The Holocaust and its Effect on Wiesel as the Writer of Night - Research Paper Example

6 June The Holocaust and its Effect on Wiesel as the of Night Several memoirs about the Holocaust have been written and published, so that the world will never forget and repeat its horrors. Night portrays Wiesel’s own experiences as a victim of the Holocaust. He was fifteen years old, when he went through four different concentration camps: Auschwitz, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald. These camps brought him face-to-face with experiences of prejudice and discrimination. His narrative about starvation and brutality exemplifies the capacity of human beings for unthinkable evil. During this time, he also witnesses the death of his family. Because of these experiences, Wiesel questioned his religious convictions, but like other Jewish inmates, he preserves his sense of morality and compassion for others. Elie Wiesel’s haunting and unforgettable memories as a child prisoner of the Holocaust have led him to be recognized, as one of the most well-known activists of mankind in fighting hatred, racism and genocide, through his literature and advocacy, and all these efforts were acknowledged and rewarded, when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Harrowing memories of the Holocaust haunt Wiesel up to now, which became his motivation to ensure that others will not suffer any form of Holocaust in their lives. When the Wiesels were ejected from their homes, Elie mentions that it all happened “under a magnificent blue sky” (Wiesel). He underlines the dreamlike, or rather, nightmare quality of the expulsion. Outside their homes, valuable possessions, such as precious rugs and jewelry, are thrown in one pile. It signifies the human identity that they will leave behind. The “magnificent blue sky” shows that the world continues to revolve, but it stopped for the Jews and other groups judged as undesirable to the Germans (Wiesel). The day is an ordinary day, but extraordinary events are happening as they left their homes like “beaten dogs” (Wiesel). Animals are recurring motifs in the story. They represent the cruel and atrocious treatment of the Jews. Inside the trains, Elie feels that: “The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car” (Wiesel). The SS have turned the Jews into animals that they can maltreat and kill anytime. One of the most haunting memories of Wiesel is his father’s death. He calls to Elie, but he does not want to hear him. Elie is more afraid of the “wrath of the SS” than responding to his father. He also feels somewhat gratified, because he will no longer look after his weakened father. With his father gone, he increases his chances of survival. Definitely, the guilt of abandoning his father during his dying moments remains with Elie. He says: “His last word has been my name. A summons. And I had not responded” (Wiesel). As long as he cannot forgive himself, he has made it also his mission to not forget about the widespread subjugation of many people all over the world. In Holocaust Trauma: Psychological Effects and Treatment, Kellerman stresses the importance of memory in the Holocaust. He believes that through remembering the Holocaust, history will not replicate itself. He argues that the Holocaust is a “major collective trauma” in Jewish history (5). The Holocaust also shaped Wiesel’s conviction to never forget his experiences, so that he will be inspired to constantly advocate against hatred, racism, and genocide. Human beings, even good ones, turn to one another and their God, because of the Holocaust. Elie remembers as their train travels to Auschwitz, Mrs. Schachter develops delusions, because it seems that she got depressed after being separated from her husband and sons. One time, she sees a fire that is not there, so “she received several blows to the head, blows that could have been lethal” (Wiesel). This happens while her child clings to her, although he no longer cries. Also, when Elie sees his father being punished, he becomes angrier more at him for not avoiding trouble. He is more concerned of their safety than ensuring his father’s survival. Furthermore, Elie sees inmates killing each other for a piece of bread. Even sons killed their fathers, in order to relieve their hunger and survive. Elie remembers the times when the strong stole food from the sick and weak. Many inmates also lose their faith in God. After witnessing the crematorium of living humans, fellow Jews recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. They recite it for themselves too, which must be the first in history that the living prepares their prayers for their imminent death. Elie, however, does not want to “sanctify” the Lord’s name through these prayers (Wiesel). He cannot understand how “the Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe” to be “silent” (Wiesel). He cannot make sense that God exists, and yet He has lost “His absolute justice” (Wiesel). Even a rabbi has lost hope and says: “It’s over. God is no longer with us” (Wiesel). When some people experience the worse treatment, their faith often goes with their humanity. So many horrible things happened, but what the Germans did to the Jews was unimaginable. Moishe the Beadle already warns the community at Sighet, but no one believes him. People are not ready to believe that such inhumane actions will be allowed to transpire in the twentieth century. They turn a blind eye to the truth that is approaching their lives. The first time that Elie and his family arrive at Birkenau, an inmate informs them of what happens in concentrations camps. He points at the chimneys with billowing smoke and tells them about their fate: “You will be burned! Burned to a cinder!” (Wiesel). This can be related to the imaginary fires that Mrs. Schachter sees every day. She must be receiving an epiphany of their wretched destiny. Later, Elie sees babies and children thrown to flames. He cannot believe his eyes that in the modern world, children and adults can easily be burned alive without anyone protecting them. In addition, the SS dehumanizes them by stripping them of their possessions and clothing. The prisoners are shaved. They are not called by their names, but their numbers. Elie is A-7713. They eat only bread and soup. They also suffer drudgery and constant blows on their bodies. They are all the same under the same blue sky- the same cattle that can be burned anytime. Inevitably, Elie feels the numbness of these conditions and soon he realizes: “We no longer clung to anything” (Wiesel). One inmate even believes more in Hitler than the false prophets who keep on saying that the war will end soon. The inmate says: “I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people” (Wiesel). Their family, spirit, and faith are turned into cinders, after seeing children and adults burned, just because Hitler thought that it is the right thing to do. His racism and blindness to compassion enable him to order the killing of millions of Jews, women and children included. These are the actions that Wiesel shuns. Through his education and writings, he wants his audience to know that Hitler should not rise again from his ashes. He also inspires them that all people should rebel against the Hitlers of the world. They should no longer stand in silence or indifference like so many did during the Holocaust. One people’s sufferings are not theirs alone. Wiesel takes their cause as his own and educates and arouses people to do the same- to unite and to fight back all authoritarian regimes. Night, hunger, thirst, and heat serve as motifs for desperation and endurance. Night becomes a period of both hope and despair. One night in the smaller ghetto, before they reach their first concentration camp, Elie reflects on the stars: “The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us” (Wiesel). The stars used to give hope and direction, but they turned into fires of hell. The night is a motif for despair, as the darkness consumes people too. Elie does not know where they will go and when their suffering will end. Still, sometimes, the stars offer hope. They remind Elie that God made these stars and His children. He will save them one day, although his faith is shaken, as the SS exhibit inhumanity. Moreover, for every night they survive, they have a better chance for liberation. The nights will turn to days, and survival matters, even to the shriveled masses of human beings in these camps. Elie also writes about his first night in Birkenau. He says: “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel). The night does not darken his life; it darkens his very soul. Several times, Elie and his fellow prisoners felt thirsty and hot. They have become bodies without minds and spirits. Hunger is a constant condition for the prisoners. Elie admits that he has been reduced to a “body,” specifically a “famished stomach” (Wiesel). His faculties for other purposes are gone. Thirst represents thirst for freedom and autonomy too. Before, people have little of appreciation of their freedoms, including the small freedoms of being able to eat in their homes and having decent comfort rooms. The Holocaust changes their views of life and soon, every simple little comfort becomes a cherished dream. Heat beats on them constantly. It saps, not only their energy, but also their hope. Heat reminds them of the Hell that Holocaust presents. Wiesel learns the importance of asking the right questions, after he questioned his faith and humanity during his life in the concentration camps. Wiesel remembers that as a boy, he finds a master of Kabbalah in Moishe the Beadle. He asks the young Elie why he cries when he prays and why he prays. Moishe states that he prays so that he can pray for the “strength to ask him the real questions” (Wiesel). In “How Jewish Thinkers Come to Terms with The Holocaust and Why It Matters for this Generation: A Selected Survey and Comment,” Pinder-Ashenden explores the written works of Wiesel. She notes that it can be seen from his novels that like other Jews in the Holocaust, he cannot help but question the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and benevolent God. The prevalence and intensity of evil in the Holocaust has led Wiesel to question God’s sense of justice. Nevertheless, he came to terms with the plans of God, which sometimes, only He can completely understand. Because of the atrocities of the Holocaust, Wiesel aimed to become a staunch advocate of peace and plurality, so that the Holocaust will never happen again for any racial, ethnic, or religious group. In the book Elie Wiesel: A Holocaust Survivor Cries Out for Peace, Houghton describes the life of Wiesel and his quest for peace. She mentions how Wiesel asks why American presidents did not help them immediately during the Holocaust, “he keeps asking” (48) these questions so that the world will not forget their tragedy. Wiesel understands that it is his mission to advocate for peace, so that the world will never forget in asking the right questions that will avoid these tragedies, or to stop them at their roots. The camps of death are often embedded in silence, and for Wiesel, silence is an evil condition that produced and prolonged the Holocaust. In the book, Elie Wiesel and the Politics of Moral Leadership, Chmiel explores Wiesel’s sense of leadership. He believes that Wiesel draws from his experiences, so that he can “awaken, sensitize, and rebuke ordinary citizens” and powerful government leaders (2). In Chapter Six, “The Unfinished Project of Solidarity,” Chmiel cites Wiesel and his views on silence. Wiesel says: I am obsessed with silence because of the silence of the world. I do not understand why the world was silent when we needed its outcry. I always come back to that problem. Where were the humanists, the leaders, the liberals, the spokesmen for mankind? The victims needed them. If they had spoken up, the slaughterer would not have succeeded in his task. (Chmiel 151). Indeed, he is right to question silence. Silence is not better than noise all the time. During the Holocaust, the world gave its silence for the suffering Jews. They came, but they came somewhat late. Millions of Jews already died. They were exterminated and it took a long time for the world to find its voice. Wiesel hates the silence, not only because it reminds him of the silence in the nights of the concentration camps, and the deathly silence after shootings and chimney burnings. He hates the silence that reinforces the death of the weak and the disenfranchised sectors of society. Silence is indifference and cowardice. Wiesel experiences all of those emotions, and he knows better now. In order for others to not suffer the same injustice, he cries out for them. He cries out for peace, plurality, and tolerance in every corner of the world. Wiesel has made it part of his pilgrimage to promote peace. The Holocaust has given him this peacekeeping and awareness-raising mission. It is a mission for his father, who died calling out to him, for the children and infants thrown into the billowing fires, and for all survivors who can never fully move on and forget. To fight silence, Wiesel also uses memory, the art of never forgetting, and his advocacy seeks to imprint the same memory on every other race, ethnic group, and generation. In Night, Wiesel contemplates on his ability for remembering his first night at Auschwitz: “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.” The first night is the most memorable, because it shocked Wiesel to the reality of their conditions. This night, while he is shrouded in darkness, his eyes are opened to inhumanity. The darkness of his surroundings became the lightness of his seeing. Human beings can lose every shred of compassion for another human being, because of racism and the primitive instinct for survival. Weinrich, in his book Lethe: The Art and Critique of Forgetting, examines the essence of not forgetting. He stresses that the Holocaust is unique because of its “dimension of cultural memory” (184). Wiesel also says: “To be a Jew is to remember” (Weinrich 184). The Holocaust serves as another piece of cultural memory for the Jews. They, who experienced Diasporas, from the past to the present, had to experience racial extermination too. But for Wiesel, the memory is more than cultural; it is universal. The meaning of the Holocaust eludes him, but the role he has to play after it is clear. He has the role of stopping all forms of racism and war. He aims to advocate for and support peace, and to ensure that no child or adult has to be burned in the chimneys once more. Wiesel wants people to remember the Holocaust, not only for the Jews and other people who died and suffered, but for all of humanity, who can also repeat the same tragedy, or be too silent enough to let it continue. Memory is critical to this struggle. The memory of the holocaust should not be simply Jewish, but based on the collective consciousness of humanity. Through this collective consciousness, Wiesel hoped that people will remember to be good to one another and to tolerate their differences, but to never ever tolerate racism and genocide. Elie Wiesel’s evocative and unforgettable memories as a child prisoner of the Holocaust have led him to be renowned, as one of the most recognized activists of mankind in fighting hatred, racism and genocide, through his literature and advocacy. He wants people to question silence against hatred. He asks people to cry out against injustice and to actively promote actions toward peace. Soon enough, his efforts were acknowledged and rewarded, when he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Essentially, Night is a novel about hope and survival. The survivors of the Holocaust are not the Jews alone, but all human beings. Humanity’s entire survival depends on the people’s capacity for fighting for justice and freedoms. Their survival is about the expression and unity of their voice, the voice that will dispel the darkness and gloom of silence and indifference to people’s sufferings all over the world. Works Cited Chmiel, Mark. Elie Wiesel and the Politics of Moral Leadership. Philadelphia: Temple University P, 2001. Print. Houghton, Sarah. Elie Wiesel: A Holocaust Survivor Cries Out for Peace. Minnesota: Red Brick Learning, 2004. Print. Kellermann, Natan P. F. Holocaust Trauma: Psychological Effects and Treatment. Indiana: iUniverse, 2001. Print. Pinder-Ashenden, Elizabeth. “How Jewish Thinkers Come to Terms with The Holocaust and Why It Matters for this Generation: A Selected Survey and Comment.” European Journal of Theology 20.2 (2011): 131-138. Print. Weinrich, Harald. Lethe: The Art and Critique of Forgetting. New York: Cornell U P, 2004. Print. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print. Read More