In Elie Wiesel's 1960 masterpiece Night, the horrors of the Holocaust are depicted with shocking and heartbreaking detail by the author, providing an autobiographical account of his experiences in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. The camps themselves are shown to be very dehumanizing, and this is shown most horribly in the changing of the relationship between Eliezer and his father. The two cling to each other for moral and physical support, but Eliezer's own treatment of his father quickly changes after he becomes more aware of how selfish he has to become in order to survive the camps. Night shows a dramatically changed relationship between father and son, as the father starts to accept his fate and the son recognizes the things he has to do to stay alive himself.
When they are first taken to the camps, the destruction of the family unit begins, as Elizer notices his father starting to show signs of weakness "My father was crying. It was the first time I saw him cry. I had never thought it possible" (p. 19). It is here that Eliezer starts to realize that his father is just a man, and not a god; he cannot protect his son from the terrible things that wait for him in the concentration camps. Once they arrive, and they are separated from Elizer's mother and sister, his need for his father grows bigger: "My hand tightened its grip on my father. All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone" (p. 30). This shows the importance they still feel at keeping family together, and the son's need to draw strength from his father.
As their time in the concentration camps goes on, though, Eliezer and his father understand the hardships that they will go through, something which his father is extremely sad about. "'What a shame, a shame that you did not go with your mother I saw many children your age go with their mothers ' His voice was terribly sad. I understood that he did not wish to see what they would to do to me. He did not wish to see his only son go up in flames" (p. 33). Here, his father resigns himself to the knowledge that his son will either be killed by the camps, or he will be forced to lose his humanity in order to live through their horrors. What's more, the father will have to see it happen.
As time goes on, and the father starts to crumble under the pressure of the hard work of the camps, Eliezer starts to resent him for failing him - "if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn’t he have avoided Idek’s wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me" (p. 54). Here, we see that the hard life in the camps turns son against father; Elizer hates his father for not being able to keep up and putting his life in danger. The fact that he can stand the punishment more than his father angers him, since it means that he might have to go on without him. He is even tempted to abandon his father in order to survive; after seeing what happened to Rabbi Eliahu, whose son abandons him so that he can live longer, he prays, "Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done" (p. 91). Already, the son starts to separate from the father.
Once the father starts to grow ill, this becomes the biggest test of Eliezer's relationship with him; the question becomes whether or not to keep him alive. At one point Eliezer thinks his father is dead: "My father had huddled near me, draped in his blanket, shoulders laden with snowHe was not movingSuddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (p. 98). The thought of being without his father is completely horrifying to him, and even when they switch camps, he still is afraid of losing him: "I tightened my grip on my father's hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him" (p. 104). From this point on, his father's death is inevitable, but Eliezer is unwilling to accept it, and continues to cling to him in order to keep that strength flowing towards him.
This pressure to take care of his father starts to wear Elizer down and make him resent his father's continued existence, even wishing for his death at many desperate points: "a thought crept into my mind: If only I didn’t find him! If only I were relieved of this responsibility, I could use all my strength to fight for my own survival, to take care only of myself Instantly, I felt ashamed of myself forever" (p. 106). The concentration camp's difficulties tear Eliezer apart inside, as he hates himself for wanting to abandon his father to survive, but at the same time he cannot escape the reality of their situation. As a Kapo tells him, "In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone" (p. 110). This is the final straw that demonstrates just how much the evils of the concentration camp turn normal human values upside down. Because they have to see to their physical needs above all else, and there is little to go around, they do not have the luxury of family or friendship; they have to look after themselves and that is all. As this relates to Eliezer and his father, Eliezer finally realizes that he has to let go of his relationship to his father to survive.
In conclusion, as Eliezer's relationship with his father grows weaker and weaker, the author shows us the sadness of cutting off the love for our parents that sometimes needs to happen in order to survive in desperate situations. This is just one more horror the Holocaust inflicted on those who had to endure it; it literally turned people against each other, having to betray and abandon each other in order to look after themselves. It is a very ugly thing to think about, but Wiesel forces us to consider those experiences, as he had experienced them - the Holocaust takes away every value you have, including family. This shows the Holocaust as a unique atrocity that should not ever happen again.
References
Wiesel, E. (1982). Night. Bantam Books.
