Religion In Night

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Night The memoir Night focuses on Elie Wiesel’s experience of the Holocaust. In his memoir, it is clear that the one thing that is lost in these terrible death camps is everyone’s humanity. The purpose of the concentration camps is not only to kill, but to dehumanize. In addition to humanity, there is one less noticeable thing that is lost in being forced to stay in these concentration camps - faith. Elie’s view on religion and God changes drastically during the Holocaust. Originally, Elie is extremely religious and devout. He believes in God strongly, prays to God often, and even studies Kabbalah. Even on his first night after arriving in Birkenau, Elie already feels a sense of God leaving him, his faith dissipating. Towards the end of Elie’s …show more content…

This is shown in many ways, some being direct quotes from the text, and some moments simply symbolizing his disbelief. The first proof of this is towards the beginning of Elie’s memoir. When Elie first arrives at Birkenau, a smaller concentration camp near Auschwitz, it is evident that his arrival is the turning point in which he starts to lose his faith in God. This is because of a thought that Elie has after he and his father make it through selection with the “notorious Dr. Mengele.” On page 55, Elie thinks, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever...Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” This quote is extremely significant to the argument being made. These two sentences that Elie thinks say that his faith in God is murdered that night, reasons for this being the flames that he saw, and the terrible fate that many Jews including some of his family had suffered. Another piece of proof that shows the same idea that Elie’s faith is not as strong and is weakening is that he begins to question the idea of God himself. “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?” (Night

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