Article on Night by Maude Ashton
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Theme: Surviving Conflict
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NIGHT
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By Elie Wiesel
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Article by Maude Ashton
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 and lived in a close-knit Jewish community in
Sighet, Transylvania. The region has long been the scene of conflict and
dispute between Hungary and Romania.
Wiesel’s quiet upbringing was disrupted by the arrival of the Nazis in 1944. The
entire Jewish community was deported to concentration camps in Poland and
Wiesel was separated from his mother and sister on arrival at Auschwitz.
Ten years after the end of World War II, Wiesel wrote his memories in Yiddish,
titled Un die welt hot geshvign (And the world kept silent), which was
compressed into Night and translated into English and French.
He became an American citizen in 1956 and continued to write novels and
plays. His plays include Zalmen, or the Madness of God and The Trial of God
(Le Proces de Shamgorod). His other novels include The Gates of the Forest,
The Oath, The Testament, and The Fifth Son.
He lives in New York City with his wife and their son, Elisha and teaches at
Boston University.
OVERVIEW
The question at the centre of Elie Wiesel’s novel Night is, ‘Where is God?
Where is He?’ (p.76). At that moment there seems to be no answer, even for
the most devout believer, Eliezer, the central character who introduces himself
simply with: ‘I believed profoundly.’ Night exposes, clearly and powerfully,
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Article on Night by Maude Ashton
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aspects of human nature which readers may never have faced in others or in
themselves. In the face of the evil witnessed by Eliezer and his fellow sufferers,
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God does appear to be dead and the bonds that tie father to son and friend to
friend destroyed.
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BACKGROUND & SETTING
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Night is set in Hungary and Germany during World War II. Millions of Jews were
tortured and murdered during this time and Night is the story of a young Jewish
boy who survives the Holocaust.
The novel follows the experiences of a boy from a small village who is
imprisoned by the Nazis and only released at the age of fifteen after living
through the human destruction of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Although the
novel is centred on Eliezer, the Jewish people from the village of Sighet are also
significant characters in the novel.
PLOT AT A GLANCE
The opening of Night introduces the villagers, Moche the Beadle and Eliezer’s
father. Readers become aware that the villagers act and react together to the
events that engulf them; they appear as one character because they act
collectively. The appearance of the Germans and the restrictions placed on the
villagers’ lives are always greeted by a succession of emotions, first fear and
then confidence, first resignation and then reassurance. Readers are aware of
how worsening events affect the village rather than how the protagonist is
affected:
Anguish. German soldiers – with their steel helmets, and their emblem, the
death’s head.
However, our first impressions of the Germans was most reassuring …
The Germans were already in town, the Fascists were already in power, the
verdict had already been pronounced, yet the Jews of Sighet continued to
smile. (p.20)
The effect of this collective reaction, combined with the reader’s own hindsight
of the events which took place at the time, is to reinforce the idea of the
innocence of the villagers and their irrepressible optimism. Moche the Beadle
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had first hand experience of the Gestapo and their slaughter of the Jews, but he
was ignored by the people of his village who chose, instead, to think him mad
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rather than believe his terrible story.
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Despite the encroachments on the liberty of the Jewish people of Sighet the
community continued to adapt to their radically and ominously changing
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circumstances.
Their containment in a ghetto is not seen as something threatening, but as a
chance to live in ‘a little Jewish republic’ (p.22). The reader’s perspective allows
him/her to see the horrible build up and fear grows with every step, but the
people of Sighet are blind to their fate. Wiesel, the author, describes changes
that the Germans imposed deliberately and calmly and he emphasizes, too, the
determined optimism of the Jews of Sighet. Even while waiting to be
transported from their hometown to a destination unknown the people were
‘avid … for one word of confidence’ p.(24).
Despite the many warnings from Moche, the transfer from one ghetto to another
and the final appeal from the servant to leave at the last hour, the family
remained. The reader, horribly aware of what must inevitably follow, hopes for a
decision to adopt some method of escape, any method, but that decision is
never made. Finally, the reality of their imprisonment becomes impossible to
ignore and the Jews of Sighet can no longer accept their own speeches; their
words simply ‘helped to pass the time’ (p.32) until the Germans order them on
to the train and their fate became known to them. Now, a great sense of
helplessness pervades their existence while they wait for their expulsion. The
community in which they lived is ready to profit by their misery, their ‘friends of
yesterday’ waited ‘behind their shutters for the moment when they could pillage
our houses’ (p.33).
The events of the next few days introduce into fourteen-year-old Elie’s life
horrors which no one could imagine and which would change his life forever.
This marks the beginning of the ‘night’ of the title.
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Eighty people were crammed into each cattle truck on the train taking them to
Auschwitz. The conditions inside the train were appalling: people were forced to
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sleep standing up, the air was fetid and the darkness of the night was pierced
by the cries of Madam Schachter, whose prophetic vision of a blazing furnace
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was soon to be made a reality. Their midnight arrival at Auschwitz begins a
terrifying nightmare where an ‘infernal heat’ rises from the ditches and Madame
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Schachter’s vision is recalled in this ‘ante-chamber of hell’:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my
life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never
shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children,
whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
(p.45)
At Auschwitz, Elie’s and his father’s lives become separate from the people of
their village. Not only are they forcibly, physically isolated from the people of
Sighet, but their whole understanding of life changes. Life becomes survival,
and survival, as prisoners often point out, means thinking how to keep yourself
alive no matter what the cost to others. Living in these conditions blunts the
senses as an ‘inhuman weariness’ overcomes even feelings of fear. During this
time and in the experiences that follow, Elie is transformed. A terrible change
overtakes him as he witnesses the atrocities that humans are able to commit on
fellow humans, and that God, inexplicably, allows.
When Elie sees his father die, one of his final reasons for continuing to live is
taken away. He lives through starvation, forced marches through snow, a brutal
whipping, but he questions what is left of himself at the end of his experiences.
What part of ourselves can survive after witnessing such savagery?
One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to
see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself
since the ghetto.
From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in
his eyes as he stared into mine, has never left me. (p.126)
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Article on Night by Maude Ashton
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KEY SCENES
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In your reading of Night you will find that particular scenes and images have
an immediate and long lasting effect on you. It is worthwhile re-reading
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those passages to establish exactly what caused you to remember that
image or scene.
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Ask yourself how that event relates to the rest of the novel? Does it reveal
something special about characters, images or themes that are important to
the development of the novel?
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One scene that seems particularly chilling is Madame Schachter’s vision where
she ‘splits the silence’ with a cry: ‘Fire! I can see fire! I can see fire’, and
continues to suffer from the torment of the prophetic dream until it is realised on
their arrival at Auschwitz (pp.35-39).
The closely sealed cattle truck is crowded, claustrophobic and dark, and the
darkness is a significant prelude to the ‘endless night’ which begins with the
train’s arrival in Auschwitz. In this darkness Madam Schachter has a vision of
fire, which resolves itself later into ‘huge flames’, ‘a furnace’. At first the fire is
thought to be real and outside the cattle truck, but later it is decided that Madam
Schachter is mad. In her cries, Madame Schachter externalises the terror and
anguish felt by all the people imprisoned in the nailed-up cattle truck.
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What is your reaction to this scene?
In some ways this event parallels the warning given by Moche the Beadle: both
predict the events to come, yet neither one is believed. Madame Schachter’s
cries are, however, inescapable and so is the outcome of the journey.
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How does this affect the others’ reactions to her vision?
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When the German workmen throw bread into the cattle wagon transporting the
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starving Jews from Gliewitz to Buchenwald is another key scene. In the middle
of this scene Wiesel projects forward to a scene at Aden:
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Some years later, I watched the same kind of scene The passengers on
our boat were amusing themselves by throwing coins to the ‘natives’, who
were diving in to get them. An attractive, aristocratic Parisienne was
deriving special pleasure from the game. I suddenly noticed that two
children were engaged in a death struggle, trying to strangle each other. I
turned to the lady, ‘Please’, I begged, ‘don’t throw any more money in!’’
Why not?’ she said, ‘I like to give charity … ‘(p.111)
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Significantly this is one of only two breaks in the narrative that occur in the
novel.
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Why do you think that Wiesel broke the narrative to include this particular
scene?
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How does this incident extend and develop the scene that it interrupts?
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How does this scene relate to the theme of indifference?
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Contrast this scene with the other intervening event, Eliezer’s meeting with
the French girl who was kind to him at Buna (p.65).
CHARACTERS & RELATIONSHIPS
Night is based on Elie Wiesel’s own experiences as a child in the concentration
camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
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When discussing the characters in the novel it is important to remember that
the characters on these pages represent people who lived through the
events described.
The experience was so traumatic that Wiesel himself refused to talk about the
Holocaust; in fact, he maintained a ten-year silence until he wrote this book.
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Theme: Surviving Conflict
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Eliezer’s Family
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The novel is concerned mainly with Eliezer and his father, but it is significant
that Eliezer comes from a family that, through Eliezer’s father, had close ties
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with the community. At the beginning of the, a family whose everyday concerns
are mentioned briefly as running a business, seeing about the marriage of a
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daughter and attending to studies are introduced.
Eliezer’s father
Eliezer’s father stands a little apart from the daily business of his family; he is an
unsentimental man who pays more attention to the Jewish community of Sighet
than to his family. The important people of the village come to consult him about
the new decrees that the Germans have made, and that he has established
connections with the Hungarian police. He is able to offer some comfort,
however mistaken, to the people who come to him. The awful irony in Night is
that in the camps he is isolated from this very important contact with other
people and finally, he suffers at the hands of his fellow prisoners when he is no
longer able to take care of himself.
Eliezer
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Night is that the protagonist is a boy
of fourteen. It is easy to forget that it is a child who is forced to witness the
savagery of the SS and the coolly planned and systematic slaughter of
thousands of Jews.
Not only is Eliezer’s family and friends taken from him, he also loses his
innocence and his faith. He is introduced as a devout yeshivah boy who is
attracted to mysticism. He describes his life simply as ‘By day, the Talmud, at
night, the cabbala’ (p.18). Eliezer’s spirituality is soon smothered by the brutality
and deprivations of the camps, until he is forced to acknowledge, ‘Bread, soup –
these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even…’ (p.64).
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Area of Study 1 & 2
Theme: Surviving Conflict
Father and Son
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In thinking and writing about this relationship it would be worthwhile to write
down your own impressions about the importance of the father-son
relationship.
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Why might it be important for a son to respect his father?
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Who bears most of the responsibilities in this relationship?
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Who exercises most of the power?
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What would happen if the situation were reversed?
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Compare this with father-son relationships in other texts.
The relationship between father and son is explored through three different sets
of parents and their children. It is seen to be crucial in all three cases and yet
the sons feel ambivalence towards their fathers which surfaces when that
relationship lessens their chances of survival.
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Why do you think this happens?
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In your workbook compare the relationships of Elie and his father, Rabbi
Eliahou and his son (p.103) and the nameless father and son who struggle
for possession of some bread (pp.112 –113).
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What is there in the relationship between Eliezer and his father that
contrasts with the other two relationships?
THEMES AND ISSUES
Faith
Religious faith is a major theme in Night. Eliezer had dedicated himself to his
faith from childhood, and the novel is populated with people of strong religious
convictions.
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What is the significance of Rosh Hashanah?
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What happened to Eliezer’s faith around the time of Rosh Hashanah?
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Re-read Chapter Five carefully. What other kinds of faith are expressed in
this chapter?
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What caused Akiba Drumer to lose his faith? What might have saved him
from selection?
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Article on Night by Maude Ashton
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Indifference
The adjectives which characterise the persecutors of the Jews in this novel are:
‘cool’; ‘cold’; ‘quiet’; ‘indifferent’. They are ‘without emotion’, ‘merely doing a job’
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in many cases.
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How does this intensify the feeling of outrage at the atrocities that were
committed?
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Not only the Nazis persecuted the Jews, however; those who stood by and
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watched did so too:
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Trace through the novel the instances of silent complicity with the actions
taken by the Nazis, beginning with: ‘Behind their windows, behind their
shutters, our compatriots looked out at us as we passed’ (p.31).
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Eldrige Cleaver of the Black Panther movement in America coined the
phrase, ‘If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.’ How
true is this of the people who simply watched while the Jews were rounded
up and killed?
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Readers develop deep sympathy for the main character, Eliezer, because of
his great candour and honesty. Night offers a strong statement of this
character’s personal disintegration. How much does indifference affect the
disintegration of Eliezer’s character?
Point of View
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Readers are drawn to Eliezer by his honesty and his ability to see clearly
even the most contemptible things about humankind and even himself. Do
you agree?
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The novel is written from Eliezer’s point of view as a fifteen year old boy, but
the events of the novel are so horrific as to make readers forget this at
times. What is the effect of the reminders of his age when they appear in the
novel?
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Read Chapter One and take note of the subtle build up of tension that gains
momentum as the chapter progresses. Eliezer’s mother is instrumental in
keeping some semblance of normality in the family routine, despite what she
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must be feeling herself. Rewrite the scene of moving into the ‘little ghetto’
from the mother’s point of view.
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ESSAY TOPICS
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‘The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the
flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame
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had entered into my soul and consumed it.
Elie’s religious commitment is an essential feature of who he is. Once he
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loses his faith in God he is destroyed. Do you agree?
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‘Bread, soup – these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than
that even.’
Faith in something, whether it be God, family or the strength of society to
uphold the rights of the individual is essential to give us a reason for living.
Is it enough simply to survive? What answer does Night seem to suggest?
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‘The town seemed deserted. Yet our friends of yesterday were probably
waiting behind their shutters for the moment when they could pillage our
houses.’
Night makes readers question their own faith in humanity by exposing the
evil that is in us all. Do you agree?
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‘People said: “The Russian army’s making gigantic strides forward…Hitler
won’t be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to.”’
Night is an important book because it keeps alive the memory of the
Holocaust and bears witness to the suffering inflicted on millions of Jews.
Discuss.
Creative responses
1
Using the image of night, write about an experience that caused a great
change in yourself.
2
Continue the conversation between Eliezer and the French girl he meets in
Paris many years later. What might their recollections be?
3
Write a conversation between Eliezer and his parents about Moche the
beadle’s ‘story’ and try to account for Moche’s changed personality.
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Much of the impact of the writing in Night comes from short sentences,
and the layer upon layer of detail: ‘I glanced at my father. How he had
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changed! His eyes had grown dim. I would have liked to speak to him, but
I did not know what to say. The night was gone. The morning star was
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shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person.’ (p.48).
Model a piece of your own writing on this style.
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Oral presentations
1
Present a talk to the class based on this statement of Elie Wiesel’s:
‘Although Auschwitz on the one level was a Jewish tragedy, the
implications were universal and the applications now are universal’.
2
Present a scene from the novel that demonstrates the change that Elie
undergoes during his imprisonment in Auschwitz.
ANALYSING A SAMPLE QUESTION
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‘People said: “The Russian army’s making gigantic strides forward …
Hitler won’t be able to do us any harm, even if he wants to.”’
Night is an important book because it keeps alive the memory of the
Holocaust, and bears witness to the suffering inflicted on millions of
Jews. Discuss.
There are two parts to this question: the quotation and the context in which it
appears in the text and the statement that Night is important because it keeps
alive the memory of the Holocaust. You are asked to discuss that statement in
the light of the preceding quotation.
Look at the quotation first of all:
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Whose ‘voice’ do we hear in this statement? It probably isn’t Elie, since the
statement is expressed in the plural: ‘…Hitler won’t be able to do us any
harm’. The sentence is conversational, one which we would hear in the
beginning of the novel when the people of Sighet were trying to ignore the
ominous signs that were building around them.
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In what context do we read this statement? One of the devices that Wiesel
uses throughout this novel is to allow the reader to know more than the
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characters. This quotation is a good example of that device. The reader
knows that the Germans will do great harm to the Jews and that their
confidence is tragically misplaced, and the rest of the text reveals that to us.
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Now look at the prompt:
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The key words in the prompt are ‘important book’, ‘the memory of the
Holocaust’, ‘bears witness’. You need to know why you think Night is an
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important book. While you might agree that it is because it keeps alive the
memory of the Holocaust you might also like to add some other things.
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Remember your instruction in this prompt is to discuss the statement ––
essays are usually more interesting when there is some refinement of the
terms of the prompt. You might argue that Night isn’t just a memorial to a
tragic time in history, it is also a living record of the spiritual destruction of an
individual. Do not forget you will need to be ready with evidence and
quotations from the novel to support your opinion.
TEXT
Wiesel, Elie, Night, Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1981.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Maude Ashton has taught English at secondary and tertiary levels in Australia
and abroad. She currently teaches VCE English and Literature on the
Mornington Peninsula.
See Sabrina Chakman’s Insight Text Guide on Night, Insight
Publications, for in-depth notes on this novel.
For further details:
• see Insight Publications Order Form on this CD-ROM
• or fax Insight on 03 9523 2044
• or shop online at: www.insightpublications.com.au
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