The Loss of Elie's Father

     In chapter 8 of Night, we experience the difficulties that Elie is having with his father. Elie's father is getting weaker day by day, and he has lost his will and fight to live. When Elie's father wants to rest and sit down, Elie becomes frustrated with his father and tells him to get up as he will get killed if does so. Elie sacrifices so much to try and take care of his father. He tries to give his father hope and care for him through the whole way. He is dedicated to his father and always tries to be by his father's side. Elie's father is the reason why Elie still has the will to live, Elie has to care for his father. However, as Elie's father becomes weaker and loses more will to live, Elie becomes frustrated with his father. Elie tries his best to keep his father alive, but despite the effort, hard work, and sacrifice he puts in to try and help and take care of his father, Elie's father is too tired and weakened to go on. Death has taken over his father, and in the chapter, Elie mentions how it seems as if he is talking to death instead of talking to his father. Elie is getting to the point of where thoughts about his father being a nuisance to his survival is coming into his head. However, he tries to block out these thoughts. After working hard to try and keep his father alive, Elie's father unfortunately becomes too weak to even take care of himself anymore and is taken to the crematory. Elie father's last word was Elie's name, and Elie says at the end of the chapter that he could not weep as he was out of tears, and deep inside of him, he felt as if he was finally free from taking care of his father. 

     This is probably one of the hardest things that Elie had to go through during the Holocaust. Even though there were lethal beatings, being overworked, having a lack of sleep, being malnourished and starved, and more, in my opinion, this may have been one of the hardest things Elie had to experience during his time in the Holocaust. After the passing of his father, Elie must have felt so much guilt and blamed himself for the death of his father. He was the one who made the choice to be transported to another concentration camp, he was the one who took care of his father, he was the one who had thoughts that his father may be a nuisance to his survival, and he was the only one who his father had. With this, after knowing that his father was taken to the crematory one morning, I can't imagine how much guilt, sadness, and frustration he must have gone through. Elie even mentioned at the end of the chapter that when his father called out to him, he didn't answer. Elie worked so hard and sacrificed so much to try and keep his father, however, after his father was taken to the crematories, Elie must have felt like he didn't do enough to try and save his father. He must have blamed himself so much on his father's death, and I would too if I was in the same situation as him. He was told multiple times by the doctors, Blockalteste, and even his own father that he can't do much to try and save his father anymore. If only Elie decided to stay in the infirmary, Elie and his father would have both been survivors of the Holocaust. However, now that his father is gone, Elie also feels a sense of being free as now, he can focus on his survival only. Like the Blockalteste told Elie, this is a concentration camp, a place where a man only cares about his own survival and not about others no matter what.