Elie Wiesel - Night (Overview)

Night is a heavy book to read. 

You believe you know the events that took place in WWII because you learnt more facts and dates at school than you would have liked, watched over a dozen movies related to the war that came after the one that was supposed to end all wars, visited museums and seen artefacts linked to atrocities on one side and bravery on the other. And yet, Night strikes deeper into the heart of readers because it balances them between real fiction and fictitious reality, toying with their mind which is unable to grasp the horror of the book they hold before them as they read. 

"How? How is this possible?" repeats itself like a mantra as your eyes fly over the words on each page, so simply written, so briefly expressed, so full of pathos. Characters develop effortlessly, the tragedy of an entire generation unfolds like a bloodied gauze that's left its mark on charred skin. 

This book must be read. Buy it. Teach it. Share it with others.


Find the text here. 

If you were given the book as an assignment or simply want to read it for your own edification, use the notes that follow to help you as you read.

If you plan on teaching the book, use the notes to organize the main points you'll cover in lessons or to make your own handout for students. 

Click the picture for explanations to literary terms:

 

Elie Wiesel – Night

A) life

• Eliezer Wiesel

• September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016

• Romanian-born, American, Jewish

• writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor

• author of 57 books, written mostly in French and English

• professor of the humanities at Boston University

• Nobel Peace Prize in 1986

• born in Sighet (Carpathian Mountains, Romania)

• parents:  Sarah Feig and Shlomo Wiesel

• older sisters: Beatrice and Hilda (survived, reunited with Wiesel at a French orphanage, emigrated to North America)

• younger sister: Tzipora

• Tzipora, Shlomo, and Sarah did not survive the Holocaust

• March 1944: Germans occupied Hungary: ghetto set up in Sighet (Wiesel was 15)

• then deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp (90% were exterminated on arrival)

• mother and his younger sister were murdered

• Wiesel + his father selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied (if not, were killed in gas chambers)

• Wiesel + father then deported to Buchenwald (father died before camp was liberated by US troops on April 11, 1945)

 

B) Night

• 1^st book in a trilogy: Night, Dawn, Day

• Wiesel’s comment about Night: "In Night I wanted to show the end, the finality of the event. Everything came to an end—man, history, literature, religion, God. There was nothing left. And yet we begin again with night."

• book translated into 30 languages

• unclear to what extent this book = memoir (Wiesel has called it his “deposition”)

 

C) setting

• WWII (1939-1945), the Holocaust

• specific dates of story’s duration: 
• 1941- 11 April 1945
• references to events several yrs later

• Sighet: (1941-1943)

• town in the Carpathian mountains of northern Transylvania

• Northern Transylvania had been annexed by Hungary in 1940

• restrictions placed on Jews, but relatively peaceful time

• Sunday, 18 March 1944: invasion of Hungary by Germans

• from 5 April, Jews over the age of six had to wear yellow badge on upper-left side of coats (Jewish star / yellow badges / Jewish patches / Star of David)

• Auschwitz-Birkenau

• Buna/Monowitz/Auschwitz III

• Gleiwitz death march: put on train to go to Buchenwald

• Buchenwald

D) point of view

• 1^st person, written years later

• written around 10 years after liberation, so some interruptions to narrate event that happened after the actual story (eg. French girl he worked with at the Buna factory is seen on a train some years later)

E) genre

• coming-of-age novel: but not about typical themes of independence, sexual attraction, identity

• ‘autobiographical’ novel: Wiesel called it his “deposition”

• Jewish literature

F) tone

• somber

• mournful

• honest

G) style

• sparse: short book (so much is said in such a brief number of pages), lacks detail (full character analysis)

• simple: no elaborate phrasing or vocabulary (only difficulty = Yiddish words, German terms)

• choppy: paragraph changes often, incomplete sentences

• result: detachment from the direct horror of the experience; lasting effect on minds of victims due to stress (PTSD  = person is jumpy)

H) plot

chapter 1

• Eliezer wants to learn Kabbalah, father says he’s too young, Moishe teaches him

• Moishe deported to Poland, shot in leg, left for dead, escaped

• Moishe warns people of Sighet to leave (death is coming their way)

• news arrives (1944) from Budapest that Jews are attacked by Nazis; people of Sighet hopeful attacks won’t reach them

• Germans arrive: people still don’t see things as being all that bad

• key sentence: "The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the verdict was already out—and the Jews of Sighet were still smiling."

• restrictions begin: can’t leave house, can’t own valuables, must wear yellow star, 2 ghettos set up

• deportations announced: allowed 1 bag per person (people thought were going on vacation)

• family goes to smaller ghetto where previous owners had left in a hurry

• former servant, Martha, comes to tell family she has place where she can hide them, but family decide they’ll stay together

• day arrives to be deported; sleep in synagogue overnight; herded on cattle cars at train station

chapter 2

• on train: no room for all to sit, so take turns sitting + standing; no water after 2 days

• arrive in Kaschau, near Czech border (“Our eyes opened. Too late.”)

• all valuables taken from them; 80 people per car, if anyone escapes, all will be shot

• Mrs. Schächter: “Fire! I see a fire!” vision. Makes everyone nervous, infecting them with her madness

• she’s bound and gagged, breaks free, shouts again, is struck (some approved)

• arrive in Auschwitz: info is that the young will work in factory, the old + ill in fields; optimism grows, except for Mrs. Schächter

• dusk: she starts shouting again, train stops in Birkenau where everyone is beaten out of car, not allowed to take anything

• see flames + smell smoke (“A wretched stench floated in the air.”)

chapter 3

• SS separated men from women: 8 words of goodbye said to mother

• inmate tells Eliezer to say he’s 18 not 15 + father is 40 not 50

• other inmate swears at them, tells them what flames really mean

• young inmates want to revolt; older Jews say no, there’s still hope, that’s what the sages taught

• Dr. Mengele interrogates + separates each inmate; Eliezer + father are together

• ditch with babies being burned, another ditch for adults

• son prefers quick death on barbed wire; father weeping: recite Kaddish (prayer for the dead)

• barrack: clothes destroyed, naked = equality, shave head

• strong men joined Sonder Kommando = worked in crematoria (Bela Katz said he put his own father’s body into the furnace)

• new barrack, disinfection, transferred to another barrack in Gypsy camp; new shoes taken (Eliezer keeps his because of mud); SS officer gives them the rules

• father is struck, Eliezer doesn’t react

• taken to Auschwitz, run to get to barrack; Pole in charge of Block 17 (kapo)

• tattoo numbers on arms (by veteran prisoners)

• routine: morning black coffee, midday soup, 18.00 roll call, bread, 21.00 sleep

• Stein asks about wife + 2 boys: Eliezer lies they got letter they’re fine

• Pole removed because was too nice

• Stein said would learn about family from convoy from Antwerp; never seen again

• Skilled workers sent to other camps, unskilled left for the end; taken to Buna

chapter 4

• incorporation into work Kommandos

• child trafficking among homosexual German guards

• an aide asked Eliezer for his shoes in exchange for good Kommando + stay with father; Eliezer refuses (later shoes taken away from him anyway)

• medical checkup: dentist looking for gold teeth

• orchestra block ⇒ work in warehouse of electrical materials; Juliek, Louis, Hans, Franek; work not difficult; Eliezer allowed to work near father

• with Yossi + Tibi decide to go to Haifa if freed

• musician’s block: Alphonse (German Jew) is kapo (Blockälteste)

• dentist: wants to remove Eliezer’s gold crown; Eliezer pretends to be ill, given extension; after a bit, dentist taken to hang, office shut down (profiting from gold)

• French Jewish girl working next to him: forced labor inmate, false papers, passed as Aryan; Idek beats Eliezer, she gives him bread, tells him to keep his anger for another day (in German, risked her identity). Meets her many years later in Paris metro

• Idek beats Eliezer’s father with iron bar: Eliezer is angry father didn’t prevent attack

• Franek notices Eliezer’s gold crown: beats father when marching; Eliezer tries to train dad to march; gives in + gives ration of food for Warsaw dentist to pull tooth out; 2 weeks later, Poles transferred

• Idek with Polish girl: moved Kommando so he could “copulate”; Eliezer laughs, Idek whips him 25 times

• sirens /air raid: man crawling to cauldrons of soup, shot; planes bomb Buna factory (some buildings destroyed)

• gallows set up in Appelplatz: young Warsaw boy, 3 yrs in camp, stole during raid, hanged

• angel-faced pipel (= young boys in service of kapos) of Dutch Oberkapo of 57^th cable Kommando hanged (dying for half an hour) with 2 others after sabotage power failure + weapons found in Oberkapo’s block; doubting God for not saving boy

chapter 5

• Rosh Hashanah (last day of Jewish year): as inmates pray, doubting + defiance of God by Eliezer

• Yom Kippur: time to fast, Eliezer defies God by not fasting (+ obeys father)

• Eliezer transferred to construction Kommando: worse days before, better now, but still selected for extermination if weak

• day of selection came: inmates told to run to look healthy; stand in front of Dr. Mengele; Yossi, Tibi, Eliezer pass; later Eliezer sees father who has also passed

• call out father’s number along with others for extermination: father gives knife + spoon to Eliezer, but later passes 2^nd selection

• story of Polish rabbi losing faith; Akiba Drumer also loses hope + faith, is selected; promise to say Kaddish for him, but inmates forget

• Eliezer’s foot swollen, goes to infirmary, operation without putting him to sleep; can’t feel leg, pus removed, doctor told him

• rumors of Red Army drawing closer to Buna; camp to be evacuated; those in infirmary afraid they’d be exterminated before the Russians could free them

• Eliezer finds father and decide to leave with camp evacuees

chapter 6

• death march (run): Zalman trampled, Eliezer contemplates stopping to die but doesn’t want to leave father alone

• SS replaced, inmates feel nothing anymore; stop to rest; father tells Eliezer not to sleep; take turns keeping watch over the other in shed

• Rabbi Eliahu looking for son (had stayed together 3 yrs and now near the end, fate separated them); Eliezer remembered seeing son let Eliahu fall behind to be rid of him, prays to God this never happens to him

• SS encourage inmates to keep moving; reach Gleiwitz, get to barrack; Eliezer almost crushes Juliek (has brought his violin with him), almost crushed himself by other inmates

• Juliek plays Beethoven (forbidden for Jews to play German composers) before he dies

• stay in Gleiwitz 3 days, no food + water, not allowed to leave barrack

• on 3^rd day: selection; father selected, Eliezer creates confusion so father + he escape; await train

• cattle cars, 100 per car (skinny people)

chapter 7

• father like dead; volunteers undress + throw corpses out the train like sacks of flour; Eliezer hits father back to life

• during a stop, German worker throws bread onto train; inmates stampeded to get it; more German workers throw bread to see inmates fight over it

• incident after many years of Parisian lady throwing coins from ship to natives in Aden; children strangling each other; Eliezer tells lady to stop ⇒ “I like to give charity.”

• Meir doesn’t recognize his own father + attacks him to get piece of bread; others attack him so both father + son die

• stranger tries to strangle Eliezer; father calls out to Meir Katz to help; Meir confesses he’s lost hope, not strong anymore, left on train to die, since couldn’t stand up

• arrive in Buchenwald

chapter 8

• air raid; Eliezer forgets father as he runs for cover; next morning he feels guilty; finds him in coffee line, feverish; suffers from dysentery; tells Eliezer where he buried gold + silver

• doctors don’t care (one says he’s a surgeon, others call them lazy)

• Frenchman + Pole in nearby bunks beat father while Eliezer is out getting bread, because he can’t go out to relieve himself + to steal his ration

• Blockälteste tells him to let father die, take his rations to survive

• SS officer inspecting; father calls Eliezer for water; Eliezer doesn’t move; SS hits father violently

• another sick person in father’s bed the next morning; maybe father taken to crematorium

chapter 9

• Eliezer stayed almost 3 months in Buchenwald

• transferred to children’s block (600 other children); no food for 6 days

• liberated by resistance + Americans

• 1^st act as free men = eat; revenge had left everyone’s minds

• Eliezer sees himself in mirror for 1^st time since the ghetto ⇒ “… a corpse was contemplating me.”

 

I) characters

• Eliezer

• a child + pious at first, doubts God, humanity later

• guilty he has thoughts of abandoning father

• strong sense of survival

• caring, loyal

• 3 months spent in Buchenwald after father’s death not described

• experiences profoundly change him

• narrations of incidents years later show him calm, not violent (Parisian woman in Aden)

• Shlomo (Eliezer’s father)

• respected community leader in Sighet

• logical, pacifying, reassuring, caring, optimistic

• wants family to remain together

• in concentration camp becomes a realist

• once strong, by the end becomes as weak as a baby

• Moishe the Beadle

• foreign Jew, pious, knows Kabbalah

• helps Eliezer with studies of Kabbalah

• deported, returns to warn Jews

• like a prophet

• Akiba Drumer

• sings Hasidic melodies, Kabbalist

• “God is testing us … to see whether we are capable of overcoming our base instincts …”,

• predicts end of world

• loses hope; asks others to say Kaddish when he dies

• Madame Schächter

• in her 50’s, with her 10-yr-old son

• separated from husband + 2 older sons

• had often visited family

• shattered; crazy

• prophet-like

• Juliek 

• Pole, musician (violin)

• Eliezer’s friend

• dies after playing forbidden melody one last time

• demonstrates integrity (maybe plays to give others hope)

• Tibi and Yosi

• brothers from Czechoslovakia, parents exterminated in Birkenau

• lived for each other, Eliezer’s friends

• plan to go to Palestine after war (Zionists)

• Dr. Josef Mengele (doctor)

• Idek

• Kapo of work unit at Buna

• violent, fits of madness (beats Eliezer for no reason)

• whips Eliezer after he’s seen with a girl
• beats Eliezer's father

• Franek 

• foreman at Buna, Pole, former Warsaw student

• selfish, greedy

• wants Eliezer’s gold crown

• makes father suffer to get it

• Rabbi Eliahu

• head of small congregation in Poland

• loved by all, kind man (keeps faith +personality intact despite hardships)

• his son deserts him

• Zalman  
• young Polish boy

• trampled on death march from Buna

• mocked because prayed

• Meir Katz

• a “colossus”, gardener in Buna, father’s friend, lost son in 1^st selection

• saves Eliezer from strangulation

• Stein 

• relative from Antwerp, wife Reizel, Shlomo’s wife = Reizel’s aunt

• Eliezer lies to him about family

• only reason Stein lives is for family

• provides Eliezer + father with food and advice to survive

• Hilda, Béa, Tzipora (Aryan-looking, blond hair)

J) themes

• parent-child relationship

• inversion of roles

• strength of father – son bond

• selfishness evident in father-son relationships where sons mistreated their fathers

• narrator’s case: love and solidarity are stronger forces of survival than instinct for self-preservation (on road to Gleiwitz: “…I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support.”)

• savagery of human nature / inhumanity / violence

• leads to disillusionment, inability to make sense of life

• makes you become violent yourself, or see what cruelty you are capable of

• Nazi violence makes self-preservation highest virtue

• will to survive (result of Nazi violence or basic instinct already present in people?)

• faith in God / religion

• at the beginning: belief in an omnipotent, merciful God (= result of people’s traditions, teachings in Jewish mysticism)

• Eliezer’s suffering makes him question existence of God

• his doubts however show his commitment to Him

• when fears he might abandon father: he prays to God

• after his father’s death: he regrets there was no religious memorial (book serves as one)

• silence

• “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.”

• silence = emptiness

• silence of God is the worst

• story of the Akedah — the Binding of Isaac — found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis 22): God tells Abraham to sacrifice his beloved and only son, Isaac. At the last minute, God intervenes. In Night, the opposite occurs

• silence of victims

• silence as lack of resistance to the Nazis when they were rising to power

• lies + deceit

• to boost morale + give hope

• delude people and shatter hopes (build sb up to bring them down harder)

• beginning of story: Jews could have escaped from Sighet, but Germans not seen as great threat then

• identity

• connected to traditions

• give people reason to exist, a sense of belonging

• purpose of concentration camps ⇒ strip Jews of identity (tattooed numbers, shaving of head, inmate uniforms, health = work = life)

• book makes readers think about what makes a person have an identity (food, name, social status, job?)

• mortality

• key to this = selection (who lives? who dies?) = arbitrariness of life + death

• people change when faced with the idea of mortality (mortality = ‘personality builder’)

• freedom and confinement

• book ⇒ slow destruction of freedom, gradual increase of confinement (limitations, then imprisonment, hard labor, denial of food, family, identity)

• stages of book: freedom, limitation, imprisonment, liberation

• questions whether people are confined in their memories, religious faith, traditions

• race

• relativity of race: what makes one race feel superior to another? what makes another race inferior?

• Eliezer’s little sister has blond hair: she’d normally be considered perfect Aryan example

• race connected to identity

 

K) motifs

• traditions:

• Judaism: created identity for people who for centuries existed without a home, were dispersed across the earth

• maintain fabric of community, create solidarity among inmates

• connection to routine: seen negatively at times (people didn’t want to see change coming)

• conversation/storytelling/information: communication is vital, needed to maintain bonds + identity; seen negatively when it supersedes action

• religious observance

• beginning: Talmud, Jewish studies, prayer rituals, synagogue

• by the end: 
• few references to rites
• many doubt God even exists
• Jewish terminology (eg. Kaddish) almost vanishes
• people don’t observe rites

L) symbols

• fire / flames: Nazi power (crematoria) vs. Biblical fire (wrath of God, Gehenna = hell)

• night:

• beginning of life (God created light), so night shows God’s presence

• in story: present during worst moments 
• 1^st mention = father’s storytelling interrupted with news about deportation of Jews
• when Eliezer arrives in Auschwitz/Birkenau, Buna, etc.

• corpses: literal and spiritual death

• after Eliezer is freed, he sees himself in the mirror as a corpse = end of his faith in
• a just God
• justice
• mercy

• who is the real corpse?
• son abandoning father
• bully inmates (kapos)
• German officers
• Parisian lady throwing coins to natives