Eli Wiesel was a young man, who during four years, underwent a dramatic change in his religious beliefs. In 1941, at the age of twelve, he could not learn enough about the Jewish faith. Yet, by 1945 when he was liberated from Buchenwald, he questioned the fact of whether or not there actually was a God. He studied the cabbala with Mosh the Beadle. At this time Eli was very religious and he would pray every day. Then his family was moved from the ghetto to Auschwitz where, when he stepped off of the train and saw the flames from the crematory, he began to wonder if and where is God. After he witnessed the hanging of the sad-eyed angel he was sure that it was God that was being hanged.
Eli, against his fathers word, studied the cabbala as a young man at twelve. He did this with the help of Mosh the Beadle who was a foreign Jew. At this time Eli was very religious and would do anything to read and study the cabbala. He loved to talk to Mosh the Beadle about the Jewish religion and did this whenever he had a chance to. After Mosh was expelled from Sighet because he was a foreign Jew, was shot in the leg, returned to Sighet, and stopped talking about the Jewish religion, Eli still believed and worshiped God.
Then Eli and his family, along with a lot of other Jews, were loaded onto a cattle car on a train and were sent to Auschwitz where when Eli stepped off of the train and he saw the flames from the crematories he asked himself where was God. Eli was undecided at this point if there even was a God. He wondered if he had been studying the truth about the Jewish religion of if he had been studying stories that someone had made up.
After Eli and his father had been sent to Buna, a work camp, he still prayed sometimes and believed in God a little bit until he witnessed the hanging of the sad-eyed angle that everyone loved. This little boy was so nice to everyone and never told the guards anything that would cause them to hurt a prisoner. This little boy was hanged for possessing and stealing arms. It was impossible for a little angle like him to do anything like that, yet still they hanged him. Since he was so small, when they removed the chair from underneath his feet his body weight did not snap his neck. So he hanged there until he suffocated to death. This took quite some time and everyone, including Eli, had to watch the little boy until he was dead. This was when, after hearing a man behind him say, "Where is God?", Eli within himself replied "Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows. . ." It was at the place of assembly on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the last day of the year, while everyone was praying when Eli finally said, "This day I had ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone—terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy. I had ceased to be anything but ashes, yet I felt myself to be stronger than the Almighty, to whom my life had been tied for so long. I stood amid that praying congregation, observing it like a stranger."
Eli didn’t believe anymore. He went from a very religious young man to a young man in a Godless world where he was by himself. Eli felt that he himself was stronger than God the Almighty. He no longer believed in what he had studied and learned his entire life. It was almost like he was lifeless in a world with God. Eli was no longer a devout Jew.