Elie Wiesel's Harrowing Personal Narrative

 It’s a harrowing account of one of the worst periods in human history, told from the point of view of a teenager ripped from his life, family, and aspirations. Elie Wiesel's novel, "Night" which is based on his own experiences in the Sighet ghetto and the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchwald, is awfully harrowing. Enough so to change the world.

"Night," tells the tragic story of a teenage Jewish boy living in the small village of Sighet in Transylvania. When the novel starts, Wiesel depicts him as studious, dedicated to stying the Torah along with his mentor. Although things are quick to change when that same mentor is captured by the SS and manages to return to the village, reporting the sight of men and women startlingly being executed at gunpoint by Nazi soldiers. The town doesn't believe him at first, but the reality of their situation comes home when the Jewish citizens of Sighet are moved into a ghetto, then onto a cattle car and transported to Auschwitz/Birkenau. It’s there that this novel truly and tragically begins.

Just as I did (at least the first time, I've read this novel more than once in my life), most readers approach "Night" knowing what the story is going to be about, and despite its brevity of being around 100 pages, it is an intense journey, one that I find very hard to forget; I know I am not alone. I first read "Night" when I was around 15-years-old, the same age as Wiesel was when he was deported from his home and saw his mother and sister for the last night. When rereading the novel, I instantly recalled how impactful that connection, across time and history, was. It’s hard not to put oneself in Wiesel’s shoes as he experiences the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, watches his friends and family members murdered and experiences the loss of his faith, health, and freedom while you are reading this. As Eliezer, the author himself, and readers make their way through the novel, the overarching feeling is the horror and awe at how seemingly educated and disciplined men could act. It is frightening.

In addition to being an unforgettable personal memoir, "Night" is additionally of great historical importance. Currently, it is the most commonly read personal read account of the Holocaust and features syllabi worldwide, which isn't a surprise. This factor is due in part to Wiesel’s mastery of language (even translated from the original Yiddish and French). He doesn't shy away from addressing what he honestly saw in the camps. His address is almost always direct, leaving little room for interpretation on the part of the reader. For instance, although he might not explicitly state that men were being shot on the death march towards the end of the novel, his vivid description of both the gunfire and men falling to the ground paints a very clear, yet painful picture. 

During the time that "Night" was published, the most well-known, and read a memoir of the Holocaust was the incredibly important work, "The Diary of Anne Frank". Not short-sighting that classic at all (that I first read when I was 12), when speaking about "Night", Wiesel illustrates a contrast between the two important works. Anne Frank’s diary, he points out, ends where "Night" begins. It was, publishers thought, more suited and available for public consumption by plain minds than "Night". It is impacted with words about the truth of the concentration camps and a young man’s suffering. Following when "Night" was published and fully came into the public’s eye, it sold millions of copies and made its way into classrooms and homes.

Throughout the novel, Eliezer battles with his faith, feeling that God has abandoned him and his people throughout the pages of this novel. This spiritual upheaval occurs at the same time that he’s led forcefully into slave labor and feels himself starving to death. These personal experiences are moving, but they also allude to the broader nature of the Holocaust and the experiences that millions of Jews and other marginalized groups endured. Eliezer’s story in this novel is just one story out of tens of millions. One that survived, out of a lesser number. 

His story also makes historical places, events, and people really the way that a story is supposed to. Today, the Holocaust is nearly 80 years in the past, making it incredibly distant, especially for young people learning about it in history books, but we need to remember it. "Night", on the other hand, takes places like Auschwitz during the time of the Holocaust and makes them real, in all their terror plus destruction. It is this connection between the past and the present that Wiesel strove to maintain. He knew that the worst thing that could happen to anyone now, after the Holocaust was over, the axis powers finally defeated, and the camps liberated, was that the Holocaust and all those who were lost would be sadly forgotten. He made it one of the main goals of his life to ensure that this fear never becomes a reality and "Night", along with his 56 other novels, is one of the most powerful and successful steps he took. 

When first starting "Night" (for the first time), it’s easy to predict the novel's ending and what one thinks is going to occur. The camps liberated, Eliezer will be returned to his remaining family members (which sadly isn't all of them), overwhelmed with a new sense of freedom and relief. Although, that’s not exactly what happens. The author sought to painfully illustrate the lasting influence of the Holocaust on his character of Eliezer, who is a clear extension of himself. Eliezer stands before a mirror, sees himself for the first time since he and his family members were sent to the ghetto, and only recognized himself as a plain corpse (part of him did die, to be fair). This period of his life is not one that he, or anyone else who went through what he did, whether with him or in another camp, can shake off in favor of a new one. It became a lasting part of him, one that he carried till his recent death in 2016. 

In finalization, it makes sense to go back to the beginning of the novel and to Wiesel’s forward in this story. He tells why he felt compelled to write "Night", saying it was his "duty (is) to bear witness for the dead and for the living." Truly "Night" preserves the lives of the dead reminding the living of the losses the world suffered and could suffer again if the past is forgotten. That is why it is a full necessity that none of us ever forget.