Eliezer’s faith in the goodness of the world is irreparably shaken, however, by the cruelty and evil he witnesses during the holocaust. he cannot imagine that the concentration camps’ unbelievable, disgusting cruelty could possibly reflect divinity. he wonders how a benevolent god could be part of such depravity and how an omnipotent god could permit such cruelty to take place. his faith is equally shaken by the cruelty and selfishness he sees among the prisoners. if all the prisoners were to unite to oppose the cruel oppression of the nazis, eliezer believes, then maybe he could understand the nazi menace as an evil aberration. he would then be able to maintain the belief that humankind is essentially good. but he sees that the holocaust exposes the selfishness, evil, and cruelty of which everybody—not only the nazis, but also his fellow prisoners, his fellow jews, even himself—is capable. if the world is so disgusting and cruel, he feels, then god either must be disgusting and cruel or must not exist at all. though this realization seems to annihilate his faith, eliezer manages to retain some of this faith throughout his experiences. at certain moments—during his first night in the camp and during the hanging of the pipel—eliezer does grapple with his faith, but his struggle should not be confused with a complete abandonment of his faith. this struggle doesn’t diminish his belief in god; rather, it is essential to the existence of that belief. when moshe the beadle is asked why he prays, he replies, “i pray to the god within me that he will give me the strength to ask him the right questions.” in other words, questioning is fundamental to the idea of faith in god. the holocaust forces eliezer to ask horrible questions about the nature of good and evil and about whether god exists. but the very fact that he asks these questions reflects his commitment to god.