Before the Holocaust Elie was a devout believer in God, the same as his fellow Jews. He saw God as one who protects as well as one who punishes. His faith provided comfort, safety, security as well as a form of identity, he accepted without question God's will. However Elie's life (as Night portrays) turned into a struggle to retain his faith in God, in himself, in humanity despite the disbelief, degradation and destruction of the concentration camp universe.
             In the first instance that Elie was showing signs of disbelief towards his faith was when he refused to recite the Kaddish (prayer of the dead) with his father and the other Jews of Sighet as they were approaching the crude fiery crematory pits. Nothing in Elie's religion had prepared him for the sight of children being burned in pits, the thought of being burnt alive was to agonizing for Elie who wanted to run into the electric wire.
             "For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me. Why should I bless his name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and terrible was silent. What had I to thank him for?" But as Elie was face to face with the Angel of Death, in spite of himself he whispered "Yitgadal veyitkadach shme raba" (May His Name be blessed and magnified) and two steps from the pit was ordered with his Father into a makeshift barracks.
             ""Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned
             my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.
             Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces
             of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath
             a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames, which consumed my
             faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived
             me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those
             moments, which murdered my God and my s
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