Jonathan

7-1 LA ADV
16 May 2016
Comparing The Hiding Place and Excerpts From Night
The list of horrifying periods in history must indeed include the Nazi invasion and
persecution of Jews during World War I, known then as the Great War. It lasts from around the
end of 1939 to the beginning of 1945, spanning over a period of over five years. In addition, it is
not localized in one particular area of Europe, but damages a widespread territory. Both Corrie
ten Boom, who lives in Holland, and Eliezer Wiesel, who lives in Romania, go through hard and
terrifying experiences during this time. Although their accounts of their lives themselves differ
greatly from each other, both discuss certain topics that are relatively similar. Three main aspects
discussed in both HP and Night are religion before and after the invasion, the writers actions
during the invasion, and their experiences in the prison camps.
The first of these general similarities is the topic of religion. One of the most easily
recognizable differences between the two is that Corrie is Christian and Wiesel is Jewish. This
causes them to have completely different religious backgrounds in the first place. However,
Corrie, apparently, has stronger of faith than Wiesel. She keeps her Christian faith throughout the
trials of the invasion and the atrocities of the prison camp. Wiesel, on the other hand, eventually
loses faith when his father is dying. Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the
sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray (Wiesel).
This shows how much he feels that God is no longer with him or any of the Jewish people, for
that matter. When Wiesel is released from another concentration camp a little over five years
later, he has lost all sense of religion, and holds no beliefs whatsoever. He later goes so far as to

state at the end of the introduction to Night that one of his main purposes for writing the book is
to show this degradation of faith and religious change. But when Corrie is released, she decided
that the best thing for her to do is to go back to the liberated prison camps in Germany and help
set things right again. When she sees a former prison guard at one of the church services, she
prays to God: Lord Jesus forgive me and help me to forgive him (Ten Boom 247). God
empowers her to do this, and she starts over by helping to transform the barracks into clean
and violence-free workplaces for the unemployed. Because Wiesel is only a teenager at the
time he is captured, he most likely has considerably less religious understanding than Corrie
(who was then over 50.) This may account for his loss of faith.
Another common aspect of both works is the discussion of both Corries and Wiesels
actions during the German invasion. Not much is said about what Wiesel and his father do before
they are captured besides practicing their Jewish faith. From this, it can be determined that they
never have a chance to go into hiding and are probably found and captured quickly. Corrie,
however, discusses her life at that time a great deal. She is not a Jew in hiding she is a Christian
hiding Jews, which is uncannily strange at the time because of the scarce relations between the
two people groups. Pickwick, a good friend of hers, leads her to seek the help of an architect in
the Holland Underground. The architect builds a secret room in Corries room in the Beje, which
Corrie then uses to help protect a significant number of Jews for multiple years. Not only this,
but others also provides stolen ration cards, and an alarm system to warn those there of danger.
Even after she has been captured and has remained in the camp for a while, she receives a letter
from one of her released family members almost all of the Jews have safely escaped. Through
all this, she manages to help keep several Jews safe for most of the occupation and keep herself
and her family alive as well.

The final point to be discussed is the two individuals experiences in the prison camps.
Both are transported to multiple different locations at least once during the occupation. They
experience many of the same horrors the terrible conditions of the barracks, the death of of one
or more of their family members, the length of their imprisonment and also what Corrie calls
the temptation to think only of oneself (224). This is basically a form of the mentality of every
man for himself. When Betsies symptoms of anemia are beginning to worsen because of the
terrible living conditions in the prison cell, Corrie only wants for Betsie to have the medicine she
has with her, and tries to keep it away from everyone else. It may be that she is not keeping it for
herself, but it still represents a form of selfishness. Wiesel has the same problem his father is on
his deathbed, calling for him, but he secretly [wants] to feed himself before feeding his father
(Wiesel). He later resents himself for feeling this way, and seems to wish he could go back and
be there for his father. However, Wiesel sees a somewhat darker side of the camps he goes to.
After seeing the crematory and seeing Jewish children burned, he is scarred for the rest of his
life, and never forgets what he has seen. But both were freed from their respective camps in the
early period of 1945. So, in other words, both have relatively similar experiences during their
imprisonment.
The three main points of discussion in HP and Night are the writers religion and/or
changes in religion, what they do during the invasion, and what their sentences in the prison
camps were like. For the most part, their actual stories differ greatly but the themes in their
books are startlingly similar. Their legacies are those of individuals who experienced the drastic
invasions so many years ago and have lived to tell about it today. Corrie travelled around the
world, telling about her life story, inspiring and impacting fellow Christians until her death in
2003, having a movie published and writing several books (Hiding Place included). Eliezer also

had his book published in later years. Through these, they have become two of the most
important people in shaping the way people think about World War I today.