Elie Wiesel had written a personal narrative, "And the World Remained Silent," ten years after he had been liberated, coming to almost one thousand pages. No one would publish the horrifying story, it was perceived as too much of a depressing subject. Wiesel compacted the fearful journey between 1944 and 1945, into one hundred pages. This version is presented as a remembrance of the interminable, unreal disgusting actions that occurred during the Holocaust. With the usage of details and metaphors, Wiesel presents the animal like figures and how they are depicted to a primary level. Wiesel had to witness his father be mauled with his very own eyes, not even feeling emotion of what was happening. He also had to see a Rabbi loose his son, knowing his son abandoned his own father purposely to be free, without a weight holding him back. To create an image for the reader, Wiesel's use of father and son motifs demonstrate how effectively the Nazis tormented their victim's sense of morality. .
I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eye lid. I had looked on and said nothing. Yesterday, I should have sunk my nails into the criminal's flesh. Had I changed so much, then? So quickly? Now remorse began to gnaw at me. I thought only: I shall never forgive them for that. My father must have guessed my feelings. He whispered in my ear, "It doesn't hurt" (37). Wiesel and his father have now been placed into a concentration camp in Auschwitz. When Wiesel's father asked a gypsy politely in German, where the lavatories were located, he was beaten. It is obvious that the characters' moralities have been abused considering his father being tortured did not affect his emotions or even force him to flinch. Wiesel's decision to recall he had "not flickered an eye lid" and "looked on and said nothing" above such horror disturbs the reader as Wiesel himself.
