“Night,” by Elie Wiesel
Hill and Wang, New York, 2006 (originally published in 1958), 120 pages, Grades 10 and higher.
Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) was one of the great voices of the 20th century. A survivor of the concentration camps in World War II, he gave a voice to the immense suffering and horror of the Holocaust.
“Night” is his autobiographical account of the sufferings of the victims of the Final Solution. This diabolical plan was developed by the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish people, and many others that were found to be “unworthy of life.” Wiesel and his family will be caught in this horrible plan in 1942.
His autobiography tells of the searing of his soul by the Nazis. To put it mildly, it is a painful book, but it is a book that tells of an experience that mankind should never forget.
The story begins in 1941 where the 12-year-old Elie is living with his family in a normal Hungarian town. His father is a respected man, and his mother is known for her virtuous qualities. Elie studies the Bible and the Talmud (collection of writings on Jewish law and religious practices). He loves his family and in every way he is just a normal Jewish boy.
Hungary has been protected to some extent because its leader, Admiral Horthy, had drug his feet in enforcing German laws attacking the Jews. Unfortunately, this ends and the Jewish community in Weisel’s hometown is forced into a ghetto. Everyone is completely befuddled by this. Many of the Hungarian Jews speak fluent German and have an appreciation of German culture and can’t grasp what is happening. When the Wiesels’ former maid tearfully visits them in the ghetto and tries to convince the father to take the family and escape to a hiding place she has created, he just can’t believe things are this bad and turns down the offer. The idea of killing an entire people appears preposterous. So it just seems best to hunker down hoping this latest bad time in Jewish history will roll by. Tragically, it is just beginning.
Soon the entire community is ordered out of the ghetto to a loading zone. Marched without food or water, the dazed Jews are forced into cattle cars. Because there are so many people in the cattle cars, the Wiesel family, like the rest of the Jews, can hardly move. As the train begins its deadly journey, the Jews helplessly try to understand what is happening.
After a days-long, suffocating trip, the train stops in Poland. They are at their destination. They are then unloaded into the hellish world of the Auschwitz Death Camp. A German SS officer with eight words begins sorting the Jews into two groups: “Men to the left, women to the right.” The first death selection is about to begin.
What happens to the Wiesels and to the other Jews? Though most are killed, why do some survive? What does this survival cost the survivors? Why do some people despair and lose their faith and others offer their suffering? And finally, why is it so important that Elie Wiesel tells this story of suffering?
Why do we need to never forget? To find out the answers to these questions, go to the library and check out this important book.
This is not an enjoyable book to read and the suffering described is immense. But genocides have not stopped with the Final Solution. The United States House of Representatives just passed a resolution calling the actions of ISIS to be genocidal. Perhaps by remembering the heroic life of Elie Wiesel, we can stop a future genocide. This autobiography continues to ask questions we need to confront. Its message is still as relevant today as it was in 1958.
