The Fatherly Figure and Surviving in Elie Wiesel's Life

The Holocasut was the extermination of the Jewish people by the Nazi Germans. By the year 1945, 6 million Jews were murdered as a result of the Nazi’s ideology of racial superiority. The horrific events that occurred during the Holocaust, as seen through the eyes of Elie Wiesel, are described in his book Night. For Elie the Holocaust began the spring of 1944, the moment when German troops first marched into his home, Sighet, Transylvania. Throughout the next year, Wiesel survived the brutality of Auschwitz until he was liberated by the surrender of the Germans on April 11, 1945. Elie is one of the 3.5 million survivors of the Holocaust. His survival is due to his belief, his father, the burden of being a witness, and his hatred of his oppressors. The most important of these reasons is his father and their dependence on each other.

From the moment German’s marched into Elie’s small town of Sighet until his liberation, Elie was fueled by hatred. The introduction of his “first oppressors”, the Hungarian police, initiated Elie’s hatred (Wiesel 19). The Hungarian police were the first to tear Elie and his community from all normalcy and set him on a path of hate and anguish. Hate gave Elie something to believe in, allowing him to keep his thoughts and feelings, and retain his humanity. Days later Elie would end up at Auschwitz, separated from his mother and sisters, and tortured by the guards. Elie’s experiences within Auschwitz only added to the magnitude of his hatred. When Elie was working in the warehouse, he suffered a brutal beating from Idek, the Kapo. His beating brought the sympathies of a french girl who told him “[d]on't cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now ... Wait' (Wiesel 53). Elie must have been enraged with Idek for beating him. However, the supporting words of this girl showed her understanding of Elie’s anger and pain. Her words allowed Elie to be strong and gave him the focus he needed to survive. For the remainder of Elie’s imprisonment he faced brutal punishments and prejudice from his oppressors. The hatred Elie had allowed him to stay resilient, maintain his humanity, and survive the duration of his torture.

Religion played a prominent role in Elie’s life, it served as something to believe in and as a source of hope. However, after arriving at Auschwitz, Elie’s faith in God was wearing. The horrors inflicted on the Jewish people in these camps made Elie “doubt His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45). Elie believed that if God was allowing these atrocities to happen He had no power or justification. Throughout Elie’s time in captivity the “Master of the Universe, chose to be silent” (Wiesel 33). While Elie and his fellow Jews were suffering God did nothing and had abandoned them. God’s silence showed Elie that He could not help rescue the Jews from their oppressors. As a result, Elie “no longer accepted God's silence” and rebelled against his religion (Wiesel 69). Elie’s defiance made him “stronger than this Almighty to whom [his] life had been bound [to] for so long” (Wiesel 68). Rebellion strengthened Elie, it filled the “great void” within him that God had once filled (Wiesel 69). By no longer relying on God to be a source of hope, Elie was able to fight for his own survival. Elie’s rejection of God’s will allowed him to grow and become strong enough to rescue himself.

The moment Elie stepped foot into Auschwitz he “could not believe that human beings were being” treated so terribly (Wiesel 33). Bodies were burned, families torn apart and to never see each other again. These are but a few ways the Jews were dehumanized and slaughtered like cattle. Elie was a witness to all of these acts, he knew the world needed to “learn about the existence of Auschwitz” (Wiesel 31). As a result, Elie carried the horrific scenes of his time in Auschwitz with him until he was able to act and testify his experiences to the world. Elie would “never forget those things, even were [he] condemned to live as long as God himself” (Wiesel 34). The traumatic events witnessed by Elie forced him to survive and “bear witness for the dead and for the living' (Wiesel xv). By fighting to stay alive, Elie was able to share the experiences of the dead and made sure their deaths were not in vain. The weight of being a witness to the crimes committed during the Holocaust were cast onto Elie and motivated him to share his experiences.

Elie’s father was essential to his survival during the Holocaust. His father was by his side from the very beginning. When Elie was torn from his mother and sisters, his father was thjere for him. All Elie “could think of was not to lose him” and “remain alone” (Wiesel 30). It was imperative for the father and son to stick together during their captivity. Elie was unlike other sons who “abandoned the remains of their fathers without a tear” (Wiesel 92). Instead, Elie cared for his father and did not become selfish like the other sons in Auschwitz. Elie and his father “suffered so much, endured so much together” throughout their captivity at Auschwitz (Wiesel 82). Elie’s father’s presence in his life was very significant; Elie was able to stay human because of it. Elie kept his humanity, ability to love, and dedication to commitment. These attributes are visible when Elie believed he “had no right to let [himself] die”, his father depended on Elie and as a result, Elie had to stay alive for him (Wiesel 87). Elie had a complicated relationship with his father; however, when it came to their survival in Auschwitz the father and son came together. Elie preserved his humanity and stayed alive because of his relationship with his father.