1

Alexander S. Hucks

Julia Intawiawat

English 110

13 October 2017

Night: Elis Loss of Faith and Identity

What comes to mind when one thinks of total loss, confusion, and anger towards

something? To Eli Wiesel, this is his life as less than a human. His life following his capturing

by the Nazis and the inhabitants in the multiple concentration camps, turned his life upside

down. Some would say he faced all odds and even had his doubts regarding who he was and why

he was part of these dreadful, seemingly, God-forsaken events. Needless to say, his memoir

Night, will follow his life as an eager child of God, to almost complete loss of faith in Him.

Elis terrifying journey would begin in his hometown of Sighet, Transylvania. Before the

madness fell, Eli was young, studying deeply, the Talmud, teachings regarding the rabbinic

law("The Talmud" 2017). He, at the time, was aspiring to be vastly knowledgeable in his faith,

perhaps to eventually become stronger in it, so aspired in it that he even asked for a master to

help guide him in studies, despite his young age. This shows already, how dedicated Eli was to

becoming stronger in his faith which would in turn capitalize that said fact when he seemingly

loses this passion.

The first evidence of Nazi reign in Elis world started when Moishe the Beadle, Elis

mentor, poorest in the town, and the synagogues right-hand man, was deported as a foreign Jew

by Hungarian police, along other deportees. None of Sighets inhabitants knew what this was the

start of; In fact, this was all part of a master plan by the Nazi policy, the ethnic cleansing of
 2

European Jewry( William, Nazi Policy Towards the Jews). The ethnic cleansing helps

support this idea of the loss of identity or even purpose of the Jews and other ethnicities. The

Nazis wanted one superior race, Aryan, so therefore exterminating all others as if the identity of

Eli and others as if it had never existed.

When the Germans first entered Sighet on their conquest to obtain Hungarian land, the

jews had indifferent views towards them, in fact Eli states that our first impressions of the

Germans were most reassuring( Wiesel, ), which ironically showed a level of comfortability

despite this unwelcomed entering of their land. The Germans were wolves in sheeps wool in

that Their attitude towards their hosts was distant,but polite.( Wiesel, ). The Germans were

showing a false persona to keep from initially frightening, quite frankly, their prey.

The revealing of their true colors occurred when a policy was released by the fascist. It

stated: every Jew must wear the yellow star( Wiesel, ). This was a subtle yet huge vital

evidence of the initial dehumanization of the Jews. The star was used in hateful manner, almost

as a degrading of the Jews themselves. This badge has been used as far back as the 13th century

and forward, but before the time of the Nazis, it was never used in a degrading way. It was used

as distinguishing garments(Jewish Badge: During the Nazi Era), and nothing more. The

Germans abused its original intentions and associated the symbol negatively.

Works Cited
 3

The Talmud. ReformJudaism.org, 19 Jan. 2017, reformjudaism.org/talmud.

Carr, William. "Nazi Policy Towards the Jews." History Today, vol. 35, no. 11, 1986, pp. 30, History

Study Center, .

Jewish Badge: During the Nazi Era. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States

Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008211.