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Night by Elie Wiesel

Summary:   The setting of the book Night by Elie Wiesel is the Holocaust. The book's themes include deportations, denial, optimism, false hope, and God. Night is enjoyable and has something for everyone.

One Emotional Night

The book "Night" by Elie Wiesel is a book which deals with the happenings of the Holocaust and of the Nazi death camps. It also deals with the death of a boy's family and his pain. The boy's name is Eliezer Wiesel and he goes through the painful times of the Holocaust, where he seems to loose his faith in God and his hope.

This book was written by Elie Wiesel, a writer of such novels as Night, Dawn, The Testament, and The Fifth Son. He was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania. Sighet, his home town, was unaffected by WWII until 1944, when he and his fellow Jews were deported. His father, mother, and younger sister all died in the war, but his two older sisters did not.

The main character, Eliezer, is a devoted Jew who wants to study Jewish mysticism. His father does not think that Eliezer is old enough to start to study, so Eliezer decides to study Cabbala secretly with Moshe the Beadle. Moshe the Beadle was a humble yet poor man who worked in the Hasidic Temple.

The first issue that is dealt with almost immediately is of deportations, and of false hope. In the town of Sighet, Transylvania, all of the foreign or non-Hungarian Jews were deported and taken to concentration camps. Once the train got to the concentration camps in Poland, they were all taken to the forest, where the Jews were made to dig there own graves. There the Gestapo slaughtered all of the Jews. But Moshe the Beadle, who was deported along with all his fellow foreign Jews, wasn't killed, but he was injured. He ran from Jewish house to house, and finally got back to Sighet. Back in Sighet he warned all the people in the town of theses slaughterings and of concentration camps, but nobody seemed to believe him. Everyone just though that he either went crazy or they thought that he was just looking for pity. But he continued to warn the Jews that he is telling the truth and that there is no reason to be happy, but rather to be prepared. This whole issue just shows that people had optimism, but not the optimism which is useful. They had false hope of the Nazis not being able to get all the way to their town, for the Russians would save everyone. They had hope, and were optimistic, but they were not seeing straight. They were in denial, and could not see that a bull was rushing straight at them. The people of Sighet kept on living their normal lives, but did not see deportations coming.

Throughout this book, people were irrationally optimistic, and this is shown even after the Fascists went into power. In 1944, Germany invaded Hungary and the German army itself entered Sighet. At first, things seemed to be fairly peaceful, but during the Passover of 1944, "persecution" started. Eliezer's father refused to leave the country, and this is again another example of false optimism, or idiotic optimism. At first, the Jews of Sighet were not allowed to leave their homes for a period of time, then all Jews were required to wear the Yellow star. Shortly following those two rules, all Jews were confined to a small, cramped Ghetto. Still, the people living in the Ghetto live their lives normally, just more confined. Finally, a shot to the stomach is given to the Jews of Sighet; all Jews will be deported.

When the deportations started, people began to wake up, and start thinking that this war is happening, and this war is affecting them. One woman in particular stands out of the cattle car. This woman was separated from her son and her husband, and was going ballistic. She said that she sees burning furnaces in the distance. She is beaten for this, and nobody seems to believe this. But once the car arrives at Auschwitz or Birkenau, everyone sees large burning furnaces. This is a perfect visual to show people who were not involved in the Holocaust the sights of a concentration camp. The sights of lines and lines of people waiting to be murdered. The chambers were flocks of Jews are to be killed. This again, must have opened up all of the eyes, which had false hope or optimism. All the Jews who thought something like this would never happen to them have come to the realization that they are waiting to be butchered.

Some may have different opinions on the main theme of this book, but two of the obvious themes are God's existence and God's judgment, and optimism. The first theme, God's existence or judgment, is evident in many places. In chapter four during a hanging ceremony, a man behind Eliezer keeps on asking where God is. Eliezer seems to take a notice to this comment. Eliezer decides to not celebrate Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. He makes it obvious that he still believes that God is there, and that he is present, but rather Eliezer doubts his justice, and his judgment. Eliezer accuses God for putting the Nazis in power, and for creating the concentration camps. Eliezer is obviously mad at God, and Eliezer continues to question God, but not his existence throughout the book.

A second theme which seems to be presented in this book is that of optimism and false hope. This was an annoying thing which went on through the whole book. Every chapter, there was someone saying that nothing bad was going to happen, or that they do not believe something someone has said. This goes back to the first chapter, in which Moshe the Beadle comes back with awful news. Moshe the Beadle tells Eliezer the story of all of the Jews who were deported from Sighet. His story is of the Jews digging their own graves, and of the Gestapo killing the Jews and embarrassing them in front of their friends and family. His story, nobody believes, and just think he has gone mad or wants pity, but really they are just denying something because they do no want it to be true. Some people might believe this is just simple optimism, but really it is complete denial and ignorance. The people of Sighet are being ignorant to the fact that the war is happening, and is going to affect themselves, and their friends, and their families.

A thing which stands out in the book comes at the very end. On the last page, Elie Wiesel states "We thought only of that. Not of revenge, not of our families. Nothing but bread....... and to sleep with girls." This may not be striking or a new revelation, but the people who came out of the camps immediately thought of food. Nobody thought of finding family, only to find food and sex. One thing that may be striking is that nobody looked for revenge on the SS guards and the Nazis. They thought solely of themselves. Now one would think that somebody might want to shoot a person, or kill a person who had persecuted them for years, but no. All the Jews wanted was to look out for themselves, not even for their families. It was an every man for himself situation and all the people were thinking about was food and sex. Now one would say to themselves "Oh the first thing that I would do would be to look for my family and make sure that they are alright." But that would most likely not be the case if he or she came out of a camp where he or she barely got food or drink all day. He or she would think immediately to find themselves food, and that is exactly what the people discussed in the last chapter did.

"Night" by Elie Wiesel was an enjoyable book, and had some good ideas and concepts in it. It touched on real Holocaust issues, which lots of books don't'. The book touched on the aftermath when the people looked for food and sex, rather than the "perfect" scenario of looking out for your family, which isn't very realistic. Elie Wiesel also touched on the subject of denial and how people didn't think that they would be affected by the Nazis. All in all, Elie Wiesel did a great job writing this Holocaust book, which can be enjoyed by any reader. This book doesn't have any gruesome things which would make a younger reader cry or be scared, but it has just enough suspense and issues which makes it good for even the most experienced reader. All in all, this book has something for everyone, which is a rare occurrence in a book.