Elie Wiesel’s son: ‘My father sheltered me quite a bit from knowledge of the Shoah’ (2024)

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Is Elie Wiesel still alive? ›

Elie Wiesel (born September 30, 1928, Sighet, Romania—died July 2, 2016, New York, New York, U.S.) was a Romanian-born Jewish writer, whose works provide a sober yet passionate testament of the destruction of European Jewry during World War II. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986.

Elie Wiesel—in his own words: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.” “No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior.

Though Elie Wiesel is a deeply religious man — even when he argues with God or refuses to forgive him — Wiesel acts as if there were not God when he is asked to help. I think I understand why. He saw that God did not help his family and friends.

Elie will always miss his father, but he knew that something had to change if he wanted to survive. Being held captive in the concentration camps is a horrifying thing to go through and having to be responsible for others is very difficult.

Since the publication of Night, Wiesel has written more than 40 books. He became an American citizen in 1963. In 1969, Wiesel married Austrian-born writer and editor Marion Erster Rose, also a survivor of the Holocaust. His wife has edited and translated many of his works.

Family is something many people take advantage of, but Elie now understands that family is important because he lost his Mom and sister at an early age, his father died before he got to say goodbye, and when you lose family members, you have thoughts that there is no reason to do anything.

The central theme of this speech is Wiesel's claim that indifference is more dangerous than hatred. He sees indifference as a sin. He takes us back to the camps and brings us into the belief, shared with his fellow prisoners, that if only people knew what was happening they would intervene.

Elie Wiesel teaches readers many lessons, including bravery, determination and kindness. Within these qualities he teaches the reader how he displayed set traits. In the book Elie Wiesel teaches the readers to be brave. In the book Elie Wiesel goes through horrendous torture and witnesses things that are PTSD-inducing.

The Jewish author, philosopher and humanist Elie Wiesel made it his life's work to bear witness to the genocide committed by the Nazis during World War II. He was the world's leading spokesman on the Holocaust.

In truth, faith in God, I have never abandoned it. I affirm it, and I reaffirm it, for I feel the necessity [to do so.] I had to clarify this point before, I return to it. Even in the heart of the Kingdom of Night, I continued to pray.

What is Wiesel's relationship with God? ›

In Night, Wiesel's relationship with God experiences ups and downs, which ultimately changes his views about God. At the very beginning of the book, Wiesel shows his strong devotion to God but as he personally experiences the Holocaust, Wiesel becomes cynical of his religious beliefs.

Night's final line, in which Eliezer looks at himself in the mirror and sees a “corpse,” suggests that Eliezer's survival is a stroke of luck, a strange coincidence, no cause for rejoicing.

At dawn on January 29, Elie wakes and discovers that another invalid occupies his father's bunk. He assumes that his father has been taken to the crematory and recalls that his father's final word was "Eliezer." Too weary for tears, Elie realizes that death has liberated him from a doomed, irretrievable burden.

What happened to Elie's father? Elie's father died. He was very weak by the beginning of Chapter 8, then was beaten by other prisoners as well as one of the guards. Sometime before Elie woke up the morning after his father was beaten by the guard, Elie's father was taken to the crematorium.

Idek beat Elie's father with an iron bar because he was moving too slowly. Elie was angry, not at Idek, but at his father for not knowing how to avoid Idek's wrath. This was yet another way in which the Nazis dehumanized the Jews.

Wiesel says directly that religion did not sustain him, that the holocaust “murdered [his] God” (32). Indirectly, Wiesel makes clear that basic human survival instincts and devotion to his father kept him alive. His will to be with his father and his will to survive keep him alive at Auschwitz Wiesel's first residence.

Franklin writes that Night is the account of the 15-year-old Eliezer, a "semi-fictional construct", told by the 25-year-old Elie Wiesel.

Wiesel's literature is all of a piece with his life. His books, even the novels, are autobiographical.