Night

An Autobiographical Novel by Elie Wiesel

113 pages

Question:

Why does Elie Wiesel stop believing in God, even though it is because of his belief in God that he is in the concentration camp?

Response:

    I believe that Elie stopped believing in God, however temporarily, because he had witnessed all these horrible things happening, while his God did not do anything to hinder or prevent it.  As well, he believes that God does not act without reason, so he believes that God wants the Jewish people to die at the hands of the Nazi's.  As such, he believes that God has turned his back on them and therefore, he stops believing in his God.

    As well, he lived every day with the fear of being chosen to be killed, or some other fate.  While he was living at the concentration camp, he heard all these stories about people getting thrown into the crematorium alive, or people having to throw their own sons/fathers into the crematorium.  In addition to all this, he was seperated from his mother and his sister(s) shortly after his arrival.  This meant that he also had to care for his father, because if he died, then Elie would have no relatives that he could communicate with.  On top of all this, the kapos, prisoners who were given the powers of a guard over other prisoners, and guards picked on Elie and his father (as well as all the other prisoners).  Perhaps he felt that God should have chosen more kind people as guards, or as kapos. He would also have felt anger at his God for letting his family get captured in the first place, and/or all the other things that happened since.

    In conclusion, I feel that Elie Wiesel 'gave up' on his God mostly out of anger, although some other factors were involved.  Either that, or he felt that he 'should' give up on his God, since his God 'gave up' on all the Jewish people first.

FIN