Campbell- The Affect on the Individual

Elie Wiesel’s, Night, retells the story of a boy named Eliezer and how he dealt with his own morals and religion during the Jewish genocide. This book gives the Jewish perspective of the Holocaust being a cruel, merciless act of the Nazi’s. Eliezer struggled with his own faith because the acts of violence around him made him question God. If God is everywhere, then where is he when babies are hung, sons are killing fathers, man is killing fellow man? He saw two separate occasions where a son either abandoned his own father or killed him for food. With the genocide, Eliezer steps away from his faith and at one point falls into a pit of self-preservation just like everyone around him. He gave up on his faith and chose not to partake in any holidays because he needed to survive. He struggled with his morals of staying with his father and caring for him when in actuality, there was nothing Eliezer could do but be there. When the time came that his father needed him the most, Eliezer can do nothing. Once his father dies, Eliezer is relieved to be left alone and be unburdened with caring for his father.

The movie, Conspiracy, gives the Nazi perspective of what they called “The Jewish Problem.” While Wiesel’s book shows how genocide affected a boy, this movie shows how several men in positions of power handled hearing that the Jews needed to be gone. At the beginning, it seems like all everything is about is power and control, but as the meeting starts, it is clear that some of these men are highly uncomfortable with this meeting, almost showing that they did not want to partake in the mass killings of Jews. Dr. Stuckart actually made me laugh with a comment about how subhuman Jews are when; in fact, I believe that all those men were subhuman. They sat there and banged on the table like monkeys, but the Jews are subhuman to them? Each individual at the meeting reacted to the genocide as if it was necessary. There were the select few who did not agree with it, but for fear of being ousted, kept silent.

Individuals are affected by genocide in many ways. Fear and duty ruled over the political men in Conspiracy. Some felt that it was there duty to the Fuhrer to terminate the Jews, while others feared to let there true feelings be known. Eliezer was overcome with self-preservation and survival. He gave up on his religion, father, and finally his morals to survive even though he did not know what the future held.