Early Warning Signs in Elie Wiesel's Night

Denying Life

As a son watches his mother take her last breath on her deathbed, an overwhelming grief sets in. Although knowing that his mom smokes and drinks, he never told her to quit or ease up because he thought his mother can never die. In this case, the offset of this denial is his mom’s early death but, the denial by the Jews during 1942, caused a far more superior calamity, six million deaths! Alas, just like the boy who lost his mother, the Jews have signs and warnings to escape the invasion and Elie Wiesel does a superb job of incorporating that in his book, Night. These overlooked chances, or motifs, are Moshe not getting the respect for his word, uncomprehending the news that is given to the Jews, and the misjudgment of how evil a man Hitler is.

If one is saved from a massacre of his or her own people, it is indispensable that he or she return back to his or her homeland and warn others of their approaching fate. This should give them enough time to pack their belongings and flee from their invaders. In Elie Wiesel’s painful memoir Night, there is a minor character that experiences this sequence, and his name is Moshe the Beadle. The only difference in the cycles is that when Moshe returns, nobody believes him of his incident. When Moshe returns, one citizen exclaims, “’He’s just trying to make us pity him. Or even: ‘Poor fellow, He’s gone mad.’” The cause of this persecution may be because of his “waiflike timidity,” but even so, heeding Moshe’s advice could have granted the Jews of Sighets’ protection from the Nazi concentration camps. An additional reason why Moshe was not given the proper respect might be because he was deeply religious. The other members in town may have been led to believe that Moshe had s...

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...f the major Optimism of the Jews is that they could not comprehend the killing of all their people. They see it as a task that contains no possible way to be fulfilled. They justify it by saying “Was he going to wipe out a whole people? Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions! What methods could he use?” (6). The answer to their question is yes but there is many chances to escape this fate, although the Jews of Sighet deny it.

Understating Hitler, denying the media, and not realizing the depth of Hitler’s evil, were all the motifs shown above and is proof on how the Jews of Sighet deny their warning signs of an upcoming holocaust. Heeding these signs may have granted many of them life in a place that manufactured death. And when the race toward death began, it was the village idiot that came out to be the smartest.