What Is The Significance Of Night In Night By Elie Wiesel

From Elie Wiesel’s book Night I learned that Jews could have escaped the Shoah; also I learned reasons why Jews stayed home and didn’t flee from the hands of the Hungarian Police and the Nazi’s. Elie Wiesel claims that others said, “ ‘Hitler will not be able to harm us, even if he wants to…’ ” (p. 8). This represents the terribly mistaken certainty of the Jews in Signet during the Holocaust. Jews didn’t flee when they had the chance and the warning because they did not think it would possible that he would “…wipe out a population throughout so many nations…in the middle of the twentieth century…” (Wiesel, 8). Through the horror, Wiesel and many others were wrong about Hitler, no matter the century, no matter the populous, the Führer was determined

Their story is similar Elie’s horrific journey since both families loose a loved one at Auschwitz. The Rein family were also Jews during the Shoah. Wiesel’s family was placed into the ghetto in 1944, while the Rein family were placed in a ghetto in 1940. Similar to the Wiesel family, they were separated during the Holocaust. The Rein family was separated at Auschwitz and Wiesel at Birkenau. Upon arrival to the extermination camps, both families go through the selection process. According to Yad Veshem website it states that, “Marta, Wanda and Mordechai passed the selection and were assigned to forced labor in the camp” (yadvashem.org, The Rein Family). The three women of the Rein family stated above are debatably unlucky to have passed selection. For they too will experience the pure evil along with Elie and his father of the Auschwitz labor camp. Yad Veshem website also states that, “…Marta was sent to the gas chambers…” (yadvashem.org, The Rein Family). Like Marta, Elie’s father also died at Auschwitz. The stories may be different by name, but there is no doubt either family would ever be the same after experiencing the mental and physical turmoil of the extermination

It was selfish that Shlomo, Elie’s father, did not listen to his son when he asked his father to “…sell everything, to liquidate everything, and to leave...” (Wiesel, 9). Even though Elie plea was a necessary one, his father was selfish and decided to stay because of his human nature to cling to the location of his job, home, and family at the time. This selfish decision cost his life and brutally affected his entire family. Another reason I conclude that the human nature in the texts is that of a selfish one is due to examples in Night that Zalman, Elie, and the son to Rabbi Eliahu portray when faced with death. First, Zalman yelled: “ ‘I can’t go on. My stomach is bursting…’ ” (Wiesel, 86) which shows his lack of self will and his solitary concern for himself. Justly, Zalman was only concerned with himself before he was trampled making him selfish. Second, the son of Rabbi Eliahu subjected himself to his selfish human nature by leaving his father behind. Elie states, “He [son of Rabbi Eliahu] had felt his father growing weaker and…thought by this separation to free himself of a burden [Rabbi Eliahu] that could diminish his own chance for survival” (Wiesel, 91). If he had an ounce of selflessness in his body, he would have stayed behind to be with his father, but he didn’t. Son of Rabbi Eliahu thought it best to fend for himself and relieve himself of the