Night by ELi Weisl
... combined and read together makes ones ability to understand easier. For example, Rita Botwinick’s A History of the Holocaust explains the Jewish religion, but does not specify to a full extent how the Jewish religion had effect on the Jews while in the concentration camps. Ideas were given, but the actual thoughts of the Jews could only be obtained from a book like Night. The author of Night, Elie Wiesel, began telling his story from the moment he lived in the ghetto. Rita Botwinick and Elie Wiesel described the ghettos the same. They both described the barbed wired fences to keep them in their occupied ghettos. They were self contained. The windows facing the outside street had to be boarded up. The Jews were under the impression that that was where they were to remain until the war had ended. But they were wrong, they were then forced to get on cattle trains and then sent off to the concentration camps. In Elie’s case Aushwitz, then later Buchenwald. As for the political events that occurred outside the camps, the Jewish victims and survivors while concentrated and tortured did not know what was happening, why help took so long, or why exactly this was happening to them. They had no concept of time really. The Jewish people entered this tragedy with a strong faith in their religion and their beliefs. Rita Botwinick gives a few slight examples of faith fading while in the concentration camps but Elie Wiesel tells the readers exactly what thoughts were running through his own mind, and possibly others around him. “ For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” (Night page 43) This is Elie’s first doubt in the God he believed so strongly in before. This happens again, but the revolt turned from thought to action. “I did not fast, mainly to please my father, who had forbidden me to do so. But further, there was no longer any reason why I should fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw in the gesture an act of rebellion and protest against Him. And I nibbled my crust of bread. In the depths of my hear, I felt great void” (Night page 75) This was during Yom Kippur, where Jews have to fast. But it was a debated dilemma. While Elie thought this way, others thought that “ We should show God that even here, in this enclosed hell, we were capable of singing His praises.” (Night page 74) Doubt in their faith is a human thing to do, especially with the torment that they had to endure. The Jews were rarely offered food. The food they did receive would be a small about of soup or some crust of bread. As with the food water was not offered either. If the Jews had to ...