being advanced, perhaps, that Eliezer, at his core, still maintains a kind of belief in God.Wiesel also mentions the existence of God in Dawn when Elisha thinks to himself, saying, “And God? He was present, somewhere. Perhaps He was incarnate in the liking with which John Dawson inspired me. The lack of hate between executioner and victim, perhaps this was God.”(190) Yet, this theme is merely built upon the underlying theme intended by Dawn: stopping violence with violence and hate with hate. Elisha at one point says, “now our only chance lies in hating you, in learning the necessity of the art of hate.” Elisha is faced with a duty which invokes him to question whether hate returned with hate can bring peace. He is torn between playing the role of a passive sufferer or a violent activist. “Where is God to be found? In suffering or rebellion? When is a man most truly a man? When he submits or when he refuses?” Yet, despite the fact that Elisha does execute the enemy, Wiesel still ultimately seems to be saying that hatred must be fought. He shows that amidst two hate-driven enemies, commonalties can lead to compassion and understanding that conquers all else.Wiesel is able to eloquently write about these events with understanding and engaging questioning due to the fact that they are based upon his own experiences. Born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a small town in Transylvanian Hungary, Wiesel was brought up in a family highly observant of Jewish tradition. His father, Shlomo, a shopkeeper, was very much involved with the Jewish community. As a child and teenager, Wiesel distinguished himself in the study of traditional Jewish texts: the Torah, the Talmud , and even-unusual for someone so young-the mystical texts of the Cabbala.Until 1944, the Jews of Hungary were relatively unaffected by the catastrophe that was destroying the Jewish communities of Europe. The leader of the National Socialist part...
