Elie Wiesel’s Relationship with GOD

Before the Holocaust he had been one of the most devout Jewish children. Up until the end he waited for God’s intervention. When that intervention was not forthcoming, he began to doubt in God and in his mercy. He began to accuse God of cruelty against his people. After the torture was over, he had to reevaluate the role of God in his life. He could be forgiving of God and allow him another chance or he could take on the role of God to himself an

Others, like Wiesel, were given the burden of carrying the questions with them, never to be answered. At the hanging of the angel-faced boy, Wiesel had an answer, when someone asked, "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is He is hanging here on this gallows. That night the soup tasted of corpses." (Night, 62) This to me meant that his faith in God had wounded with the child who not only was hanged and murdered, but who took a half hour to finally die. "He struggled between life and death," and everyone had to watch. Elie could not accept that his God would allow this to happen especially to a child who suffered so much before he died.

It was not easy for Wiesel to doubt in God, or he would not have held on to his faith with such tenacity. But sooner or later, the seeming meaninglessness of the suffering his people endured had to burst into the consciousness of his seemingly indomitable Jewish faith. In the face of the crematory pit, Elie Wiesel noted, “for the first time I felt revolt rise up in me. 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?'' (Night, 31) He awoke to the idea that he was “alone-terribly alone in a world without God.'' (Night, 65) Lack of faith turned quickly to despair. If God wouldn't save His children, who would? No one believed the rumors of peace and safety. In the hospital at Auschwitz, Wiesel met a man consumed with this kind of despair. He said, “I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.'' (Night, 77) All around Wiesel, the numbers of faithful were dropping in other words people did not believe in faith anymore. As hard as they tried to hold on, people were finding it hard to believe in God and what God was allowing to happen.

The Holocaust presented a call to people everywhere to reevaluate the role of God in their lives. The pain and suffering that we know took place, is in dark contrast to what we would have thought possible in the presence of our God; and anyone who comes in contact with these horrors will be forever shaken in his present faith. Some have reacted with anger toward God, others with denial. Still others reacted with mistrust of all that God had meant before. We must continue to ask questions, continue to challenge God, until, one day, He Himself will give us the answer

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