Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Publisher: Hill and Wang
Genre: Memoir
Format: Novel/Memoir
Number of pages: 120
Publish Date: 2006
Originally published in 1958, Wiesel’s memoir is one of the most widely-read accounts of the Holocaust and the treatment of Jews in concentration camps. Translated by his wife, Night is a story of human cruelty, and an ongoing hope.
Synopsis of Night
Night is a memoir that records Elie Wiesel time in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and then Buchenwald. Wiesel, Romanian and Jewish, is a teenager when he and his family are taken by Nazis. He recounts the death of his mother and eight-year-old sister, and the abuse he and his father are subjected to. Wiesel’s memoir is one of the most gut-wrenching and powerful of Holocaust accounts, but it also shares an extreme sense of hope and perseverance.
Wiesel documents his suffering; particularly the starvation and forced work he had to endure. He also recalls the people he met, and the murders he saw, focusing heavily of the children he saw taken to a gas chamber, and even hanged.
Plot
Wiesel’s story begins when Nazis infiltrate his hometown and force all of the Jews to live in two Ghettos. Wiesel’s home was already situated within the first ghetto, so he could continue to live there. However, not everyone is this fortunate; those whos houses are located outside of the ghettos have to move in with others. Soon, the streets are cramped, and so are the houses.
Two weeks later, the people are forced to move ghettos, to a smaller one. They have to use the belongings of those that used to live there – and they have no idea what is in store for them. A week or so later, transport shows up in the form of trains. The Jews are forced to board. The train is so cramped that not everyone can sit down at once, so they must take turns. They spend days in the train carriage, with very little air. Wiesel describes the people in that carriage, and how they fought to stay sane.
Wiesel arrives at an Auschwitz concentration camp. He lies about his age and occupation and is immediately separated from his mother and sister. This is the last he ever sees of them. Wiesel and his father are subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the guards as well as other inmates, presenting a survival-of-the-fittest type world. Towards the end of the memoir, Wiesel and his father are forced to walk in a death-march. This weakens Wiesel’s father, and once they arrive at Buchenwald, he dies. Wiesel recalls his inability to feel great sadness, because he finally feels free.
Characters
As this is a memoir, we follow Elie Wiesel from the very beginning to the very end. This is his story, but also the story of many others. More than 6 million Jews were murdered during the holocaust, and they all have destroying stories to tell. There is the occasional mentioning of the other inmates, and their attitudes towards one another, as well as the guards, medical people and regular citizens.
Analysis
Night is a personal and truthful account that everyone should read. It is important that we don’t forget what happened, nor the people it happened to. Night ensures that the voices of victims are heard, and that the events of that time are described in full. It is most important that memoirs such as this are taught to the younger generations – everyone should know what happened and the suffering it caused, so that we can ensure it does not happen again.
The events Wiesel describes highlight just how cruelly his people, as well as many others, were treated, representing how evil humans can be.
Summary
In conclusion, if you have not yet read this memoir, you should. It is small compared to many novels, and easy to read. It is an account of the worst event in human history, and we owe it to the victims that their voices are heard, and their suffering does not go ignored.
I will not give this book an overall rating, as it is the true story of someone’s life. It is invaluable.
Further links:
To purchase Night, click here
For additional information regarding Elie Wiesel, click here
