Imagine killing 11 million people, all because you thought they shouldn’t live! The Holocaust did just that. The Holocaust was a genocide of 11 million Jews. It lasted over serval years. It was one of the worst events in human history. The Jews, during the Holocaust, went through great pain to survive. Elie Wiesel survived because of his love for his family, his and other people's humanity, and his health and appearance.
Helping each other had a great deal, when it came to survival the Holocaust. The Holocaust selection were a one-way trip to death. Meaning if you didn’t look good and well, you might all well be jumping into a pit of fire. In the novel it states that before the selection happen, someone had said: “Before you go into the nest room, try to move your limbs, give yourself some color. Don’t walk slowly, run!”. They had to act tougher in front of the soldiers during the sections not to be weak and not to get killed.
Elie Wiesel had so much love for his father and kept on telling himself he had to survive because his father could not live without him. He knew his father was weak and he could not live without the help and love from his son. “‘Come, Father. It’s better there. You’ll be able to lie down there. We’ll take turns. I’ll watch over you and you’ll watch over me. We won’t let each other fall asleep. We’ll look after each other’” (pg.89). Elie and his father were running for endless miles through the dark and freezing night. If someone fell asleep, there was a good chance they would never wake up again. Elie was protecting his dad when he said they should look after each other. He couldn’t let his father die, so he made himself stay alive to help his father. Furthermore, Elie comforts his dad while he is crying: “‘The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…’. His voice broke. ‘Father’, I said. ‘If that is true, then I don't want to wait. I'll run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in the flames’. He didn't answer. He was weeping. His body was shaking” (pg.33).
Although it’s almost impossible to survive the Holocaust, love for his family, humanity, and his health and appearance helped Elie Wiesel survive the Holocaust. All of these things contributed greatly to Elie’s survival. His experience as a prisoner of the Holocaust is beyond anything we can imagine. Elie did come out of the experience without any living family members and even got food poisoning three weeks after he was liberated. Elie came out a stronger person as well, and even wrote this book about his Holocaust experience.