Family and Relationships in Night

Experts estimate that 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, six million of them being Jews; that is approximately two thirds of the Jewish people in Europe killed from 1933-1945. Elie Wiesel, a man who survived the Holocaust himself, wrote the memoir Night in order to remind the world of the horrors that went on through those years, and how humanity must never allow them to happen again. Throughout the book, someone Wiesel discusses often is his own father, Chlomo, whom he remained with throughout the experience. Wiesel tells of what they endure and eventually tells of his dear father’s death. Through all the pain Wiesel suffers in the Holocaust, his father remains his greatest driving force.

Throughout Night, Wiesel continually mentions his need to stay with his father from the moment they learn of the expulsion of the Jewish people of Sighet. When Martha. their former servant, asks the family to come with her to her village instead of join the deportation, his father refuses, yet says to his children, “You can go if you want to.... I shall stay here with your mother and the child....”(Wiesel 18). Wiesel writes, “Naturally, we refused to be separated” (18). The wish to remain with his father continues when they first arrive at Auschwitz. As they wait for selection he writes, “I had one thought-not to lose him. Not to be alone” (Wiesel 27). Wiesel and his father manage to not only pass the selection, but to also be placed in the same barracks. Wiesel also asks his foreman, Franek, if Wiesel and his father could work together. Franek replies ‘“All right. Your father’ll be working here by your side” (Wiesel 48). They remain together for many weeks, until eventually, Wiesel is moved to a separate block. This does not stop ...

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...ors, yet they can offer no assistance to him. He is advised by the head of his fathers block to abandon him and take his ration, but Wiesel ignores that idea and instead continues to care for Chlomo himself. He however does not have a strong enough will to deny his father water, or to save him from the SS officer who delivers the crushing blow to his head. He is taken to the crematories before dawn, and Wiesel never sees him again.

Throughout Night Wiesel’s most important motivation remains his father and almost nothing else. When Chlomo finally passes on at the end, Wiesel has nothing left to care about. Wisel writes, “I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father’s death, nothing could touch me anymore” (Wiesel 107). This book reminds us not only of the terror of the Holocaust, but of the importance of family in life.