review
The night of Elie Wiesel is the first book in a trilogy (the night, the dawn and the day). The book is about the destruction of the Jewish community that lived in Sighet (Hungary, Transylvania) during the Second World War. Elie Wiesel, who comes from a devout Hasidic family, tells a poignant way how his close relatives were killed by the Nazis. He himself is the only one who gets it off alive.
data
- title: The night
- author: Elie Wiesel
- year: 1986 (1958)
- publisher: Gooi & Sticht
- ISBN: 90 304 0360 8
About the author Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, a town in Transylvania (Hungary). He comes from a Hasidic family. During the Second World War he lost his entire family. After the war he is a survivor who testifies about the dead. Elie Wiesel has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Contents ‘The night’
The book begins with the description of Elie’s childhood in Sighet. He comes from a devout Hasidic family. He learns the Talmud during the day and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) in the evening. He receives instruction from Moshe-the-sexton. Actually, Elie is still much too young to learn from Kabbalah, but he is very fascinated by it. Together with Moshe-the-sexton he sometimes reads one page from the Zohar dozens of times. One day the foreign Jews are expelled from Sighet and transported to Poland. Moshe-the sexton is part of that. However, he manages to escape and tells what happened when he returns to Sighet. All Jews are killed and dumped into deep pits they had to dig themselves. Moshe warns that this will also happen to the other Jews in Sighet. And that also happens. The Hungarian police put all Jews on transport. The Jews are confused. Elie Wiesel’s family is also transported in animal wagons. Elie sees his father cry for the first time. People sit on top of each other in the animal wagon and have little oxygen. One woman goes all out. She constantly screams that there is a fire. However, no one sees anything. The others try to silence the woman. Eventually she becomes still and sits motionless for hours, staring in front of her. The train stops in Auschwitz. After hours of waiting, the train continues on its way. The end station is Birkenau. There they are beaten and shaved. They are given prison clothes, which are exchanged among themselves because they don’t fit. Elie tries to stay as close to his father as possible. He doesn’t want to lose him. It is determined where they have to go: the labor camp or the crematorium. Elie is face to face with Dr. Mengele who decides he must go to labor camp. Fortunately his father is also allowed to go to the labor camp. Elie begins to question his faith when he learns about the crematoria. How can heaven be silent when so many people are burned? Not much later, Elie and his father have to go to Auschwitz, which is nearby. The first impression of the camp seems to be better than Birkenau. There are concrete barracks instead of wooden barracks. In Auschwitz they meet family from Antwerp. They don’t stay long in Auschwitz. The next camp is called Buna. There Elie and his father work in the electrodepot. They are both beaten. Elie is forced to have his gold crown pulled from his mouth. They also witness several executions. For example, one man is killed who tries to eat soup from a pan. Two men and a child are also hanged. The child lives for another half hour because it is too light. The other prisoners have to watch during the executions. Yet there is also hope because the Americans bomb the camp for an hour. With joy, the prisoners clean up the rubble. The Jewish New Year is celebrated at the end of the summer. Elie seems to be losing faith in God again. How can God allow this misery? There will also be another selection. Dr. Mengele is also present here as in Birkenau. Elie and his father come through the selection well. Others are less fortunate like a rabbi. After days of praying and reciting texts from the Talmud, the rabbi is in danger of losing his faith in God. He says goodbye and is taken to Birkenau. Meanwhile, Elie develops a growth on his foot. He needs surgery. The hospital seems to be bringing some relief with better food. But also here is selected. After 14 days, Elie returns to his barracks. Soon Elie, his father, and other prisoners will move to another camp. The reason for the transport is because the Russians are approaching. The Germans want to do everything to destroy as many Jews as possible. Elie tells about the grueling journey in the icy cold that has to be made running. Many deaths occur. Elie runs like a machine, barely noticing his legs carrying him. Eventually they end up in Gleiwitz. A new selection is being made for the trip by train to Central Germany. After spending days and nights on the train, they arrive in Buchenwald. The prisoners are starving and are fighting for bread. Elie’s father is more dead than alive. He lasts a few more days, but dies when he is hit with a club by a German camp guard. He is taken to the crematorium. Elie is left alone. He can hardly cry for the death of his father, he is so exhausted. After a few weeks, the camp is liberated by the Americans. The prisoners have only one desire: bread. There is no sense of revenge. After a few days, Elie gets poisoned. He hovers between life and death for three weeks. When he is well, he looks in the mirror for the first time: he sees a corpse. He will never forget this image.
Etsel opinion about ‘The night’
The night is a small book of about 112 pages. But it is a book that makes a huge impression. It didn’t take much longer either, because that would only have depressed the reader. Elie Wiesel has written a penetrating account of the atrocities of the Shoah (Holocaust). He ends up losing almost all of his family. His father stays with him the longest, but in the end does not survive. It is very understandable that during these horrors Elie doubts and even denies (the existence of) God. Those who experience so much suffering simply cannot do otherwise. It is still a miracle that after the war he started to believe in God again.
Much has been written about the Shoah, also by religious Jews. They have been unable to find an explanation for this disaster. The destruction of Jerusalem and of the Holy Temple had a cause. But this is about inexplicable hatred. Elie Wiesel herself has no explanation for it either. Rather, he doubts the existence of God. Nevertheless, I notice that he always manages to persevere. He has the will to live on, although he sometimes wants to lie dead in the snow to die. Ultimately, his will to survive helped him get through the war. But what about those other Jews who did die? They too had the will to continue living, but were either shot without mercy or simply could not continue, their body and / or spirit gave out.
By reading the book you learn to put everything in life back into perspective. Despite the crisis in 2009, we are currently living in such a blessed time in the West that we almost forget what it was like 68 years ago. I often wonder whether we will never experience such a dark period in history again. Probably not so soon in Europe, although the war in Yugoslavia where thousands of Muslims were slaughtered in the 1990s showed that something like this can happen again, even in Europe. We can also observe how European anti-Semitism has spread to the Middle East and how negative thoughts are now being held about Jews there. A country like Iran is openly anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish. The Palestinians also harbor a deep hatred for the Jews. In that respect, I am wary of the future and see such a disaster at times. Especially when the Shoah sinks further from our memory.
Many books on the Shoah have been written by Jewish war victims. Some books have become world famous, such as Anne Frank’s diary; other books are less famous. This book by Elie Wiesel has also become world famous. Perhaps it is even more impressive than Anne Frank’s Diary. Anyway, it’s not fair to compare these books; Wiesel wrote the book as an adult and Anne Frank as a child. In fact, every book about the Shoah of survivors is an important testimony. They were able to recount and write down this horrible event. We must never forget their suffering.