“Night” by Elie Wiesel Essay

Have you ever been separated from your family? What if living wasn’t guaranteed? The holocaust killed over eleven million people. The purpose of the holocaust was to eliminate the entire Jewish race. In Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie and his family were separated. Elie was forced to take care of his father while his mother and sister were killed. The Jews’ freedom, identity, and sense of hope were taken from them to make the Jews feel less than human. Is freedom really free? In Night, they lost their freedom when the Germans made a new edict that stated, â€Å"All Jews are prohibited from leaving their house for three days under penalty of death (page 10). † Also, the Germans stated that, â€Å"From this moment on, you [Jews] are under the authority of the German Army (pages 23-24)†. Without the Jews’ freedom they couldn’t fight back. With that in mind, the Germans took away the Jews’ sense of hope as well. In order to do this, however, the Germans practically starved all the Jews to death; â€Å"At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup and crust of stale bread (page 52). † The Germans also killed most of the Jews for little things like backtalk, taking an extra ration of food, or pilfering from the kitchen. To make the Jews feel less than human, the Germans took away their identities. They did this by taking away their name and referring to them as only a number. They even tattooed that number onto their skin. This was so the Jews would not forget that the Germans were of more value then they were, and that Germans were worth more than just a number and worth more then Jewish people in general. Another way was by placing them all in one type of surrounding (concentration camps). Also by forcing them all to wear a yellow star to show the world that they were â€Å"Jews†. By doing that they were hoping to eventually break them down and make them feel ashamed for being Jewish. This is what the Jewish people went through, and the hardships every single Jew must go through to, hopefully, see the sun tomorrow. Freedom is of no use anymore. Identity has vanished into thin air. The Jews’ sense of hope turned into ashes along with them. If you were there, in Elie’s shoes, would you want to keep on living?