Elie Wiesels Night
Fate plays a huge role in Wiesel's survival, as the death of hisparents and sister clearly illustrate. Wiesel struggled to survive, andlearned how to play the game of survival with the Germans, by working hardin the electrical warehouse, and outsmarting them when they send him backto the camp from work. The deaths of others create a stunning lack of willto live in the boy, and he survived not because of his determination, butalso simply because of fate. He and his family did not reach Auschwitzuntil 1944, and when he finally lost his father and the will to live,shortly after, the camp was liberated. His determination helped himthrough the worst times, but fate, and the combination of occurrences thatkept him alive while others died, certainly had a major hand in hissurvival. After his father died, he certainly could have died too, andperhaps, if the war had lasted much longer, he would not have been able totell his story. However, fate intervened, and his story is now Human agency plays little role in the horrors of the Holocaust,because most of the world refused to believe what was happening to the Jewsthroughout Europe, and the people themselves refused to listen t
If the United States had joinedearlier, perhaps the fighting would not have lasted so long, and fewer Jewswould have perished. Wiesel's (and others like him) writing is a key foundation indeveloping a historical understanding of the Holocaust. He never forgot his experience,and so, he was able to share it in graphic detail when he wrote this book. Neutrality in any form did not help the Jews, andthose who stood by passively contributed to deaths in the camps. As Wiesel's father bitterlynotes, "'Humanity' Humanity is not concerned with us. If anything positive came out of Wiesel's experience at Auschwitz, itwas his writing, and his ability to convey his terrible story to others. Others need to know just what survival was like, to make sure somethinglike the Holocaust never happens again, but unfortunately, genocide stillkeeps happening, and the lessons survivors like Wiesel have taught simplydo not seem to be lasting. This is perhaps the strongest and most valuable lessonthat he took with him after the Holocaust. In addition, the Germans whoparticipated could have revolted or refused had they done so en masse, butthey did not. Wemay want to believe in the goodness of humankind, but situations such asthe Holocaust prove that humankind is as capable of evil as it is of good. The underlying motive ofthe Holocaust was the extinction of a race to rise up a master race, butunderlying that was a motive of cruelty and inhumanity that is unmatched inhistory. Wiesel writes, "Iwas the accuser, God the accused. Anything is possible, even these crematories. Effectively, the world turned its back on the plight ofthe Jews during World War II, and afterwards, there was a huge outcry.
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,
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Acceptance Essays
