Elie Wiesel and His Beliefs and Observations which Shook His Faith in God - Book Report/Review Example

Your full November 24, Journal Response Journal This quote is about the consequences that arise when people do not speak for the rights of others. This tells us about the self-centeredness of the world. The selfishness of people makes them think about their rights and concerns. People remain totally unconcerned about other people’s problems and sufferings. Hence, the cycle completes itself, with no one helping out no one. This matter of self-centeredness has arisen many bloodsheds and hardships in the world, in the political, social, economic and religious scenario. For example, the Holocaust tells us about the sufferings of the Jewish people in the German concentration camps where they suffered from inhumane experiences inflicted upon them by the Nazis of Germany. Pastor Niemoller, in these quotes, is talking about the German leaders who remained silent in the bloodshed and brutality that the Nazis conducted in their concentration camps. Pastor Niemoller was the one who spoke out and tried to invoke thought about this cruelty. He was of the view that the brutality will continue to happen unless people choose to think freely. There will be no end to it until concerned Americans decide to act differently than those responsible for the massacre in the concentration camps. Only a few German leaders or Nazis cannot be held responsible for what happened in the Nazi regime. The nation who was silent at the brutality was to be blamed. Silence made it all happen. Silence will continue to make it all happen if people cease to think and rebel against wrong. This silence is the main element of focus that these quotations by Pastor Niemoller contain. Journal 2 Elie made some heart-wrenching observations which shook his faith in God. He witnessed a burning death ditch in which thousands of babies were laid and used as target practice by the Nazis. It was such a brutal thing to see that Elie was brought to think the first time in his life why God ever allowed human beings to commit such an evil act. He was so shaken and depressed that he started considering committing suicide before he was told to turn away from the death pit. Elie was unable to forget the shocking scene, and this was the first time he started losing faith in God and religion. This image of dying babies and the death pit have really shaken me. I will not be able to forget how Elie responded to this scene, and how his faith in God shattered. I felt very sad at this transformation of faith. Elie was not able to figure out why a just God would ever permit anyone to be so brutal to other innocent human beings. The next event, which created a horrifying image in my mind, and which further weakened Eli’s faith, was the public hanging of the “pipel”. I did not feel so good when I read that when Elie saw how the little boy was given the deliberate and excruciating death, he also experienced at the same time the death of his faith and beliefs. He considered pipel’s death as divine death as he said that it was not the pipel who was hanged but it was God hanging on the gallows. These two occurrences of babies being brutally murdered in the death pit and the “pipel” hanging on the gallows really shook me; and, I will not be able to forget the transformation of faith that Elie experienced. Journal 3 Wiesel said that he had ceased to feel human. By this, he meant that he loathed all the things that humans were doing to humans. He could never have any idea why a human being could be so brutal and unreasonable. He saw such horrifying practices in the camp which he could never have even imagined in his dreams. He saw people being brutally murdered. He saw, as mentioned earlier, little babies being murdered in the death pit. He saw the “pipel” being hanged to death- one he really admired as a religious person. These, and other such observations, made Elie think that humanity was of no value, and that humans are not worthy of dignity. All the acts that he saw were short of civility and kindness. Hence, he had ceased to feel human. Such experiences, which lack sense of morality, make people lose their sense of dignity and humanity. Man is born in God’s nature, and it is inculcated in his nature by birth that he does not want to see brutal treatment being done to human beings. Hence, when a human being witnesses things that are unnatural, it shatters his beliefs about humanity and dignity. For example, when we read that people in Arab used to bury their newly born daughters alive in the olden times, we feel a sense of disrespect and immorality being practiced by human beings. This makes us lose our sense of humanity and dignity. Journal 4 Luba Frederick’s statement “To die was easy” gives rise to a lot of questions with respect to humanity and civility. How human beings became so indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow human beings that they did not speak for them? Why a few human beings were able to conduct such a massive bloodshed and massacre in the history of mankind? Why such circumstances were created that the victims thought that it was easy for them to die than to live? Why humanity and morality were brought down to such a low level where all of the butchery and carnage of the Holocaust became acceptable? All of these questions raise a concern about the survival and maintenance of humanity in human beings. “To die was easy” means that life had been made so difficult for the victims of the Holocaust that they prayed for death. They found it easy to die and leave all sorrows behind, than to live to see and experience all the violence and inhumaneness that the prisoners of the Nazi concentration camps were going through. It becomes a tragedy when a human being is dragged to a point where he thinks that his life is of no use, that death would be much easier, and that it would have been better if he was not born in the first place. Such hopelessness and frustration drags people to commit suicides, as we read that Elie Wiesel thought about committing suicide when he witnessed babies being burned in the death pit (Wiesel). Such horrifying events are hard to witness, and even harder to experience. So, dying becomes easy, as the survivor Luba Frederick mentioned in the statement. Journal 5 Wiesel’s statement from his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech invokes in me deep thought regarding my place in the world and my responsible to fellow human beings. As Wiesel sad that until the dissidents in the prison are not served justice, until there is no child left hungry, and until the voice of the wronged one is heard and done justice to, we should not sit quietly and wait for things to become right on their own. We need to get up and speak, not only for our own rights but also for the rights of those whose voice gets unheard most of the times. As for my personal actions, I must do well to other people around me. I must not take part in, or encourage, any kind of violence. I must help the needy and feed the hungry ones. I must not be cruel to children and the poor. I must be respectful towards women. I must respect my family ties, and must be available to my friends and family in the times of trouble. I must be honest in the profession that I pursue, and I must give everybody around me their due rights. These are some of the basic responsibilities that I must fulfill, so as to be able to give life to humanity and dignity that is dying with every passing day. I believe that my life will be filled with anguish and shame if I work only to fulfill my own needs and become indifferent to other people’s sufferings and problems. God sent us in this world to help each other out. So, if we do not fulfill this purpose of living, there will be no humanity in the world. Journal 6 During his captivity, what dies in Elie was his faith in God. Elie’s beliefs had abandoned. He had given up his loyalties toward God. His faith had been shattered to pieces and he had no plans to collect those shattered pieces and join them up again. As a token of expression, he stopped praying to God. He did not pray on the holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He announced during the New Year celebrations that he had accused God who was answerable to him. However, this shift in his faith did not satisfy Elie internally. He knew that he was restless and empty from inside, when he should have been feeling satisfied upon accusing the guilty one. Elie was without help and was blank. The rebellion against God strengthened when Elie stopped practicing any religious ritual, and did not even fast on the Day of Atonement. He was encouraged by his father who had always been disinterested in Elie’s faith. He made sure he “swallowed” his meals on the Day of Atonement expressing his rebellion against God and faith. However, some other feelings had born in place of the dying faith. Elie’s faith transformed in that he now felt a stronger relationship with mankind than with God. He started believing in the strength of mankind rather than the power of God. The brutal realities of life made him think that mankind needed justice which was not served. The harsh observations made him transform from a naïve, immature boy into a mature man who had logical beliefs rather than blind faith. This transformation forced him to question things which he had not even imagined to ask from a God he so admired. Journal 7 “To be silent is impossible, to speak forbidden” means that it was very hard for Wiesel to survive the massacre of Holocaust and remain silent about all that was happening. He wanted to speak against the bloodshed, but he was not allowed to. He could not speak because he was not supported by many people of his kind, because they were afraid they would be subjected to even more brutality if they were found guilty of speaking against the inhumaneness they were experiencing. Wiesel resolved this paradox by continuing to talk about humanity and the need for providing justice. Even though the war has been over for more than 60 years, Wiesel has been talking about it because he wants people to speak for their rights. He wants people to make their thoughts independent of all influences whatsoever, so that they may be able to tell right from wrong. He does not want people to forget history, because he knows that if history is forgotten, that would mean that the cruel people can get away with whatever they want to do with their power and influence. Wiesel, as a survivor, has been talking about his experiences to keep alive the lessons that came from them, not to keep alive the pain that he went through. He wants to spread the lessons he learnt to all people, so that the same events never occur again; and if they do, then people should know what to do and how to stand for their rights as human beings. Journal 8 Elie Wiesel abandoned his beliefs and Judaism because the faith and religion was not answering what he was inquiring of God. His faith died because he could not imagine God inflicting so much harm and pain on his worshippers. His faith continued to die, and this was not a natural death. What he had been seeing and observing in the world was enough to think that God was unjust and did not care whatever happened on the earth. He started questioning the existence of God. For him, God had allowed all the atrocities and hardships that human beings were inflicting upon their fellow human beings. However, I could not have experienced the same kind of emotions if I had suffered from such atrocities as Elie experienced. Instead, my faith in God would have strengthened. I know that this world is a place of test- an examination hall where human beings have been sent for the purpose of serving others. One who fails the test will be accountable in front of the Lord on the Day of Judgment; while, one who will pass the test will be rewarded with Paradise. Those who have firm faith in God bear all hardships with assurance that they will be rewarded in the Hereafter. Those who lose their faith after being inflicted by hardships will be accountable to God. I believe that life is not a bed of roses, and hardships come and go. God has been testing his most beloved of Prophets too. That does not mean that God was unjust or unloving toward his most beloved people. That only means that He puts his humankind to tests; and, whoever passes the test with patience and strong faith wins. So, I would not let my faith shake even in the worst of atrocities because I would have strong belief in God. Journal 9 A decent human being can turn into a monstrous killer for a myriad of reasons. Poverty, hunger, joblessness, and homelessness are some of the atrocities that can bring a normal human being to such a point that he forgets his limitations and boundaries, and tends to do whatever wrong he can do for his survival. Sometimes, the evil comes from the Satan, who convinces man to commit the wrong deed. Evil prevails in the world in competition with the good. Without evil, there is no recognition of good. A decent human being turns into an evil person when he perceives that staying a good person will not be enough to counter the hardships of life; or, when he sees that becoming a monster will save him from bigger monsters. The German Order Police, called as the Reserve Battalion 101, was an important part of the Final Solution that the Nazis of Poland implemented to repress the Jews and the Polish population. The battalion played an important role in deporting Jews to the concentration camps and shooting millions of Polish citizens. Perhaps, it was the order that came from the officials that made the battalion work the way it did. Perhaps, many of the policemen unwillingly did the job because they had been ordered to kill people. Perhaps, there were some policemen who had no idea that they will have to take part in such a notorious mass killing when they joined the force; and, they shot millions of innocent people because they did not want to lose their jobs. Hence, there can be a wide variety of reasons why a decent human being turns into a monstrous killer. Works Cited Wiesel, Elie. Night, 2nd edn. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Read More