Religion played a role throughout Elie Wiesel's life. It made him the man he would later become. His experiences throughout the Holocaust continually tested his faith in God. He often struggled with the problem of evil in the world and asked himself, “If God has all these aspects, how can evil exist in the world”? This essay will discuss Elijah's struggle with his religious beliefs before, during, and after the Holocaust. He will also describe how the problem of evil had a significant impact on his life and influenced his relationship with God. I argue that Elie Wiesel's personal encounters with evil during the Holocaust had a significant impact on his religious beliefs. This is evident in his life's transition from being a devout Jew to doubting God and then returning to his religious beliefs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Elie grew up in Romania with his three sisters until he was about fifteen. As a young boy, he was touched by the divine beliefs of his grandfather and grandmother, which inspired him to become more involved in religious studies. He often went to “pursue religious studies in a nearby yeshiva.” Yeshiva was the private Orthodox Jewish school he attended. “As a yeshiva student, Elie's primary focus was the in-depth textual study of a canon of ancient and medieval texts essential to Jewish life: the Torah and the Talmud.” Elie was very committed to his studies at this time. He studied Talmud all day and Kabbalah in the evening. Elie had no idea that all this would soon change. His faith in the Almighty would be tested by the horrible experiences he would experience. His life would never be the same again. One day, Elie's teacher (Moishe) was taken away by the Hungarian police with a group of other Jews. Many people in the town ignored the disappearance of these people. Upon Moishe's capture, he escaped and returned. He started knocking on every door and telling people what had happened to him. He told them that the soldiers had forced the Jews to dig their own graves. The soldiers lined up all the people right in front of the grave and shot them one by one. No one believed Moishe, they just continued to ignore reality. The Nazis hated the Jews, but everyone's judgment was clouded by their acts of kindness. Until the day when “the Hungarian police burst into all the Jewish homes in the city to demand that they return all their valuables, and they were forced to wear a yellow star.” Since then, everything has continued to change for Elie and his family. All the Jews had to pack their belongings and leave their town. The Hungarian police took everyone to Auschwitz. Once they arrived there, Elie and his father found themselves separated from his mother and his two sisters. Elie and his father quickly learned what Auschwitz was. It was a place where “men, women and children were burned and the world remained silent about it.” During their stay in Auschwitz, Elie and his father had to sleep in concrete bunkers. Even though Elijah and his father had to work in terrible conditions, his faith was not shaken immediately, or even quickly. The people around him took the evil as punishment for an unknown crime that the Jews as a people had committed before God.” Some people in the camp continually recited Kaddish. Elie even heard his father do it too. One day, Elijah got fed up with everything, he got angry and thought: “Why should I hallow his name? What was there to thank him for? The God of the universe did nothing during this horrible time. He remained silent. Elijah was angry with God, he didn't understand why this was happening. It was the first time he questioned his religious beliefs. They saw many people die during their stay in the camp. They saw many of them being whipped, hanged and shot. It became unbearable. Elijah began to rebel and blame God for everything that had happened. He was afraid and now knew what it was like to live in a world without God. “During the Day of Atonement, as a sign of rebellion, Elijah did not fast, but ate soup that had been given to him. He used it as "a symbol to protest against him". Before coming to Auschwitz, he participated this year because he was Jewish. It was very serious for him not to participate. In the camps, everyone had to participate in the death march for hours to the sound of the bell. Around six o'clock, during one of these marches, Elie was running alongside one of the men accompanied by his father. However, the man's father was unable to follow him and slowly began to disappear into the crowd. Elie saw this happen, it was almost as if the young man wanted to get rid of his father as if it was weighing him down. After the walk, the father went looking for his son. This encounter with these people began to change Elijah's perspective and way of thinking. He first thought that getting rid of his father might be a good thing, but then he realized that he shouldn't think that way, because his father raised him: "A prayer was formed in him, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed.” He prayed and asked God that he would never be like that. This wasn't the only time he faced the problem of evil. The days in the camps were always long and difficult. This caused deep concern in Elijah. He began to worry about his father. He had started to age a lot more since arriving at the camp. His father grew weak and became very ill. It got to the point where he couldn't move very well. The guards once thought he was dead. Elijah went every day to fetch food from his father and brought it to him. Some men in the camps were surprised by his actions. One of the men approached Elie and said, “Don’t forget that you are in a concentration camp. Here, it's every man for himself, and we can't think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no father, no brother, no friend. Each of us lives and dies.” Elie thought long and hard about this statement. He was almost convinced, he wondered why should I give his portions to my father when I could have them? This thought didn't last long and he soon realized it wasn't the right thing to do. He even felt guilty for thinking like that. The following days at camp were difficult. His father didn't want to eat soup anymore and just wanted water. He started yelling at Elijah. Unfortunately, an officer heard and got really angry. He began to hit Elie's father in the head with his club. His father kept yelling at him to come even though the strokes were getting harder each time, but he refused. He was afraid of the policeman who might hit him this time, so he stayed away. He watched from afar as his father lay lifeless on the ground. The next day, when Elie woke up, his father was gone. He is taken to the crematorium. Elie remained alone until April 11, 1945, until the camp was liberated. Afterwards “he was sent to France to study with a group of Jewish children orphaned by the Holocaust. There he was given the.