The Deteriorated Faith

Aldolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany concentration camps severely affected the millions of Jews who endured the horrific experiences. Viewing the atrocities at the camps caused many of the Jewish prisoners to question their faith in God. Elie Wiesel, who was only 15 years old when he was first deported to Auschwitz and liberated a year later, experiences various horrors, detailed in Night, that cause his gradual disbelief in God. Elie Wiesel reveals the decline of his once-strong faith as a result of the Nazi concentration camps in his poignant Holocaust memoir, Night. 

Prior to being deported to the concentration camps, Elie Wiesel was known as one of the most faithful and religious Jew, for his age, in his town. When Moshe the Beadle, Elie’s religious teacher, asks him why he prays, it causes Elie to ponder: “[w]hy did I pray? A strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Wiesel 2). Elie comparing his praying to automatic actions that occur without thought, such as breathing and living, displays his strong faith. He illustrates the depth of his religion within him, to the point where he views praying as an instinct. Furthermore, despite being told he was too young, Elie finds himself a rabbi, with whom he spends his evenings studying their religious texts: “[i]t was with him my initiation began. We would read together, ten times over, the same page of the Zohar. Not to learn it by heart, but to extract the divine essence from it” (3). Elie displays his determination to further understand his religion, even at a young age. Although this is against his father’s wishes, Elie’s active seeking to find a rabbi demonstrates his commitment to connecting with and learning his religion. Repeatedly reading the Zohar uncovers their aim of not simply memorizing the text, but to understand the deeper spiritual meaning. Despite being heavily faithful at the beginning of his memoir, Elie’s exposure to the conditions in the camps starts declining his faith. 

Elie’s strong faith starts deteriorating as he witnesses the horrific crimes being committed at the Nazi concentration camps. Elie reveals his frustration toward his God’s silence as he views the deadly experiences the Jews are facing and affirms,““[f]or the first time, I felt revolt raise up in me. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” (31). Elie, who was once deeply religious and faithful, feels betrayed by his God for being silent in a time of horror. His faith in his God starts declining as he continues to feel that his God is doing nothing to save His worshippers. Additionally, Elie conveys his internal conflict as he believes he is walking to his death into a fire pit, expressing that “[a]nd, in spite of myself, the words formed themselves and issued in a whisper from my lips: Yitgadal veyitkadach shmé raba…. May His name be blessed and magnified” (31). Regardless of experiencing feelings of doubt at the time, Elie instinctively recites a Jewish prayer that is often spoken for the dead. He displays a part of him that is still holding on to his faith, even through all the suffering. Despite the internal struggle Elie faces between his faith and the horrific environment, the prayer arises naturally, highlighting the depth of his faith within him. As Elie continues his time in the concentration camps, the atrocities he witnesses strip him of his faith entirely. 

The inhumane crimes that Elie witnesses at the camps causes him to completely lose his faith in God. Elie feels that he is no longer obligated to fast anymore on a religious holiday, a tradition he once followed, because he does not have any faith left: “[b]ut further, there was no longer any reason why I should fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence” (66). Elie’s refusal to participate in the tradition of fasting during Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, illustrates his rebellion against God. Elie, who initially demonstrates his strong faith in the memoir, is now rejecting one of the most important Jewish religious traditions. This shift clearly demonstrates the change in Elie’s perspective on God, from the beginning of the memoir to his experiences after the camps. Moreover, Elie’s faith in God unwinds when he witnesses a child being hanged, and when someone questions “[w]here is he?” Elie thinks to himself, “[h]ere He is--He is hanging here on this gallows” (62). Elie and the rest of the prisoners are forced to watch an innocent child being hanged, and this image of the child’s lifeless body in the air becomes a symbol for the death of justice, and for Elie, the death of his faith. Elie’s doubts on his God’s remaining silence during cruelty pushes him further away from his faith. His internal confession to the question reveals the death of his God in Elie’s mind. Elie’s exposure to the brutality in the concentration camps severely affected him to lose his former heartfelt faith. 

In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel conveys the deterioration of his formerly powerful faith caused by his experiences at the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Prior to being deported to the camps, Elie was extremely faithful for his age, went out of his way to find himself a rabbi against his father’s wishes, and seeked for the deeper spiritual messages behind religious texts. This strong faith unravels as he feels betrayal from his God’s silence during the unimaginable cruelty the Jewish prisoners endure. Elie is seen completely stripped of his faith when he refuses partaking in a religious tradition and witnesses the hanging of an innocent child. Certain experiences are so devastating that they can impact one’s beliefs profoundly, leaving behind an unfillable void.

Work Cited

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, Bantam Books, 1960.