Eliezer was a young boy when the Holocaust began. He saw his family, his
friends, and his fellow Jews humiliated and murdered. This autobiography, Night,
was written by Eliezer Wiesel. He wrote about what horrors he saw and went
through during this dreadful period in time. The first part of the book is when
he was very religious and prays with Moshe. When the German soldiers come into
their town the townspeople fear them. But this is when he begins to become
doubtful. For the rest of the novel, Eliezer starts to question his God. Eliezer
Wiesel was twelve when he first met Moshe the Beadle. At this time in his life,
he was a big believer in God. He studied the Talmud during the day and at night
he prayed at the synagogue. One day Eliezer asked his father, who was a rabbi,
“Can you find me a master to guide me in my studies of the cabbala?”(1) But
his father simply replied, “You’re too young for that. Maimonides said it
was only at thirty that one had the right to venture into the perilous world of
mysticism.” (1-2) In return to this statement made by his father, he went out
to find his own. This is when he found Moshe. Almost every evening, they would
talk about God and sit in the synagogue and pray. Moshe became Eliezer’s
master to show him the mysteries of the cabbala. During these nights, Eliezer
said, “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) Since
Moshe was a foreign Jew, he had been taken away to a concentration camp. He had
escaped only to be able to tell the townspeople what he had seen. No one
believed him. Even Eliezer did not believe his foolish story. But Eliezer could
see that Moshe had changed. He no longer talked about God and the cabbala.
People thought he was a madman. “What an imagination he has!” people said.
(5) People continued to do their daily tasks as if he had not said anything at
all. Although Eliezer heard horrible stories from Moshe, he still continued his
studies of the cabbala. A while later, Germans were known to be in a town close
by Sighet. The optimists thought they would not come to our town though because
there are strategic and political reasons why they would not want to leave that
town. But, three days later, they were in Sighet. At first, they acted friendly
and one even gave gifts to Eliezer neighbor who was housing him. By the seventh
night of Passover, the nightmare began. All the leaders of the Jewish community
had been arrested. They had rules the people had to obey like wearing yellow
star and staying in our house for a certain amount of days, etc. The next thing
that came was deportation. The people had to wait on a blazing hot street
waiting for their turn to come. Little by little, Eliezer started to disbelieve
that there was a God. “Oh God, Lord of the Universe, take pity upon us in thy
great mercy,” the people said. (17) The night before they left they didn’t
pray to pass the time more quickly. When they arrived at the first camp, his
father and Eliezer were separated from the rest of his family. He heard about
people who went to the crematory and the gas chambers. His father started
praying. “For the first time, I felt a revolt rise 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) Moving from one
concentration camp to another, Eliezer saw many more deaths. While at Buna, he
witnessed many more deaths and hangings. While watching three prisoners die slow
and miserable deaths, Eliezer heard a man behind him say, “Where is God
now?”(62) I replied in my head “Where is He? Here He is-He is hanging here
on this gallows.”(62) Later in the novel, his father gets very sick .The
doctor’s can not help him. While roll call his father called Eliezer’s name,
but the officer told him to be quiet. He did not hear and continued to call for
me. He was shot in the head, but did not die immediately. He managed to get out
the word one last time “Eliezer.” When I woke up the next day he was not in
his bunk. The Nazis took him to the crematory. There were no prayers at his
grave. Although Eliezer was sometimes a disbeliever, he had faith even at
difficult times. When Eliezer received new shoes, he would have had to give them
to the Kapo. It would have been a very bad thing if he were to have to do that.
So he put his shoes in a thick layer of mud so that they would not be able to
tell. He “thanked God, in an improvised prayer, for having created mud in His
infinite and wonderful universe. (35) He thanked God for the tiniest things.
Some people in the camp still talked about God. Others versed the cabbala.
“But I had ceased to pray… I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted
His absolute justice.”(42) One person, Akiba Drummer thought God was testing
them and wanted to see if they could kill the Satan in them. In conclusion,
Eliezer saw his family, his friends, and his fellow Jews humiliated and
murdered. This autobiography, Night, was written about what horrors he saw and
went through during this dreadful period in time. There were two different
phases he went through. He was at first very religious and prays with Moshe. For
the rest of the book, after the Nazis take over his hometown, Sighet, Eliezer
starts to question his God. Even though he may have doubted his God at times, he
still thanked God for letting him survive.