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mickeyc
mickeyc
Student
High School - 11th Grade

In 3-5 sentences, relate what happens to Moishe  from Night when he is deported in 1942.

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Posted by mickeyc on Monday October 26, 2009 at 1:23 PM and tagged with character, night.

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  1. scarletpimpernel Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Moishe is deported from Sighet because he is a foreigner, unlike Elie and his family.  Elie's family and the other Jews of Sighet feel sorry for Moishe, but don't protest his deportation because they believe that he is going to a "work camp."  Moishe's deportation experience is beyond comprehension.  He is grouped with the other deportees, and most of them are slaughtered.  Moishe plays dead, but in doing so, he witnesses the soldiers tossing infants into the air and using them for target practice.  When Moishe escapes and returns to Sighet because he knows that he must warn them of what deportation really means, no one will believe him.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/night/characters

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    Posted by scarletpimpernel on Monday October 26, 2009 at 3:33 PM


  2. akannan Teacher
    Middle School

    eNotes Editor

    The deportation of Moishe is bad, and quite horrific.  Yet, where Wiesel seems to be making a critical point about his assessment of the Holocaust is not in his deportation.  What matches this level of cruelty is the disbelief and discrediting that happens when he returns to Sighet to let others know of what he saw.  Rather than accept his experience and validate his voice, the Jewish individuals of Sighet dismiss him as crazy and refuse to acknowledge his experience as truth. This indifference is a sin, according to Wiesel, because it empowers the aggressors and severs bonds between individuals.  Within Moshe's story, there is the presence of someone who understood and saw what was going to await so many, but was given no voice.  In the final analysis, this is what Wiesel thinks is one of the worst aspects of the Holocaust:  The denial and dismissivenes of others that severed bonds, making it easier for the Nazis to commit atrocities in an unchecked manner.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/night-wiesel/characters

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    Posted by akannan on Monday October 26, 2009 at 6:08 PM