If you have read the posthumously published Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl”, you should continue to this book, Night by Elie Wiesel, a distinct and succinct version of the former book. It is not a modification of Anne Frank’s work, but a similar work with a different viewpoint.
Several people, especially the Jews were captured during the German mid 1940s war, and very little of these people made it out of their hidden places, convalescent, or concentration camps safely, and even a lesser amount of these people thought of describing their experiences in black and white. To Elie (fully called Eliezer), he must have undergone this time to bear witness. He should write.
Disclaimer: This is not a summary of Wiesel’s Night, but a piece to make you see the reasons you should or should not get the book. It is strictly objective, but of course, also with a pinch of personal view.
Our review of Night by Elie Wiesel
We think Elie Wiesel’s Night is more than a book. It is a record, an account of human existence that shouldn’t go untold. It entails several unbelievable events—a nonfiction work where even soup reportedly tasted of corpses.
It has the concept of uncertainty well-defined, and gives an impression of what humans can be like in the worst of situations. Some turned sadists for life and gave up, some still manage to smile and survive, a few others try to chase their passions even in those trying times.
In the book, it happened that the German government at the time perceived the Jews as less than they were and wanted to get rid of them by incineration—and other all inhumane means.
At the time, it occured that Sighet-born teenager Wiesel and his family were captured alongside other Jews and taken away to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1944.
With the exception of two, no Jew among the thousands taken seemed to have an idea of what danger was surreptitiously building up against them when the German officers visited to make friends with them.
The two exceptions, Moishe the Beadle and Madame Schäcter foretold the horror they saw and perceived respectively. Their voices meant nothing to the people because it was nearly unimaginable to think that such an unprecedented horrendous plot could await the Jews. Not even when the German officers faked friendship with the people.
Before long, after Moishe’s warning to the people, the Jews were transferred to the concentration camp at Birkenau, where the reality of their mess first occurred to them.
At the camp, Elie noticed for the first time in his life, a fiery pit where humans are cremated alive. Other inmates there attested to the fact that the humans burnt are not dead yet. One energetic Jew inmate was also reportedly forced to throw his father into the burning fire at the camp. He did because he must.
Occasionally, one will have to tell lies or pretend to fall into better hands at the camp. The boy who had to burn his father was in that position because he is energetic (so many others didn’t show they are strong enough), to be in the same group at Birkenau, Elie and his father had to lie about their age: the former claiming 18 and the latter 45. It worked.
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The night the Jews arrived at Auschwitz was the last night Elie saw his mother and sister. He and his father went the same way, and they managed to stay close to each other throughout their days at the camps until death did them apart when it was about time they’re liberated.
On April the 5th, Elie’s father died of dysentery lying very close to his son. Unfortunately! By April 11 in the same camp, all inmates were freed by the Americans. He had lost his family.
Elie Questioned The Existence of God
“I was the accuser, God the accused,” Elie had said.
Well, while Elie’s Night is what I can recommend as one material to anyone who wants to read the history of the Jews, I would equally note that the book’s discussion about the topic of God’s existence has been widely exaggerated.
It didn’t talk so much about whether God doesn’t exist. Even after those trying times, Elie remained a believer. His thoughts about whether God can truly exist and watch humans suffer the way they did is what many other believers in his condition would have thought if we searched their minds. Is this not evident in the fact that even his religious father stopped him from fasting when they were supposed to?!
So, if you need some plausible materials that deeply question the existence of God, you may want to try some other books, not this.
In conclusion
The first most remarkably horrible night in Wiesel’s life is the first night he spent at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Elie decided to take his life by himself at that very point, but as perhaps predestined, he wrote about others, even those who died at the last minutes of their emancipation, years later.
What is most inviting about this book is its validity. Given that it happened to some people, it is a good way to learn about the world around us from an entirely rare but honest view. Elie Wiesel won laurels for this!
To know what holocaust survivor Elie himself thinks about this work, I’d recommend you read his December 10, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. The speech reads partly in the images below:
Night by Elie Wiesel was dedicated to his family.
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