![]() He knew that the worst thing that could happen now, after the Holocaust was over, the axis powers defeated, and the camps liberated, was that the Holocaust and all those who were lost would be forgotten. It is this connection between the present and the past that Wiesel sought to maintain. Night, on the other hand, takes places like Auschwitz and makes them real, in all their terror and destruction. Today, the Holocaust is almost 80 years in the past, making it incredibly distant, especially for young people learning about it in history books. His story also makes historical places, events, and people real. Eliezer’s story is just one story out of tens of millions. These personal experiences are moving, but they also allude to the broader nature of theHolocaust and the experiences that millions of Jews and other marginalized groups endured. This spiritual upheaval occurs at the same time that he’s forced into slave labor and feels himself starving to death. Throughout the novel, Wiesel’s character of Eliezer battles with his faith, the feeling that God has abandoned him and his people throughout the pages of Night. After Night was published and fully came into the public’s eye, it sold millions of copies and made its way into classrooms and homes. It is filled with the truth of the concentration camps and a young man’s suffering. It was, publishers thought, more suited for public consumption than Night. Anne Frank’s diary, he said, ends where Night begins. When speaking about Night, Wiesel drew a contrast between the two important works. For example, although he might not explicitly state that men were being shot on the death march towards the end of the novel, his description of gunfire and men falling to the ground paints a very clear picture.Īt the time that Night was published, the most popular memoir of the Holocaust was the incredibly important work, The Diary of Anne Frank. His language is almost always direct, leaving little room for interpretation on the part of the reader. He does not shy away from addressing what he saw in the camps. This is due in part to Wiesel’s mastery of language (even translated from the original Yiddish and French). Today, it is the most commonly read personal read account of the Holocaust and features of syllabi worldwide. ![]() In addition to being an unforgettable personal memoir, Night is also of great historical importance. The overarching feeling is horror and awe at the way that seemingly educated and disciplined men could act. As Eliezer, Elie himself, and readers make their way through the novel. It’s impossible not to put oneself in Wiesel’s shoes as he experiences the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, watches his friends and family members murdered and experience the loss of his faith, health, and freedom. ![]() When reading the novel again, I immediately recalled how impactful that connection, across time and history, was. ![]() I first read Nightwhen I was 15 years old, that same age as Wiesel was when he was deported from his home and saw his mother and sister for the last night. Just as I did, most readers approach Night knowing what the story is going to be about, and despite its brevity, around 100 pages, it is an intense journey, one that’s quite hard to forget. The village does not believe him at first, but the reality of their situation comes home when the Jewish citizens of Sighet are moved into a ghetto, then onto a cattle car and transported to Auschwitz/Birkenau. Things change when that same mentor is captured by the SS and manages to return to the village, reporting the sight of men and women being executed at gunpoint by Nazi soldiers. When the novel begins, Wiesel depicts him as studious, dedicated to stying the Torah along with his mentor. Night tells the story of Eliezer, a teenage Jewish boy living in the small village of Sighet in Transylvania. Elie Wiesel’s novel, which is based on his own experiences in the Sighet ghetto and the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchwald, is harrowing. It’s a harrowing account of one of the worst periods in human history, told from the perspective of a teenager ripped from his life, family, and aspirations.
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