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Elie Wiesel's family is moved from their home to Auschwitz by train.This event is a turning point for Elie since he is being taken to a concentration camp even though his family has been lucky in avoiding it. This relates to the theme because Elie is still religious and faithful in the beginning but when he is at camp his beliefs will change.
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This is the last time Elie ever sees his mother and younger sister, Tzipora, since they are separated at Birkenau. This is a character development point since he will never see his mother and younger sister again, his only family for the next year is his father. He has to learn to live without his mother for the first time. This relates to the theme because this event helped Elie start changing his beliefs.
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Elie sees a boy being hanged and loses his faith in God. This is a character development event because we know Elie is Jewish and even studies Kabbalah but after seeing everything in the camp, especially people being hanged, he believes God is not real since God is making everyone suffer. This relates to the theme statement because it is where he starts too believe God is not real because of all the bad things he has seen.
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Elie makes the tough decision between staying in the infirmary and possibly getting killed or going on the death march while injured. He decides to go on the death march. This event is a turning point because he now decides to leave the infirmary where he is safe to go on the death march. Elie has no faith that God will help him.
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While Elie is sleeping, his father is taken to the crematorium at Buchenwald concentration camp. Elie felt free and could not weep. This event is character development since we see a new side of Elie where he feels free without his father instead of feeling like a team. He feels like it is every man for themselves and has no faith in God helping him.
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Buchenwald is liberated and Elie is freed. This is a turning point for Elie since it starts a new beginning for him. At this point of the story he no longer believes that God helps people.
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Staying faithful is impossible to do when everything around you is falling apart.
