Holocause Literature

A detailed Summary of Holocause Literature

Many of the survivors of the Holocaust went to writing literature as a way of telling what it was really like. Survivors used this way because it is extremely difficult to explain what happened by talking, so they use literature. Out of all of the Holocaust authors, Elie Wiesel is quite possibly the most well known Holocaust author of all time. Elie Wiesel, being a survivor of the Holocaust, uses his literature to tell his stories about what he went through. Elie Wiesel has written many novels on the Holocaust. Throughout his works he has used many of the same themes. In the novels Night, Dawn, and A Beggar in Jerusalem the same themes or ideas are repeated many times.

In the novel Night, the idea of loss of faith is used many times. Elie Wiesel used this theme because during the Holocaust, many of the victims lost faith in God. Confronting the Holocaust states, "One of the contradictory ideas in Wiesel's Night is: there is no God, I hate him. After Auschwitz God's presence is most strongly felt through his absence."(57) The victims had every right to believe that God was absent at this time. Many times in Night the characters would just flat out say how they did not believe in God anymore. "And in spite of myself, a p

rayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed." Wiesel used this example over and over in Night to emphasize how almost all Holocaust victims lost faith in their God. "Behind me, I heard the same man asking: 'Where is God now?' And I heard a voice within me answer him 'Where is He? He is- he is hanging here on this gallows." This shows how characters in the novel feel that their God has died right before them. Night had the most loss of faith because the novel takes place right in the heart of the Holocaust, so it is easy to see why Wiesel used loss of faith in this novel.

Dawn also uses darkness to represent evil. All throughout this book the nighttime and darkness are used to represent evil. But one of the characters in the book thought otherwise. "You mustn't be afraid of the dark, Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning."(4) This character thought the complete opposite of nighttime. Instead of evil, this character thought of it as a time of thinking and loving. But the opinion on the night changes. "The city was like a ghost ship, noiselessly swallowed up by the darkness. I looked out the window, where a shadowy face was taking shape out of the deep of the night."(5) This makes the mood of the story change to evil because of the darkness. The evil in this story also took place in the dark. "The execution was to take place, as executions always do, at dawn."(5) The execution taking place and dawn represents the killing taking place as soon as the sun is starting to come up; right at the end of the nighttime. This execution, like many other evil atrocities, all took place at this time in this novel.

In the three novels Night, Dawn, A Beggar in Jerusalem many of the same themes are repeated. The main ones stated before are God and loss of faith, love and relationship, and darkness and evil. Throughout many of Wiesel's works theses themes were used. Wiesel used his literature to tell his stories about what he went through during the Holocaust. This is how many of the Holocaust survivors told their stories about surviving the Holocaust.

Love and relationship played a role in Dawn also. One example of a relationship was a relationship between a man and a woman. " 'First Catherine, I must tell you...' 'No, no, no,' she replied 'Don't tell me. Be quiet. Take me quickly, but don't talk.' 'What I have to tell you is this,' I insisted 'You've won the game. I love you, Catherine...I love you.'"(53) Even though it was the time of the Holocaust, a young man still is able to love a girl. Another example is when one of the characters waits for a return. " 'Good luck', said Gad as he shook hands with us before we went away. 'I'll wait here for your return.'"(28) A man has a relationship with these people, and he will be waiting for them when they return. There were times that people lost friends and they would be extremely saddened. "I understood his bitterness; indeed I envied it. He was losing a friend, and it hurt. But when

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Approximate Word count = 2113
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History