Hardships Result In Loss of Belief in a Loving God

Certain experiences change people’s lives and difficult situations often result in loss. In some circumstances people lose their “beliefs” and once it is lost, it cannot be restored. Throughout the story “Night” -Elie Wiesel, it is quite obvious that life in the death camps altered not only the characters’ physical freedom or health, but completely challenged their optimism and faith in God. A rabbi and Akibu Drumer lost their faith in God; Struggle of the inmates to remain faithful even after witnessing shocking events. Elie disgusted with the horrible sites that he sees resulting in his loss of faith in god. All of these acts of cruelty had led the characters to lose their belief in a loving god. They questioned to themselves and others if god really existed. Often hardships faced by the characters result in loss such as hope or identity, or their loss might be physical or material, but the main loss in this play was their loss of beliefs in a loving God.

Jewish slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentrat...

English: Writer and political activist Elie Wiesel...

Night

When turned up with the rough times even the people who are religious and have devoted their lives to God, start losing their belief if god really exists. A rabbi who really believed in God had started losing his faith in Him. “It’s over. God is no longer with us.” The rabbi had started questioning the presence of Him among the people suffering all these difficulties. Akibu Drumer another prisoner had lost his faith during the days of selection and it had cost him his life. “I can’t go on… It’s over….” He had just did not want to carry on with his life where he had no hope realizing that the God he loves and worships has deserted the Jewish people, he loses his belief in a loving God.

The inmates’ struggle to remain faithful to a loving and omnipresent God is best depicted in a brutal scene towards the end of the book when a child whom Elie described as a “sad-eyed angel” was sent to the gallows for crimes he committed when acting as a servant to an Oberkapo. The prisoners were forced to watch the execution and weep at the sight. They watched the boy struggle for half an hour after being hung dying slow in agony. A man repeatedly kept on asking “For God’s sake, where is God?” here the man has lost his belief in a loving God, because if God really loved them He would not let a boy die like that. The inmates found it hard to continue to believe in God after seeing such scenes. Elie is surrounded by death and brutality, and these were unfortunately not the worse scenes that Elie has witnessed. His belief was constantly being challenged.

Wiesel was agitated during Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the last day of that “cursed year.” It was the service on the eve of Rosh Hashanah that best showed the conflict of faith that Elie Wiesel was feeling. Amongst tortured yet praying men, Elie is angry “What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe...” Why do You go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?” Throughout this scene Elie asked God why did He remain silent and let these poor men suffer when their bodies were crippled. Elie held Him responsible for abandoning all Jews. He reminisces how Adam and Eve, Noah and Sodom had all betrayed God and aggravated Him. But Elie looks out at those men whom He has betrayed whom He has left to be tortured, suffer, butchered, burned, what do they do? “They pray before you! They praise Your name!” Elie asked God that Adam and Eve, Noah and Sodom they all betrayed him, thus he punished them. But these men, who prayed Him, praised His name why were they left to be burned and tortured. God’s silence at such horrible scene had resulted in Wiesel’s loss of belief in a loving God.

The brutal events that Elie Wiesel witnessed during the Holocaust challenged his faith immensely. His faith was challenged in every moment of every day. The inmates had lost their belief in a loving God when they were forced to witness cruel sites. Rabbi and Akibu Drumer lost his faith due to the harsh circumstances he faced. Akibu Drumer also lost his life because he did not have faith in God during the days of selections. Loss of belief in a loving God resulted because of the hardships endured by the characters. When life is challenged with difficult situations, humans tend to lose their faith in God; they also lose their courage, hope, identity and basically struggle to overcome the adversity.

References: "Night" by Elie Wiesel

Childhood home of Elie Wiesel, in Sighet, Romania ...

The main Sighet ghetto in May 1944 after the depor...

Elie Wiesel aged 15, late 1943 or early 1944