Identity

Friends and family “Men to the left women to the right. Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight short simple words. Yet that was the moment I parted form my mother” (Wiesel, 22). “ And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever” (Wiesel, 22).

possessions “ We had to throw our clothes at the end of the barracks. There was already a great heap there” (Wiesel, 26). In addition to taking away prisoners’ clothing, they also took their most prized possessions, such as; family heirlooms, photos, they took anything and everything from the Jews. After taking away the Jews’ clothes these were the uniforms all prisoners had to wear. These are just a few hundred out of the million articles of clothes found at Auschwitz

Beliefs Judaism is the belief that God is above all, Jesus is no their messiah, they are still waiting for him to come. “The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don’t die of it…” (Wiesel, 9). Jews were forced to wear the star of David ( a symbol of their religion) or be killed. Jews were killed because of their beliefs so the star of David did in fact indirectly kill them.

Beliefs “Where is God now? Where is He? Here He is- he is hanging here on this gallows” (Wiesel, 48). “There are a thousand and one gates into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human being has his own gate. We must never make the mistake of wanting to enter the orchard by any gate but our own. To do this is dangerous for the one who enters and for those who are already there” (Wiesel, 4). “Yes, man is very strong, greater than God…. But, these men here, whom You have betrayed, whom You have allowed to be tortured, butchered, gassed, burned, what do they do? They pray before You. They worship Your name” (Wiesel, 50). Elie goes into the concentration camp believing in God. But his will and faith are broken when he sees what is going on in the camps.

Appearance “I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes as they stared into mine has never left me” (Wiesel, 83). Elie had not seen himself in years, when he finally got to look at himself he thought he looked like a dead body.

Human “ … For the liberating army, so that they’ll realize there were men living here and not pigs. Were we men then?” (Wiesel, 62). “A-7713? That’s me” (Wiesel, 38) “Our first impression of the Germans were reassuring…The optimists rejoiced” (Wiesel, 8). The prisoners in these camps were still HUMAN even though they weren’t treated like it. They were forced to live like animals. They no longer had names, just numbers and Elie was at one time convinced he was not a man, he though he was an animal.

The Nazis took away everything the Jews had, family, friends, appearance, name, home, food, and religion. The stripped them of their identity, and their lives along the way.