Night Essay

Did you know Holocaust survivor Yehuda Bacon, who spent his early teens in concentration camps, recounted that he burst out laughing during the first funeral procession he saw after liberation? “People are crazy,” he said. “For one person they make a casket and play solemn music? A few weeks ago I saw thousands of bodies piled up to be burnt like so much junk.” Like Yehuda Bacon, many Jews lost their faith after the horrific things they witnessed during the Holocaust, including Elie Wiesel who recounted his experiences in his memoir Night. One theme that can be derived from the memoir is, without faith there would be nothing to survive for, as evidenced by Juliek dying when his violin breaks, Elie not killing himself because of his father, and Stein of Antwerp.

The first major point is, Juliek is able to maintain his faith by carrying his violin with him from camp to camp. After Elie arrives in Buna and wakes up in a stack of men, he sees “Juliek facing [me], hunched over, dead. Next to him lay his violin, trampled, an eerily poignant little corpse”(95). This connects to the theme because the only reason he wanted to live, was to play the violin. This is shown by him dying next to his violin. This also connects because he was so faithful to his violin, that when his violin got trampled and it “died” he himself died. While Juliek had his violin to give him faith, Elie had his father

The second point is, Elie is able to maintain his faith because his father is there by his side. Just after Elie is approved by Dr. Mengele he “took a half step forward. [I] first wanted to see where they would send [my] father. Were he to have gone to the right, [I] would have run after him”(32). This connects to the theme because his only reason to be alive was to stay with his father at that time. This is shown by him not leaving without his father. Although Elie had his father to give him faith, Stein of Antwerp had his