Night :: essays research papers

Night, by Elie Wiesel is an autobiography including the main characters Elie, his family, and all the victims of the holocaust. The main idea of this book is to get people to realize the pain and suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Because of cruel incidents, people’s emotions go numb. They had no lives. The Jewish prisoners went to any length to stay alive; lying, killing, and even betraying family. Jewish prisoners knew nothing about how to survive the deadly camp of Auschwitz. Most Jewish prisoners were thrown into ditches to burn if not the right age or if they looked too weak to work. Elie and his father lied about their ages to pass the first selection. By lying about their ages, they were viewed as more fit to work. The prisoners actually came to realize â€Å"Work is liberty† at Auschwitz. Lying became common among the Jews to pass selections. Rations of food were scarce, thus killing for crumbs were occurrences that happened daily. For instance, a son fought his father for bread. â€Å"Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father... you’re hurting me...you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread...for you too...for you too....† This shows how the Holocaust made people genocidal. Feelings left their souls on the first day at camp, for when someone died no one cared. Family betraying family took place during marches to new camps. A boy and his father had to run as fast as they could for as long as possible until the S.S. soldiers said they could stop. The penalty would be death if a prisoner decided to slow down. A boy realized his father was weak and starting to slow down with him and instead of slowing down with him, the boy decided to run faster and leave his father for dead, for his own protection. Could you even imagine what the