In Night, what is the significance of bringing up Rabbi Eliahu's son in describing Eliezer's own relationship with his father?

The mention of Rabbi Eliahu's son operates as a foreshadowing technique to reflect the relationship Eliezer will have with his own father.

Rabbi Eliahu is a minor but significant character in Night. In the process of evacuating, Eliezer encounters Rabbi Eliahu looking for his son. Eliezer tells the Rabbi that he has not seen the boy. Later, Eliezer remembered that he had "noticed his [Rabbi Eliahu's] son running beside me" but also that he was "losing...

The mention of Rabbi Eliahu's son operates as a foreshadowing technique to reflect the relationship Eliezer will have with his own father.

Rabbi Eliahu is a minor but significant character in Night. In the process of evacuating, Eliezer encounters Rabbi Eliahu looking for his son. Eliezer tells the Rabbi that he has not seen the boy. Later, Eliezer remembered that he had "noticed his [Rabbi Eliahu's] son running beside me" but also that he was "losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column." It occurred to Eliezer that Rabbi Eliahu's son had seen his father and allowed "the distance between the [to] become greater." With this realization, Eliezer vows to avoid this in his own relationship with his father:

A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near, had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival.

"Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done."

Wiesel includes this detail to show that one of the true horrors of the Holocaust was how it fundamentally transformed emotional relationships. Rabbi Eliahu's son demonstrates how the need for survival in the Holocaust superseded the emotional primacy of the relationships between children and their parents.

Eliezer turns out to move away from that prayer he offered to the "Master of the Universe." As his father becomes increasingly weaker, Eliezer is forced to offer up more of his own rations to save him. For example, Eliezer is forced to take care of his father by surrendering his own soup. Rather than willingly embrace this, he "grudgingly" gives his father his soup with a "heavy heart." Eliezer remarks that his behavior shows that "Just like Rabbi Eliahu's son, I had not passed the test." In bringing up Rabbi Eliahu's son, Eliezer vividly shows how the Holocaust impacted him by transforming the most elemental emotional connection that a boy could have.