Rumors of Hope and Starvation

Throughout Night, we see displays of evil and hatred toward people who were accused of not being German citizens due to the fact they practiced a certain religion or did not meet the standards to earn citizenship in Germany. The way Elie Wiesel describes the ways of how the SS soldiers treated the Jewish people they captured shows they wanted to break their spirit and destroy their hope. "We took turns strolling through the warehouse, in the hope of finding something, a piece of bread perhaps, that a civilian might have forgotten there."(56) They starved them, made them work incredibly hard under terrible conditions, and pushed them to the point of exhaustion, and sometimes, death. Unfortunately, this strategy worked because if the Germans saw that some of the Jewish prisoners were not strong enough to do their bidding, then they would hold a selection and send those poor people who could not work to Birkenau to burn in its terrible "chimneys". Although these people lost hope, there were times when it was able to crawl back to them. During one part of the book, there was an air raid upon the camp. Elie Wiesel said "Every bomb that hit filled us with joy, gave us renewed confidence."(60) The second time was when their rumors had come to life. " 'When'? 'Tomorrow'. 'Maybe the Russians will come..."(81). The Russians were very close to the camp and it was rumored they would try to liberate them in a matter of hours. So although at times the prisoners lost their faith and hope, it would be restored by the Allies or other miracles that would befall them.