More Than Just A Story

In Night by Elie Wiesel, you get the memoir of a survivor of the holocaust. This memoir illustrates the emotions and fierce truth of the now thought of unthinkable events. At the end of the book I realized that this book serves more purpose than understanding of the holocaust. By the mid end I started to see deeper meaning. Meaning of mankind, selfish emotions, power and sane versus insane.

Wiesel, even though he is a survivor, experienced numerous deaths. A lot of people would think, well duh it’s war. But it really wasn’t. I don’t think this classifies as war. These deaths were just inhumane. These were miserably innocent people who were suffering death of being burned or hit to death. The only way I can begin to understand the start of this act is confusion. The people of Germany and Poland jew or not were all confused and lost and the country was falling apart. I think all everyone wanted was the reassurance of power. People wanted to feel leadership take place. They wanted a leader that would show them the road out. This leader turned out to be Hitler. Hitler definitely had strong opinions and had an agenda he promised the people would be done.  Unfortunately for the Jews, this plan turned them the verdict. Jew were no longer welcome to the land. Hitler made sure they knew that, but through suffering. I think the only way people could do this to other people is lying to themselves that doing this act was best. They wanted to believe that their wants were being given, and that no matter morals, they were being lead and that’s all that mattered. On page 81, the guy in the informatory said to Wiesel’s father, “I have more faith in Hitler than anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” This quote struck me. But the more I think about it, I realize how true it is. All opinions aside, Hitler in the end was really the only one who went by his beliefs. I’m NOT saying what he did was right, but I think that if people Jew or not Jew in Germany had more faith in themselves, this wouldn’t have happened.  It just shows how fast people fall for things.

The holocaust definitely is a huge lesson to learn in life on so many levels. It really shows how discriminating people by religion or anything like that is just so insanely wrong and in the end, only makes you feel discriminated. That being said, it definitely had a big impact on Jewish people. At the end of the book, when the Americans came to evacuate the Jews from the concentration camps, Wiesel wrote that revenge was never thought of. It just shows how hard this leaves you, and really does make you think that you are less important or les powerful than someone else because of how someone may think of you. The SS really affected the few survivors and the rest of the generations to come whether what they did was right or wrong. this book just leaves me wondering if there is still awkwardness or strong feelings against each other in Germany and everywhere really. I cant imagine how a conflict like this could ever be resolved no matter time. Its just one of those timeless events, but I also think here is also ways to deal with it. Reflecting on the events and learning about it is defiantly so important in my opinion because I believe that an event like this must be known to teach a lesson and so realize how in the end, no one, no one, was satisfied.