the young man clings to the one thing over which he believes he has control and can indeed assert his identity--the covenant he has with his father.
The young man has no real idea of what the Final Solution is supposed to mean, but he suffers from its effects as his entire family is eliminated. The story begins in 1941, and the family manages to survive without being taken to a camp until nearly the end of the war. During those years, though, there were many signs of what was taking place. The people chose not to believe--when Moshe the Beadle tells of his harrowing escape from death, the people believe he is making it up even though they have seen many of their neighbors taken away, supposedly to work camps, but in truth to die (Wiesel 4-5).
The boy would have been about 17 when he was taken to the camp, since Wiesel was born in 192
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