EXISTENTIALISM IN AUSCHWITZ. THE PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF ELIE WIESEL'S 'NIGHT' (Egzystencjalizm w Auschwitz. Filozoficzne implikacje 'Nocy' Elie'go Wiesela)

The Holocaust has been the greatest and most intense source of suffering for the Jewish nation in its whole history. This suffering influenced post-war thought and changed the attitudes towards Man and God, Good and Evil. That is why, it seems, modern philosophical thought should be continuously concerned with the horrible events that took place in German concentration camps. The article is based mainly on the text of Elie Wiesel's 'Night', which contains the memoirs of someone who survived the Shoah hell. The philosophical interpretation of Wiesel's war memoirs shows that the ontological reduction of a human being causes the reduction of man's morality and leads to the negation of the idea of God. Nevertheless, this destructive process can be reversed at least in some cases. This is because of the natural human need for transcendence, for the ontological order of the universe, and for being reborn with integrity of soul and body, which constitutes a religious and cultural or just inborn paradigm.