Night by Elie Wiesel “Hitler won’t be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to.” So begins the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel an autobiographical work about Elie’s struggle to survive the Holocaust while living at multiple concentration camps. Beginning at age 15, Elie Wiesel moves from a young man questioning the accounts of German hatred, to becoming a witness of many inhumane acts brought upon people. Elie Wiesel’s book, Night, describes instances of inhumane acts on the Jews at Berkenau-Auswitz, at Buna, and on the march to Gleiwitz. Upon arrival at Berkenau-Auswitz, the men and women were separated. It was here that Elie saw his mother and sisters for the last time. With the advise of another prisoner, Elie and Mr. Wiesel, lied about both their ages and occupations in order to get into the same line of men. “The baton moved unremittingly sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left.” (page 29) Happy to be with his father, Elie still did not know if he was in line for the prison or the crematory. The line marched up toward the fires, he could see little children and babies being tossed into the fire. The line moved on past another pit where adults were being burned. After seeing these tragic events, Elie could no longer sleep. He could not believe this was happening and nobody was doing anything to stop it. After surviving the first concentration camp, Elie and Mr. Wiesel were sent to Buna, a work camp. At Buna a Overlap (a prison guard) was tortured for sabotaging a power station. A young boy under him, called a Pipel, was also to be tortured for information on the Overlap’s accomplices. The Pipel was hung because his he would not reveal the Overlap’s accomplices. “For more than a half an hour, he stayed there struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes.”(page 62). As Elie stood and watched he heard the other prisoners repeatedly ask, “Where is God?” A third cruel act the Nazi’s did was make the prisoners run nearly 50 miles to Gleiwitz. They did not let the prisoners stop running for even a second or the person would have been killed. Even though the prisoners were not given a chance to stop, the S.S. Guards were given many breaks so they were not tired. Some of the prisoners went too slowly and they were trampled by other prisoners.
The Jews at that point touch base at Birkenau, a gathering place for Auschwitz, where they experience a choice procedure; a procedure that decides if they are lived or if they are to bite the dust in the crematory. Despite everything, they have something of a feeling of nobility, as they consider regardless of whether to rebel against this abomination. “The beloved objects that we had carried with us from place to place were now left in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusion” (Wiesel, 29). The Jews still have the quality to dissent, and they perceive that they are being dealt with like creatures. In any case, they soon understand that a dissent is no benefit and that God should spare them if he means for them to survive. The Jews are exhibiting a much measure of good-soul and expectation, however, at last, it feels no need. Elie is having his particular questions about God. He is scanning for a reason about why God would release this on. “Over there. Do you see the chimney over there? Do you see it? And the flames, do you see them?” (Yes, we saw the flames) “Over there, that’s where they will take you. Over there will be your grave. You still don't understand? You sons of bitches. Don’t you understand anything? You will be burned! Burned to a cinder! Turned into ashes!” (Wiesel, 31). Elie, once an extremely religious
At the age of 15, Eliezer Wiesel and his family were placed into concentration camps in Auschwitz. Wiesel accompanied his family for most of the time in the camps. He parted from his mother and sister Tzipora early in life and lived with his father during the years of the Holocaust. During his time in the concentration camps, Wiesel endured tons of pain. When he first reached the concentration camp Eliezer Wiesel witnessed the most disturbing thing. Tons of babies were being thrown into the air and shot to death. “As they marched closer and closer to the ditch, Eliezer decided that rather then let himself be thrown into the fire, he would try to break away and throw himself against the electrified fence that surrounded the camp.” (Pariser 23) It was at that point that Elie and his father knew that they were going to experience the worst years of their life. On April 11, 1945, the two were free from the concentration camp. He was silent for many years and chose not to speak of his suffering. Eventually he spoke and made a pact that he would never be silent again. Eliezer Wiesel stated, "And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.” (Pariser 40) And Mr. Wiesel wasn’t.
Night is an non fiction, dramatic book that tells the horrors of the nazi death camps all around Europe. The book is an autobiographical account of what happened, so the main character is the author. The author is Elie Wiesel who was only 14 year old when Nazi Germany came through his town of Sighet, Transylvania. This is story is set between the years of 1944 and 1945. Elie and his family of 4 are optimistic when Germany begins to take power. Germany invades Hungary, then arrives in Elie’s town. The Nazi’s begin to take over the Jews by limiting their freedom. Jews are eventually deported. The Jewish people are crowded into wagons where they are shipped to Auschwitz. He is separated from his mother and sister. Over the course of the book, Elie and his father are sent to two different concentration camps. Their final concentration camp is Buchenwald. His father ends up dieing before the allied troops liberated Budapest in 1945. Elie is left with the memories of death and violence.
After a brief stay at Auschwitz, they are moved to a new camp, Buna. At Buna, Elie goes through the dehumanizing process of the concentration camps. Both he and his father experience severe beatings at the hand of the kapos. All the prisoners are overworked and undernourished. Many lose faith in God, including Elie. He witnesses several hangings, one of a boy with an angelic face, and sees him struggle for over thirty minutes fighting for his life. To a stranger's cry of "Where is God now?", Elie answers: "He is hanging here on this gallows...." (p. 62). As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie i...
Elie saw many horrendous events during the Holocaust; including babies being thrown into a pit of fire. “A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes… children thrown into the flames” (Wiesel 32). This quote is relevant because it tells of one of the many gruesome acts Elie witnessed. The next reality Elie saw was Bela Katz throw his own father into the crematorium. “Bela Katz, the son of an important merchant of my town, had arrived in Birkenau with the first transport, one week ahead of us. When he found out that we were there, he succeeded in slipping us a note. He told us that having been chosen because of his strength, he had been forced to place his own father’s body into the furnace” (Wiesel 35). The last foul deed he witnessed, and many other saw as well, was the Pipel being hung. “But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…” (Wiesel 65). This quote is important because it shows that even children were treated in a disgraceful way. No one was spared. The amount of struggles that pipel had to face before that moment were just as great as everyone
Elie Wiesel was a young boy growing up in the small town of Sighet, Hungary. He was very religious and spent much of his own time studying the Talmud and reading into the Jewish religion. He was an ambitious character and had very little hate for anyone, he also was very open minded and very compassionate for all those around him. But when the Nazis first take his family to the ghettos that they moved all Jews of Sighet too, he first began to hate and feel the pain of persecution. He was then also separated from his mother Sarah, and his three sisters Hilda, Beatrice, and Tzipora when he and his father were sent to Auschwitz where his inmate number was “A-7713”. During his time at this concentration camp he first began to question his belief in God and his belief in the good of humanity. Elie survived the Holcaust but he had suffered the horrors of watching people die right in front of him, and the loss of religion and his family.
There was barely enough room to move around; everyone had to stand up. They went days without stopping until finally they arrived at Auschwitz. Elie was separated from his mother and sister they were sent into the gas chamber. He and his father made it passed the first selection, now Elie begins to question his God “,why do I bless his name.” Elie began to become angry at God’s lack of action and how he allowed all this to happen, how he allowed all the Jews to suffer in Auschwitz. He and his father had been forced to work in the camps everyday they are worked to the point of exhaustion. Elie had still held on to hope but all that hope left when they hung the little boy.”Where is God now? Where is he ? Here he is, he is hanging here on this gallows.” (62) They had been stripped of their clothes, their names, their Humanity, and soon their
Immediately after arriving at the concentration camp of Auschwitz, Elie was separated from his mother and sisters. He remained alone with his father, and clung to him, saying, “All I could think of was not to lose him. Not to remain alone.”(Wiesel 30). As they together went through the interrogation, showers, and the barber, Elie found himself taking care of his father. Being fifty years old, the work was hard for him, and not ideal for a man his age. Elie would look out for him, making sure he got his proper food and rest. Although they did not have the greatest relationship, that was soon forgotten as their need for survival deepened.
Can language alone describe an event in history that was so heinous it’s almost impossible to comprehend? Elie Wiesel, the author of the book Night, found words alone limiting when describing the horrific events that occurred to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Instead of retelling factual events, Elie Wiesel used images to help the reader visualize and immerse themselves in the Jew’s horrific experiences. Elie uses the symbols fire, fear, and night to have a greater impact in his attempt to bear witness when talking about the horrors of the Holocaust.
During his time in the concentration camps, Elie Wiesel’s conscience suffered from extensive dehumanization. He addresses his mind as being nothing but “feeble” after enduring the dreadful horrors that had happened. The abuse that he had to endure led to significant decomposition of his conscience. As his father is dying on his deathbed, the corrupted mindset within Elie convinces him that it would be good riddance for his father to perish, so he wouldn’t have to sacrifice every time his father was in need. The “recesses” inside of his conscience formed the plot that his survival is the reason that the family bond between him and his father must be shattered.
An era of human darkness and human cruelty can all swiftly present in one cold night. Elie Wiesel, a teenager living in Sighet, Transylvania, and most importantly, a Jew, experienced this first hand when the Hungarian police rushed into his Jewish community, demanding that everyone must prepare for departure. This would start an event in human history that would portray mankind as cruel and inhumane and would end the lives of many innocent people. This portrait of human disgrace and injustice would be the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s non fiction story in “Night”, shows Elie’s adventure as he experiences the depths of human darkness in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. In “Night,” Elie Wiesel argues that the truest of evils can void a man of good, and through the sheer magnitude of evil, can wipe out all faith in a person, ending with the disappearance of human characteristic and hope.
In the years of 1940-1945, at least 1,100,000 Jewish people were sent to Auschwitz; Elie Wiesel was one of them. In the memoir Night, by Elie Wiesel, Wiesel details the horrors of Auschwitz, and his short stay at Buchenwald. Wiesel shares memories of trying to keep his father alive as well as himself, while slowly losing his faith in God. Throughout Night by Elie Wiesel, many conflicts are present such as man vs man, man vs self, and man vs nature, all of which I believe drastically bring out the horrors of Auschwitz.
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.
Elie Wiesel, almost fifteen-years-old, was sent to Auschwitz with his father because they were Jewish. He thought he was being sent to the gas chambers when he first arrived. He had the intent of hurtling himself onto a barbed wire fence to end his life. He soon found out that he wasn’t headed towards the gas chambers, so Elie Wiesel decided not to commit suicide. (Elie Wiesel, Night). Little did he know that life at Auschwitz would make him endure a pain worse than death. Elie Wiesel was stripped of his family, clothes, individuality, and life. He referred to Auschwitz as the “Antechamber of Hell.” (Elie Wiesel, Night).
The book Night, written by Elie Wiesel, is a horrifying, historic account of Wiesel’s time in multiple German concentration camps. His work gained him a Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech and further lectures enlightened many other readers. Elie Wiesel’s eye-opening Night is very relevant for real life. This stunning book is applicable because of its education about World War II for the Jewish, inspiration to the human race in their day-to-day lives, and because genocide still goes on today in places such as Darfur.