Berger 1

Evan Berger

Ms. Crowell

English 11-5

2 April 2019

Elie Wiesel’s Change Throughout Night

In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel describes his experiences in Auschwitz and other

concentration camps, during the Holocaust. Wiesel describes his time in these camps and the

horrors he encountered as he tried to survive in the camps as a teenage boy. Throughout the

memoir, he uses these descriptions and his experiences in the camps and shows how he changed

as a person and matured in a short period of time. He also talks about how he felt like his

thoughts sometimes betrayed him, such as when he wished he could leave his father behind and

when he questioned his faith in God. Through the memoir, Wiesel shows how he was forced into

transforming from a naive and young child into a strong-willed man, who was not willing to give

up, and able to push himself through the torture at the camps in order to survive.

At the beginning of Night, Elie lives in Sighet, a city in Romania, and wants to study the

Kabbalah. Elie claims he is “deeply observant” and “by day I studied Talmud and by night I

would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.” (3) Religion plays a

very important part in Elie’s life at this point and he puts a lot of dedication into it and with his

religion being the reason he is forced into the camps, it plays a very important part in Elie’s

change. Elie also wants to learn more at mysticism and its relation to Judaism. Elie is very naive

with this goal as Jews are typically not able to begin studying the Kabbalah until they are about

30. He also complains that he is unable to find someone to teach him the Kabbalah in Sighet,

talking to his father and saying “I told him how unhappy I was not to be able to find in Sighet a
 Berger 2

master to teach me the Zohar.” (5) This also shows that he was immature as he was complaining

about simple things he was unable to obtain. With this, Elie is showing how childlike he is at this

point of the story and how he was acting before being forced to the concentration camps.

As soon as the Germans arrive in Sighet and deport Elie to a concentration, he begins to

changes as it is a necessity for him to be able to survive the miserable conditions of the camps.

Elie begins to lose faith in God and questions would he would allow such as things saying “Why

should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose

to be silent.” (33) As he continues to witness the horrors of Auschwitz, such as the

crematoriums, babies being killed, starving slaves, etc. Elie continues to question why he should

put faith in God. Nearing the end of his time at Auschwitz, Elie witnesses a young pipel being

hung which traumatized him. Talking with an inmate who asks “For God’s sake, where is God?”

Elie responds by saying “Where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows …” (65)

The event was more extreme for many prisoners because the pipel was so young, and with this

fact, it had a much harsher effect on Elie. This event shows that Weisel has lost all faith in God

and is at the point that he thinks God is dead along with the dead pipel. Weisel has faced many

horrors in his time and they have caused him to question his beliefs.

Towards the end of his time in the multiple concentration camps, Elie has managed to

adapt to his situation and surviving. He managed to survive walking over 50 kilometers as he

was forced to march for Auschwitz to Gliwice, even though his foot had recently been drained

due to an infection. Elie says, “I had to accept the fact: I would have to live with only one leg.

The important thing was not to dwell on it.” (92) This shows that he had adapted to believe that

the most important fact was to survive, even if meant losing his leg. With the amount of pain he

had to go through with his infected foot and then walking on it, he had adapted so that he could
 Berger 3

try and survive. Elie did not just manage to force himself through physical pain but also pushed

himself through mental anguish. At the end of the book, Elie had to deal with the fact that his

father had died. He says, “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep” (112) showing

that he had become emotionally detached from all traumatizing events in his life. Elie had seen

so many deaths over his time in the concentration camps, that his father’s death was just another

death. Elie was upset with himself as well because he was relieved for a minute that his father

was gone, as he thought that would make it easier for him to survive. Elie had changed so much,

that something that seemed so impossible, such as being happy about his father dying, could

happen to him.

Overall, Weisel showed how much he changed in his time at the concentration camps due

to the conditions that he was living him. This conditions led him from being an average teenage

boy into a boy who has become emotionally detached from the idea of death and has also lost

almost all his faith in his religion. Wiesel shows how he also managed to grow and become

someone who is able to push himself through almost anything if he wants to survive due to his

experiences.