Night
Beadle, the poor barefoot of Sighet, talked to me
for long hours of the revelations and mysteries of
the cabbala." Moshe the Beadel is a man without
means and, therefore, no investments to safeguard
except the people.
When the foreign Jews are deported, Eliezer
says goodbye to Moshe. A few days later, Moshe
retums with a report on the massacreof those deported. The community dismisses him as a madman. They dismiss him becauseif he is to be believed, then they too will be as poor as he is. When
the SS arrive to cordon off the Jews into a ghetto
and then deport them, Moshe says he tried to wam
them. Then he flees.
pipel
A pipel is a young boy servant of Oberkapo
(a prisoner put in charge of several barracks) and
often used as a sex slave. One pipel in particular
was the servant of a beloved Oberkapo who had
been killed when he was found hiding weapons
for the camp resistance.The pipel refused to give
information under torture. He was hanged before
all the prisoners. The normal executioner refused
to be involved so three SS took over. It is a horrifrc executial since (he boy was too light to die
by his own weight. He struggled for hours at the
end of the rope, "That night the soup tasted of
corpses."
Madame Schiichter
An olderwoman,MadameSchechter,
is huddled in a corner of the wagon with her l0 year-old
son. She was a "quiet woman with tense, burning
eyes." Her husbandand two eldest sonshad already
been taken. On the first day of the joumey to
Auschwitz she went out of her mind. She moaned,
asked where her family was, and then she became
hysterical. At night she would shriek "I can see
f,ue!" Her shrieks would come suddenly and terriff
everyone. But she did see fire. The last time she
shrieked and everyone looked, they saw the flames
of the crematorv.
Stein
Reizel Stein's husband from Antwerp seeks
out Chlomo among the new arrivals at Auschwitz
for news of his family. He has not s€enthem since
1940. Eliezer is faster than his father to recall the
man as a relative. He lies and says that his mother
has heard from Reizel. This gives'Stein great joy.
But then, after anothertrain arrives, Stein leams the
truth and stops coming round to visit.
234
Tibi
Representingthe political opposite of the Hasidic elders who preached nonviolence and patience, were two brothers named Tibi and Yossi.
They believed in the precepts of Zionism, a political pressuremovement active mostly in Ewope to
convince the world powers to create a Jewish state
of Israel in the area of Palestine. They were Jews
from Czechoslovakia whose parents had been exterminated at Birkenau. "They lived body and soul
for each other." They befriend Eliezer with whom
they share the regret that their parents had not gone
to Palestinewhile there was still time to do so.The
two boys taught Eliezer Hebrew chants while they
'
worked.
Chlbmo Wiesel
Eliezer's father, Chlomo, is a "cultured, rather
unsentimentalman ... more concemedwith othen
than with his own family." He is held in great esteem by the community and symbolizes Abraham.
As Abraham, however, he refuses to sacrifice his
son. He lives, while in the death camps, to try and
keep his son alive. Eliezer, as a representationof
Isaac, also safeguardshis father. This relationshipis
the most important of the story. The bitterest mo
ment comes when Clomo believes himself selected
and gives Eliezer his inheritance-a knife andspoon.
They have done well together until the end,
when they are shipped to Gleiwitz, and then taken
to Buchenwald. They are transported in opencan
(despite the snow) with the result that Chlorno
comes down with dysentery.Eliezer doesall hecan,
to comfort his father. He begins to resentthe burden. He is tempted to take his father's rationbut
does not. The resentrnent he feels for his father.
haunts him. The haunting grows worse when,
Chlomo begins yelling to Eliezer for water.A guardI
silenceshim with a blow from a truncheon.At somc
point, Chlomo is taken away to the crematorystill'.
breathing. Eliezer could only stand by.
..
:l
;:a
Eliezer Mesel
The narrating survivor of the camps is Eli
who becameA-77 13. Deeply fascinatedby H
Judaism, he finds an indulgent teacher in
theBeadle.The first cracksin his faith begin,
ever. when Moshe refurns fiom
changed in demeanor and waming about i
ing doom. The cracks widen inside withevery
spent in the camps. The crack is not exactlya
jection of God; it is a dismissal shoutedoul
anger. "Never shall I forget those moments
mwdered my God and my Soul and tumed
Novals
f or
Sru
I r J.::,:
.*
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