In a recent interview Elie said, "I come from a small city somewhere in Eastern Europe. I come from a place where every Jew was drunk with God, those whose faith was burning as was burning the vision of the first Jew in history". As a young child Elie was eager to learn of religion, starting with the studies of the Cabbala, which his father thought he was too young to learn. Elie's father was also a religious man and many people in the community looked up to him. With a combination of home and school, Elie learned from an early age to have a belief in God.

"We had to go to school, so we went to school too, but I received the main impact from my religious schools as a child. We studied the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) and then, again, Talmud and Hasidic stories. At home we didn't study the prophets

that much. My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a teacher, but a teacher of Talmud" (inte

experiences Elie went through affected his life. Everything Elie believed in was shattered. He questioned religion and at his age these types of situations can have extreme effects on a person, such as how they perceive God when they get older.

Elie had a strong belief in God. What Elie is about to experience in the next few months of his life may change his whole belief in God?

Faith, Elie did anything but lose his faith after everything he went through. The Holocaust and all of the pain and suffering made his faith for God stronger. "During the war I think of the killer and I lose all faith. But then I think of the victim and I am inundated with compassion"(interview). Elie Wiesel is an example of true faith.

After the ten years of silence, a Jew called Mendes-France influenced Elie to speak. Mendes-France was a Catholic writer who was honest, had a sense of integrity, and he was in love with Jesus. He spoke only of Jesus.

Being taken from his home into a Nazi death camp made Elie emotionally unstable. It happened at such a young age and had more of an impact on him. "I was 15 when I entered the camp, I was 16 when I left it..."(interview). At such an influential age Elie felt confusion and at times he would feel revolt " 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" (31)? Everything that happened from the time he arrived at the death camps such as losing half his family and seeing his father being bea

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Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)