Night2

When Elie arrives at Birkenau, the reader sees the first evidence of his loss of faith as he questions God during the selection process. Eventually when his father is stricken with Illness he grows weary of constantly taking care of him. He states, “Any anger I felt at the moment was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. ”(101) When his father eventually did die, it was due to a blow on the head by an officer and the last words were that of Elie’s name as he called him for water. One day as he and his father are loading diesel engines into a train, one of the guards strikes out at his father. Unlike many of the other Jews who criticize Elie, he does not abandon his father to fend for himself. The final moment, where he renounces all belief in the existence of God comes at the funeral of three Jewish males who were hung the day before, one of which was merely a child so light in weight that he hung struggling for nearly an hour before he died. Having lost his entire family to the aftermath of the Holocaust, one can only hope that the world can learn from the Jewish people's suffering and prevent history from repeating itself. When he is beaten for not being able to march properly in rank, Elie spends time inside the blocks teaching him how to properly march in place. ”(4) Thus right away the reader is exposed a loss of religious faith in Moshe, the same loss that will soon plague Elie. With the loss of his religion, Elie’s only will to survive lies solely in the love for his father and hope, a hope that some day he will see an end to the nightmare of concentration camp life forever. ”(32)

Each day at the German concentration camp further and further deteriorates Elie’s belief in God.