“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” Wise words from the former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, speak nothing but the truth when it comes to the approach of conflict by Elie Wiesel, author of Night, and Anne Frank, author of Diary of Anne Frank. Although these victims of the Holocaust may have similarities such as writing about their hardships and shutting their family out, their differences in dealing with conflict bring them far apart as well. Wiesel deals with conflict by losing faith and being pessimistic, whereas Frank deals with conflict by being hopeful and finding comfort in Peter.
When Wiesel arrives at the concentration camps the one thing on his mind is to stay
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with his family. After his family is split into two, Wiesel attempts to stay close to his father.
Wiesel is inside the largest death camp of the Holocaust and it still did not affect him because “in that moment [he] was happy; [he] was near [his] father” (Wiesel 24). Throughout their time at the camp, Wiesel slowly begins to despise his father. As Elie’s father appears to become weak, Wiesel realizes that although it is his father, it must be every man for himself. The head of the block speaks to Wiesel and Elie understands that “It’s too late to save [his] old father” (Wiesel 80). Likewise, Anne Frank also deals with conflict by shutting her mother out. As she spends more time in the annex Anne begins to act out against her mom. Mrs. Frank attempts to “sit right beside [her] until [she] falls asleep (Goodrich 896). Yet, Anne pleads her mother not to, and instead asks for Mr. Frank. Additionally, Frank and Wiesel cope …show more content…
with their misfortune by turning to writing. Elie Wiesel deals with the lifelong conflict and memories of the Holocaust by using Night as a way to handle the difficulties. With the autobiography, Wiesel can focus on something other than the haunting recollections that come with being a Holocaust survivor. Frank uses writing as an escape from the horrible conditions she was forced to live in. Through the Diary of Anne Frank Anne is able to express her emotions and turn her attention to something other than the traumatic events of the Holocaust. Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel both have similarities in the way they choose to deal with the experiences of the Holocaust. On the other hand, Wiesel and Frank handle the situation with different methods.
Wiesel uses pessimism and losing faith in God as ways to cope with the incarceration. As Wiesel’s time at the camps became longer, Elie began to become discouraged. Elie’s very first day already “deprives [him] of the desire to live” (Wiesel 25). Although he has only been in the camps for less than a day, he immediately knows this place causes him to lose the desire to live. However, Anne Frank is extremely optimistic as to what will happen after she comes out of the annex. Frank chooses to focus on the happy things and stays hopeful throughout her time in the annex. Anne attempts to believe that everyone in the world is just going through a rough patch. She believes that although this is happening, “people are really good at heart” (Goodrich 952). Anne is hopeful that everyone is going through a phase and soon it will be over. Despite their similarities, Anne and Elie deal with conflict in different ways as
well. Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel deal with conflict by focusing on other things to keep their attention away from the horrifying things going on. Night and Diary of Anne Frank both portray how truly difficult it is to be a victim of the Holocaust. Autobiographies such as these books help one gain a better understanding of conflict in the Holocaust and of the Holocaust as a whole.
After watching the movie Schindler’s list and reading the book night you can obviously spot some of the similarities between the two of these stories. The movie Schindler’s list directed by Steven Spielberg is about a nazi named Oskar Schindler. He started making money of the jews and the war at first. Then Oskar Schindler had changed for the better to save 1,200 jews from being killed in the holocaust. The book Night written by Elie Wiesel is about his time going through the holocaust as a 15 year old jew and having his faith tested every day for about one year. Sure these two stories are completely different type of views but there are some comparison and contrast that I have found by watching Schindler’s list and reading the book
There were many aspects in World War two, but the Holocaust is likely the most famous to date. A particular interest is shown for the Holocaust simply because of the unbelievable amount of inhumanity that was exhibited. Although saddening, the attention that has been focused on uncovering the truths of this terrifying event is necessary. Truly understanding how awful the Holocaust was helps to ensure that something similar will never happen again. The book Night and the movie Schindler’s List are two recollections of the Holocaust written from two, very different, perspectives.
Elie Wiesel writes about his personal experience of the Holocaust in his memoir, Night. He is a Jewish man who is sent to a concentration camp, controlled by an infamous dictator, Hitler. Elie is stripped away everything that belongs to him. All that he has worked for in his life is taken away from him instantly. He is even separated from his mother and sister. On the other side of this he is fortunate to survive and tell his story. He describes the immense cruel treatment that he receives from the Nazis. Even after all of the brutal treatment and atrocities he experiences he does not hate the world and everything in it, along with not becoming a brute.
He experiences numerous people being hanged, beaten, and tortured daily which changes the amount of faith and trust that he has in Humanity and God. He sees faithful and courageous people crumble in front of his own eyes before their lives are stolen. Towards the end of the book, Wiesel is in the hospital at the camp for surgery on his leg and the man in the bed next to him says something that is bitterly true, “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people,” (Wiesel 81). Wiesel doesn’t argue with this, which shows that he had lost his faith in humanity, and doesn’t know who to trust. Wiesel is also naive and vulnerable at the beginning of the book. He refuses to touch the food at the ghetto and strongly considers rebelling against the officers at the Concentration camps. At the same time, he is also a strong and fairly well-fed boy who does not grow tired easily. He is shocked that the world is letting these barbarities occur in modern times. Over time, he grows accustomed to the beatings and animal-like treatment that is routine at the camps. “I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked….. Had I changed that much so fast?”
How would you react if you were taken from your friends and family? Both Elie and Anne had to experience their family being taken away from them, possibly forever. Even though their most loved ones were taken, they still stayed strong. Elie and Anne had similar situations at the concentration camps when they went there.
Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy, lives in Sighet during World War II with his mother, father, and two sisters, and he is very religious and wanted to study Judaism. However, there were warnings by some people that Jewish people were being deported and killed. Although no one believes these warnings, Elie and his family are taken to a ghetto where they have no food. After being in the ghetto Elie and his father are separated from Elie’s mother and sister because of selection and were placed in cattle cars where they had no room. They are taken to Auschwitz where they suffer from hunger, beatings, and humiliation from the guards which causes Elie’s father to become weak. By now Elie loses his faith in God because of all he has been through. Lastly, Elie’s father dies just before the Jews are liberated and Elie sees his reflection in the mirror but does not recognize himself because he looks like a skeleton.
Most people have never experienced anything near as awful as what Wiesel experienced. He was one of the only people who found a way to hold onto their faith. Many made excuses not to perform rituals and eventually lost all faith. Wiesel was weakened, but remained faithful. Akiba Drumer, a friend of Wiesel, tried to convince himself that it was a test by God. However, Akiba also lost faith. “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” (Wiesel 34) This quote was from a small portion of Wiesel’s “Never Shall I Forget Poem.” It showed how Elie lost faith in God when he saw what the Nazis were doing to families and children. This quote shows how the religious part of Elie was “murdered.” Elie seemed to become foreign and isolated from his people. He seemed to be just going through the motions during his time in the camps. “In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger.” (Mauriac XXI) This quote shows how Wiesel felt like he was a stranger to the religion, community, and faith. Elie Wiesel couldn’t understand why God would hurt people, and most of all why he was spared. “And question of questions: Where was God in all this? It seemed as impossible to conceive of Auschwitz with God as to conceive of Auschwitz without God.” (Hope, Despair and Memory) This shows how Wiesel couldn’t grasp the reasoning behind God. He wanted
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
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).
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.
In the memoir Night, the narrator Wiesel recounts a moment when he witnesses the most horrific actions done by men,”I pinched myself : Was I still alive ? Was I awake ? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent “ (Wiesel 32). Wiesel was thinking and questioning about his existence. While also caring for his father because that's all he has left. It's even more important because, what Wiesel experiences in camps has been near death and fight for survival. Two significant themes related to inhumanity discussed in the book Night by Wiesel are, loss in religious faith and father and son bonding.
Authors sometimes refer to their past experiences to help cope with the exposure to these traumatic events. In his novel Night, Elie Wiesel recalls the devastating and horrendous events of the Holocaust, one of the world’s highest points for man’s inhumanity towards man, brutality, and cruel treatment, specifically towards the Jewish Religion. His account takes place from 1944-1945 in Germany while beginning at the height of the Holocaust and ending with the last years of World War II. The reader will discover through this novel that cruelty is exemplified all throughout Wiesel's, along with the other nine million Jews’, experiences in the inhumane concentration camps that are sometimes referred to as “death factories.”
Eliezer Wiesel loses his faith in god, family and humanity through the experiences he has from the Nazi concentration camp.
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.