what allowed elie and the other jews to have hope?

Hope is definitely not a major theme in this novel, in fact I don't see it as even a minor theme. Wiesel's story is not so much about hope as it is about survival, faith, and love. The one scene in which I do see a glimmer of hope, is the scene in which the French girl takes care of Eliezer after he is beaten. Had the fact she helped him been revealed to the wrong people it would have meant certain death for her, but she cares for him anyway....... hope would be found in the fact that there were good people; something that would have been hard for the Jews to believe at the time.