Elie Wiesel’s Night is a harrowing account of the Holocaust, chronicling his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. First published in 1958, it remains one of the most powerful and influential works of Holocaust literature.
In Night, Elie Wiesel analyzes his experience of being forced to leave his family and drop his religion during the Holocaust. This wasn’t a choice he made- Jews in Sighet were forcefully removed from their homes by Germans during the invasion of Hungary.
Elie Wiesel and his family were shipped off to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. At Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel was separated from his mother and sister. They were all put into different lines based on their gender and age. Elie Wiesel was then put into a different line than his father, which resulted in them never seeing each other again. Elie Wiesel did not see his mother or sister again until he was liberated from Buchenwald, which was another concentration camp that he was moved to after Auschwitz.
Wiesel’s experience of being separated from his family had a profound effect on him. He writes about how he felt like he had “ceased to be” (Wiesel 3) when they were wrenched away from him. He was no longer Elie Wiesel, he was just a number: A-7713. He writes about how this experience changed his view of God, and how he could no longer believe in a God that would allow such terrible things to happen.
The Night is a powerful book that details the author’s experience of the Holocaust. It is a story of loss, separation, and ultimately survival. Elie Wiesel’s story is one that will stay with readers long after they have finished the book.
The community in which Wiesel learned to love the Kabbalah was now only home to dust and lost memories. Most members of that Jewish community were never welcomed back with open arms, but instead Auschwitz embraced them with hell. To survive the unimaginable circumstances in these camps, a boy had to hang on tight to his sense of self – his humanity.
Elie Wiesel did just that when he wrote Night, a book that would come to change how the world viewed the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.
Elie Wiesel was born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania on September 30, 1928. He was a studious young man who enjoyed studying the Talmud and Kabbalah. Wiesel’s happy childhood came to an abrupt end when the Nazis invaded Hungary and placed the Jewish population in ghettos. From there, Wiesel and his family were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Wiesel saw firsthand the atrocities that were taking place at Auschwitz. He was witness to people being herded into gas chambers and killed by poisonous gas. He also watched as people were starved, beaten, and worked to death. In order to survive these inhumane conditions, Elie had to harden his heart. If he allowed himself to feel empathy for the victims, he would not have been able to make it through the night.
Elie Wiesel’s experience in Auschwitz changed him forever. He was only able to survive because of his will to live and his hope for a better future. After being liberated from the concentration camp, Wiesel went on to write Night. This book is a memoir of his time in Auschwitz and a testimony to the human capacity for endurance in the face of evil.
Today, Elie Wiesel is known as an outspoken activist and Nobel Laureate. He has dedicated his life to ensuring that the world never forgets the Holocaust and the atrocities that were committed against the Jewish people. Thanks to Elie Wiesel, we have a first-hand account of what it was like to live through one of the darkest periods in human history.
Wiesel’s book not only enlightens readers about the suffering of Jews in concentration camps, but it also makes clear that every day during this year felt like an eternity spent in Hell. “Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.” (Wiesel 20). Wiesel arrived at the camp and took what he described as the longest, most dreadful ten steps of his life; he realized that his nightmare had just become unimaginably worse.
Elie Wiesel’s book Night is about his horrific experience in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Elie Wiesel was born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania. Elie Wiesel and his family were eventually deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. In Night, Elie Wiesel shares his harrowing experience as a teenager during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s writing style is sparse but incredibly powerful, making Night a difficult but important read.
While Night is certainly an autobiography of Elie Wiesel’s experience during the Holocaust, it is also a memoir of human suffering and survival. Elie Wiesel writes with great power and emotion about the atrocities he witnessed during his time in the concentration camps. He also writes about the hope and humanity that he and others clung to during their darkest hours. Night is a difficult but important book, and Elie Wiesel’s writing style makes it an unforgettable read.
Elie Wiesel uses the motif of fire to represent the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. This is first mentioned after Wiesel’s horrific first night at the concentration camp, where he sees children being burned alive. “Never shall I forget those small faces…transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.” The journey on the train to Auschwitz was further representative of fire when Mrs. Schachter kept yelling about seeing a fire; however, none of her fellow Jews could see it or understand why she was screaming..
“We no longer had any doubt: we were going to die” (Wiesel 43). At this point, Elie and the others knew that fire played a significant role in the concentration camps. It was used as a method of torture, and also extermination. Elie Wiesel reveals how he and the other Jews were dehumanized through fire.
The SS Guards would take away the clothes of those who had just arrived at the camp, and “they poured some kind of liquid on us so that we should be disinfected.” This disinfectant was most likely gasoline because it is clear that these people were about to be burned alive in the crematoriums. Elie Wiesel uses first person point of view which allows readers to see the events through his eyes and experience the horror that he endured.
The Jews were not even given the dignity of a proper burial; instead their bodies were burned in the crematoriums. Elie Wiesel was able to see this first hand when he watched as his own father was burned. “I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears” (Wiesel 82). Elie Wiesel was so traumatized by all that he had seen and experienced that he could no longer cry, even at the death of his own father.