. Discuss Wiesel’s use of foreshadowing in Chapter Two regarding Madame Schächter. Wiesel uses foreshadowing multiple times in Night, especially through Madame Schächter. Foreshadowing is a warning or a hinting of a future event. Foreshadowing is utilized in Chapter Two when Madame Schächter, who unfortunately went mad after she was separated from her husband and two eldest sons, screams about seeing a fire every night on the train wagon to Auschwitz, but there is nothing there. Wiesel recalls that, “She pointed her arm toward the window, screaming: ‘Look! Look at it! Fire! A terrible fire! Mercy! Oh that fire!’ There was nothing there; only darkness” (22). During the journey, the poor woman screams so much that the other prisoners beat her to silence her. When they arrive at Auschwitz, the flames that the boy cried wolf about finally appear. The most shocking realization is that this is a true event. Madame Schächter was a real woman who genuinely saw the flames that the Jews were about to endure. Her foretellings were prophetic, like someone was speaking through her.
In Eliezer Wiesel’s novel “Night”, it depicts the life of a father and son going through the concentration camp of World War II. Both Eliezer and his father are taken from their home, where they would experience inhuman and harsh conditions in the camps. The harsh conditions cause Eliezer and his father’s relationship to change. During their time in the camps, Eliezer Wiesel and his father experience a reversal of their roles.
In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel shows the importance of family as a source of strength to carry on. The main character of the novel is a thirteen-year-old boy named Eliezer. He and his family were taken from their home and placed in a concentration camp. He was separated from his mother and sisters during the selection once they arrived in the camp. His father was the only family he had left with him to face the inhumane environment of the camp. Many of the prisoners lost the will to live due to the conditions. During the marches between camps some of these broken souls would drop to the side of the road where they we...
When Wiesel first met Moshe the Beadle, he would chant and sing. He was a poor man who made people feel comfortable around him. “...my fellow townspeople, though they would help the poor,were not particularly fond of them. Moshe the Beadle was the exception.”(Wiesel 1) He was deported to polish territory that had been taken over by a secret police group. He escaped back to Sighet after being wounded and taken for dead to tell everyone what happened there. “..... he went from one Jewish house to another,telling the story of Malka, the young girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias ….who had begged to be killed before his sons….”(Wiesel 4) Moshe the Beadle desperately tried to warn the Jewish people their fate but they chose to ignore and pity him. “Moshe had changed.There was no longer any joy in his eyes. He no longer sang. He no longer talked to me of God or of the cabbala ….People refused not only to believe his stories, but even to listen to them.”(Wiesel 4) His exposure to the criminal acts of his oppressors changed his whole personality. All he cared about was protecting the other Jews from experiencing the same things he did.
Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lives changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before the German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4).
This was shown when Moishe the Beadle was taken by the Germans and escaped. He tried to tell the Jewish people that the Germans were throwing babies and using them as target range. Elie said, “People not only refused to believe his tale, they refused to listen” (Wiesel 7). Moishe the Beadle knew what was happening. However, people thought he was crazy and that his stories were unbelievable. The Jewish people thought he wanted attention which he didn’t, he wanted them to listen to him. Another example of being incredulous was when the Jews believed they were going to be fine when the Germans arrived in their town. Elie said, “The Germans were already in our town, the fascists were already in power, the vidict was already out and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling” (Wiesel 10). The Jews thought the Germans were just being nice to them. They were unable to believe that the Germans were in their town and they were ruled by
Before Elie Wiesel and his father are deported, they do not have a significant relationship. They simply acknowledge each other’s existence and that is all. Wiesel recalls how his father rarely shows emotion while he was living in Sighet, Transylvania. When they are deported, Wiesel is not sure what to expect. He explains, “My hand shifted on my father’s arm. I had one thought-not to lose him. Not to be left alone” (Wiesel 27). Once he and his father arrive at Auschwitz, the boy who has never felt a close connection with his father abruptly realizes that he cannot lose him, no matter what. This realization is something that will impact Wiesel for the rest of his time at the camp.
In his book Night Mr. Elie Wiesel shares his experiences about the camps and how cruel all of the Jews were treated in that period. In fact, he describes how he was beaten and neglected by the SS officers in countless occasions. There are very few instances where decent humans are tossed into certain conditions where they are treated unfairly, and cruel. Mr. Wiesel was a victim of the situation many times while he was in the camps. Yet he did not act out, becoming a brute himself, while others were constantly being transformed into brutes themselves. Mr. Wiesel was beaten so dreadfully horrible, however, for his safety, he decided to not do anything about it. There were many more positions where Mr. Wiesel was abused, malnourished, and easily could have abandoned his father but did not.
A fifteen-year old boy, Elie Wiesel, and his family are overwhelmed by the thought of uncertainty when they are forced out of their home; as a result, the family would be forced into a cattle car and shipped to Auschwitz. At first, the Jews have a very optimistic outlook while in
‘Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done’” (Wiesel 91). The topic of a father and son relationship is extremely personal to Wiesel, which makes him hark back to how he was raised: religiously. Though clouded with a sense of reality from his experience in the camps, Wiesel still has hints of hope in his view of the world from his upbringing in Sighet. Thus, our upbringing affects much of the way we see the
Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.
Some of the most fabled stories of our time come from individuals overcoming impossible odds and surviving horrific situations. This is prevalent throughout the Holocaust. People are fascinated with this event in history because the survivors had to overcome immense odds. One, of many, of the more famous story about the Holocaust is Night by Elie Wiesel. Through this medium, Wiesel still manages to capture the horrors of the camps, despite the reader already knowing the story. In addition to him having to overcome difficult odds in order to survive for himself, he also had to care for his weakening father. A similar situation occurs in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, however, Ishmael accepts the situation and is able to defend himself. While
Mr. Wiesel had intended this book to describe a period of time in his life that had been dark and sorrowful. This novel is based on a survivor of the greatest Holocaust in history, Eliezer Wiesel and his journey of being a Jew in 1944. The journey had started in Sighet, Transylvania, where Elie spent his childhood. During the Second World War, Germans came to Elie and his family’s home town. They brought with them unnecessary evil and despair to mankind. Shortly after young Elie and thousands of other Jews were forced from their habitats and torn from their rights of being human. They were sent to different concentration camps. Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp. It would be the last time Elie sees his mother and little sister, Tzipora. The first sights of Auschwitz were terrifying. There were big flames coming from the burning of bodies and the crematoriums. The Jews had no idea of what to expect. They were not told what was about to happen to them. During the concentration camp, there was endless death and torture. The Jews were starved and were treated worse than cattle. The prisoners began to question their faith in God, wondering why God himself would
Wiesel refused to listen to the other prisoners who thought there was no hope for his father surviving. Wiesel woke his father up every time he would lie down and gave him his own rations of food to his father instead. Wiesel’s link to his father affects his will to survive. It has to do with Eliezer's love and care for his father. At one point, he wanted to give up but he convinced himself that he couldn’t because he didn’t want to leave his father alone. Eliezer, at point did get angry, but that shows his love and stress for his father. He was using all his strength to survive with his
In 1944, in the village of Sighet, Romania, twelve-year-old Elie Wiesel spends much time and emotion on the Talmud and on Jewish mysticism. His instructor, Moshe the Beadle, returns from a near-death experience and warns that Nazi aggressors will soon threaten the serenity of their lives. However, even when anti-Semitic measures force the Sighet Jews into supervised ghettos, Elie's family remains calm and compliant. In spring, authorities begin shipping trainloads of Jews to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. Elie's family is part of the final convoy. In a cattle car, eighty villagers can scarcely move and have to survive on minimal food and water. One of the deportees, Madame Schächter, becomes hysterical with visions of flames and furnaces.
Elie’s loss of innocence and childhood lifestyle is very pronounced within the book, Night. This book, written by the main character, Elie Wiesel, tells the readers about the experiences of Mr. Wiesel during the Holocaust. The book starts off by describing Elie’s life in his hometown, Sighet, with his family and friends. As fascism takes over Hungary, Elie and his family are sent north, to Auschwitz concentration camp. Elie stays with his father and speaks of his life during this time. Later, after many stories of the horrors and dehumanizing acts of the camp, Elie and his father make the treacherous march towards Gliewitz. Then they are hauled to Buchenwald by way of cattle cars in extremely deplorable conditions, even by Holocaust standards. The book ends as Elie’s father is now dead and the American army has liberated them. As Elie is recovering in the hospital he gazes at himself in a mirror, he subtly notes he much he has changed. In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie loses his innocence and demeanour because he was traumatized by what he saw in the camps, his loss of faith in a God who stood idly by while his people suffered, and becoming selfish as he is forced to become selfish in the death camps to survive.