"There Are Rumors Going Around": Elie Wiesel's Night

Elie Wiesel's Night is one of the most powerful accounts of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Even nearing defeat, the Nazis continued their mass ghettoizations and slayings. Elie was caught in the tail end of this storm and faced the undeniable end. Through some great persevering, luck, and his father's help, Elie somehow became a survivor of one of the most viscous attacks on a single race of people in mankind's history. Although, Night takes the reader to an almost unworldly setting, where death was common and life the most precious of all treasure. Elie Wiesel is living proof of how strong the human will to survive truly is.

Most people would think that the Nazis would find much trouble preparing the Jews for deportation to work and death camps. But in most cases the Nazis did not find much standing in their way. When Elie recalls the expulsion of the foreign Jews, he noted that the tension that it brought to his small town of Sighet soon dissipated and life returned to normal. When the German army did make their way into his town (he mentions seeing the Death Head's pins), the officers were living in private houses and even in Jewish homes. Their "infamous brutality" was never recognized during this period by the people of Sighet. They were amazed that the German soldiers staying with them were polite, some bearing gifts of chocolate to their hosts. Although distant, the soldiers never showed any hatred or dislike at first.

After Passover, all the synagogues were closed. The Jews went on with their lives, allowing this doctrine to pass, and continued their services in private homes instead. Though this was not the end of their suffering. Soon after the closure of the synagogues, the soldiers arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. This sent a shock wave of fear through the community. The Jews were then restricted to their homes and all valuables were confiscated. Yellow stars were then worn by all Jews, by decree and there was no travel allowed after 6 o'clock in the evening. Finally came the ghetto. The Jews were made to stay in certain blocks of houses with many people to a room. These blocks were then surrounded by barbed wire and walls, the buildings facing the outside of the ghetto boarded up. The Germans were sure to keep all plans secret, allowing for the avoidance of mass fear and panic. When it came time for the deportation, or rather the liquidation of the ghetto, the Jews went along without fighting, not knowing their destination. Even upon arrival at the camps, the Germans lied to the people, telling them that they would not be split up and that conditions were favorable.

The reaction of the town of Sighet is much that of all the other towns so much like this one. The all-around disbelief is understandable considering the immeasurable atrocities that were being committed. It was nearly unbelievable that any of this would have occurred at all. After the first deportation of the foreign Jews, which included Elie's friend Moshe the Beadle, a very wise person, there was a general avoidance of what had happened. When Moshe made his miraculous escape and returned to Sighet a broken man, no one believed the stories that he had to tell. He spoke of the shootings and the trains and how babies were thrown in the air and used as target practice. The community believed him only to be mad. His stories seemed untrue and outlandish, especially with the good news from London over the radio about the Red army pushing the Germans back. Their denial was reinforced by these promising reports. The Jews in Sighet doubted that Hitler could do anything at this point (in the spring of 1944, Germany's defeat was mentioned on the radio as eminent). They even doubted that he want to exterminate the Jews at all. The change to a fascist government was only a change of administration, an abstraction. The people of Sighet did not feel directly threatened. Their denial went as far as to not find the ghetto so grim. They created their own government machinery to operate in their ghetto.

On a personal level, the holocaust changed the relationship between Elie and his father. Before the deportation, Elie's father showed no emotion in the home. He was concerned more with others than his own family. The first time Elie saw his father cry, a man he believed was incapable of tears, was on the day of their deportation. His stubbornness caused his family the few chances they had of escape. When Moshe the Beadle returned and told his stories, Elie wanted to leave the country, but his father did not want to. After deportation, in an unguarded ghetto, their old servant Martha offered them refuge at her village, but again his father did not want to. His first words to Elie when entering Auschwitz was "It's a shame...a shame that you couldn't have gone with your mother...I saw several boys of your age going with their mothers." He gave his son no comfort, just shame that Elie did not go with his mother. After marching to a work camp in Auschwitz, Elie's first bowl of soup was swallowed by his father. Elie admitted that he was a spoiled child, but his father should have made him eat the soup for his own heath. But soon, Elie's father began to give up his rations for his hungry son. On several occaisons, Elie had his father moved to be with him during easy jobs. This bonding, this unspoken love, aided them in their survival day to day. The point when Elie and his father understood each other the most clearly was in the moment of silence they spent together at the turn of the New Year. During the holiday of Yom Kippur, Elie did not fast to please his father. It was too dangerous to fast considering the prisoners fasted all year round. Between each other, they learned a valuable lesson for survival: Elie's father needed to show his affection, and Elie had to take his father's silence as affection. This aided them in their survival, and ultimately to Elie's becoming a survivor of the holocaust.

In finality, Night has introduced me to some of the horrors that I have only heard about in books, without feeling. Here, I have seen the hangings, the gallows, the starvation with my own eyes. The terror and fear itself would have killed me. Survival was a matter of luck and shear will. It surprises me that anyone had survived considering the massive brutalities that were committed. I am glad that I have read this book and have seen the terrors that are so hard to place into words.