Night
By: Elie Wiesel
The Holocaust is not widely talked about or taught thoroughly in schools. In some ways it seems like it was just an event that had occurred and now we are long ways away from that ever happening again. I do not agree with the statement above but sadly that is the way is it treated. I remember my sophomore year in high school we watched the movie The Pianist. We watched the movie one class and the next talked about the movie and the Holocaust itself, then after that class we moved on to the next event that occurred in history. I am one of those people that only know the Holocaust as an event. After reading Night I really wish that in my earlier years of high school we had learned more on the Holocaust. I most definitely plan to try and learn more about the Holocaust and read some other works by Elie Wiesel.
The aspect of Elie’s life that stood out to me was his dedication to his father. In the first part of the book Elie explains how his father was more involved with activities outside of the home than inside of the home, “was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (Wiesel, 4). So, I find it astonishing that when Elie and his family were forced into concentration camps, that he did whatever he could to stick with his father. At first I was surprised Elie wanted to stick with his father figuring he spent most of his time worrying about others than his own family. The saying blood runs thicker than water is so true for this novel. There were three accounts when Elie had witnessed other men selflessly mistreat their fathers. The first account occurs with the pipel, “a boy of thirteen, beat his father for not making his bed properly” (Wiesel, 63). Then was the occurrence of the rabbi’s son leaving his father behind. “He had seen him. And he continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater” (Wiesel, 91). Lastly, was on the train; one son was so stricken of hunger he killed his father for food. “Meir, my little Meir! Don’t you recognize me…You’re killing your father…I have bread…for you too…for you too” (Wiesel, 101). The part that captured my heart the most was that no matter what Elie never gave up on his father. Even when Elie knew deep down it was all over for his father, he continued to push his father to fight and not give up. Another aspect that stood out to me was that Elie had the strength and courage to even write this book. It is obvious by the size of the book a lot of his story was left out, but it was enough to share what he went through.
The ideology that I agreed with was religion throughout this whole book. The Jewish stuck to their payers and faith no matter what. When Elie and his father first arrived to the concentration camp and were being sorted to either be killed or got to work Elie’s father recited a Kaddish prayer. “Yisgadal, veyiskkadash, shmey raba…May his name be celebrated and sanctified” (Wiesel, 33). One person in the same concentration camp as Elie and his father would tell people, “of the end of the world and the coming of the Messiah” (Wiesel, 45). Even though conditions were terrible some found the strength to still take part in Rosh Hashanah. “Yom Kippur. The Day Of Atonement. Should we fast? …We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises” (Wiesel, 69). It is said throughout their time in the concentration camp they barely ate, so for these men to have the strength to still fast because it was the right thing to do is so powerful to me. One thing that I didn’t necessarily agree with was at the beginning of the book Elie asked his father to find him someone who could teach him about Kabbalah and his father did not agree with Elie wanting to learn Kabbalah. Another ideology I agree with and disagree with was with Elie losing his faith in God. I can never fully understand the pain and hardships he went through but him giving up his faith during that I do not think he should have. I do understand where he is coming from far is God is supposed to be the protector and deliverer from suffering, but where was he when all mistreatment was occurring. The main ideology this book is based off of is one that I am sure no one agrees with, but is the inhumane treatment of the Jewish people. I mentioned earlier I saw the film The Pianist and the scenes depicted throughout the entire movie were hard to watch. I praise Elie for just giving us what I feel is the clean story of what had happened to him and his family. I feel he did this in part probably it was too painful to retell detail for detail. But, the story did just regardless.
Elie’s life is a testimony of leadership because through it all he never gave up. He put his father’s needs before his own. At the beginning when the Jews were starting to be taken away, Elie and his sisters took on the responsibility to get water for those who needed it. Throughout the book there was examples of Elie doing what he could to stay with his father, but the most touching was when his father was nearing death. “I tried to tell him that it was not over yet, that we would be going home together…For a ration of bread I was able to exchange cots to be next to my father” (Wiesel, 108). Elie’s life is also a testimony because he was able to come out with his story, when others could not. In the preface this part made me feel that he wanted to write his story not in order to get rich, but to get off a burden he has lived with for a very long time:
“There are those who tell that I survived in order to write this text.
I am not convinced. I don’t know how I survived; I was weak,
rather shy; I did nothing to save myself. A miracle? Certainly not.
If heaven could or would perform a miracle for me, why not for
others more deserving than myself? It was nothing more than
chance” (Wiesel, viii)
The main thing that influenced Elie as a leader is the things he went through and is now telling his story about it. Elie is the voice for those who were killed, those who have recently passed, and those that are still living. I feel that one family was one of the most cultural influences on him. Through his story he tells of how the men would be the providers and the women that caretakers. The children were left to either help the mother or to study. From dictionary.com the Talmud is the primary source of Jewish religious law, consisting of the Mishnah and Gemara. In the beginning of Elie’s story, he says, “I continued to devote myself to my studies, Talmud during the day and Kabbalah at night” (Wiesel, 8). Elie and many other Jews believed in their faith and still practiced it despite what they were going through. Until the times got to be unbearable, Elie gave up on his faith and questioned the very being of why he believed and why them. In his Nobel Peace Prize speech he states, “Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe. It would be unnatural for me to not make Jewish priorities my own. Apartheid is, in my view, as abhorrent as anti-Semitism” (Wiesel, 118-119). Elie wrote this book to show that no matter what your skin color, race or religion no one should ever have to be treated like they are nothing.
I really enjoyed this...I wanted you to explain the part about the Kabbalah--what exactly about it bothered you? Just interested in hearing your thought process. Here are some other comments that I shared with your classmates about the book...many of your thoughts resonate with my comments:
ReplyDeleteElie Wiesel teaches us many important lessons about leadership: (1) Leaders are not just the grand figures but also the everyday people that possessed the sheer will to survive. The ways in which the Jewish survived the Holocaust, enslaved Africans survived the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Indigenous Americans survived the genocide committed on them…to truly understand how difficult it is to keep living when you know the next day is going to be torture…that takes serious spirit and resilience for life. When you think about these stories it makes creating change in our current world seem like a piece of cake–how dare we be cynical. (2) He also teaches the importance of remembering and telling the story. He talks often about how he feels that to not tell the story is to trample on the spirit of those that died one more time…we at least owe them the act of remembering. So cultural leadership is about being brave enough to make people remember things that are not so easy to hear, its about living with your eyes open to the ways oppression continues to manifest itself in our world. Too often people are sleep walking through life…strolling through life as if they are in a day dream not realizing that they are inside of a nightmare. We can never forget what people are capable of and we must commit to actively working to address the misery that many people are living in today.
When reading books like this and determining what they teach us about leadership consider the NEW things that it teaches you as opposed to the ways that the person meets traditional ideas about what leadership is. One of the major things about the concept of cultural leadership is that those things that we never would consider to be acts of leadership can be–like the ability to simply survive.