Never Giving Up, No Matter What
Elie Wiesel keeping his values against unimaginable adversity
“Two men approached my father. I threw myself on his body. He was cold. I slapped him. I rubbed his hands crying: ‘Father! Father! Wake up they are going to throw you outside.” This excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s famous book, Night, is Elie’s recount of him fighting off gravediggers trying to bury his barely alive father. His story recounts the horrible things he experienced as a holocaust survivor.
At just a young age, Elie was forced to experience atrocities and human cruelty no one should ever have to endure. Despite the horrible things he faced, Elie remained strong and never gave up. He made it to liberation and began to write to make sure what happened to him, his family, and millions of others was not forgotten. The strength Elie showed and his work to make sure an event like the holocaust never happens again makes him a hero and someone worthy of admiration.
At the age of 15, Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz because they were Jewish. He was split up from his mother and never saw her again. Elie and his father then faced starvation and unimaginable cruelty for many years in several German concentration camps. Over and over again, Elie was pushed to the limit of what humans can endure but he never gave up and never gave up on his father. Typically, it is the father who looks out for and makes sacrifices for his son. Even though the Germans robbed Elie of his childhood, he sacrifices himself to care for his father. Many times through the story, Elie selflessly protects his aging father and shows great character.
When Elie was in the Buna concentration camp, one of the work leaders finds Elie has a gold tooth and tries to punish Elie into giving it to him. However, Elie is to strong and the leader knows it so he begins to beat Elie’s father. While Elie could face whatever was done to him, he could not bear to see his father beaten. Elie then removes his gold tooth with a rusty spoon to save his father from the beatings.
The treatment the prisoners received was enough to turn many of them into animals, but not Elie. He shows great character and never gives up on his humanity. The prisoners are forced on a 42-mile long march through the snowy German winter to another concentration camp. Elie’s fellow prisoners are dying all around him due to the cold. At this point, Elie’s father has become very weak and has trouble keeping up which slows Elie down. Another boy in a similar situation abandons his father to make the march easier on himself. When Elie sees this he is very troubled and prays for the strength to never leave his father behind like that young man did. Despite urges from the guards and fellow prisoners to give up on his dad, Elie stays with him to the very end.
When it appeared his father wouldn’t make it Elie stayed strong. Elie continued to care for him and gave him food that he could eat himself. In contrast, Elie watched another boy kill his father for a pice of bread. Even though his father did die Elie was always there to comfort him and would care for him when he had dysentery in his final days. Elie was a good son and would not betray his father like the other sons. By the end its almost as if their roles where reversed. Elie’s father could no longer care for himself and had become “childlike: weak, frightened, vulnerable” and Elie took it upon himself to care for him. This amazing strength and character makes Elie a true hero.
After years of abuse in the concentration camps, Elie’s body could not take it much longer and he became sick and dying. When allied forces were getting near the Germans retreated with their prisoners leaving only the very sick and dying ones behind. Elie was one of these prisoners and were saved by the Allied forces. After the countless atrocities Elie witnessed, it would be safe to say Elie fought more than enough for one lifetime, but for Elie the fight was not over. Elie wrote one of the most famous books about the holocaust, Night. His goal was not to make money or become famous, but to make sure his peoples genocide and his father were never forgotten. Elie tells us “because I remember I despair because I remember I have the duty to reject despair.” Elie has made his duty to be the voice of the millions that did not make it out of the camps. He has devoted his life to making sure that the atrocities of the holocaust are never forgotten and received a Nobel Prize for his efforts in 1986. Even After he got his Nobel Prize, he still continued the fight against racism and persecution. He was a leader for equality and never stopped being a voice for those who are oppressed and cannot speak for themselves.
The horrors Elie faced caused many to give up or become evil through desperation but not Elie. Through all that he faced he kept his faith, values, and character. From his entrance to the Auschwitz at the age of 15 until his death at the age of 87 he was a champion for the helpless and a “messenger to mankind” (Nobel committee).
Works Cited
“Elie Wiesel — Nobel Lecture.” Nobelprize.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2017.
“Elie Wiesel.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 July 2017. Web. 10 July 2017.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Marion Wiesel. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Print.
