Question

What does night symbolize, as a theme and idea, in Elie Wiesel's novel Night?

Accepted Answer

The title of Elie Wiesel's book Night is no accident, as night is used symbolically throughout the story. Night, of course, is dark, and its use in this story is no accident' it represents the loss of innocence, the loss of life, and the loss of faith.
The most recognizable passage in this story occurs the night Elie arrives at the concentration camp.

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 those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

It is this night that changes everything for him, but many awful things in this story happen during a literal night. The night before their arrival at the camp, Mrs. Schächter spends the entire train ride warning about the very thing they all find when they arrive at Auschwitz, and now it has happened. When they hangings occur, the prisoners eat the soup that "tasted of corpses" at night. Elie's father dies and is taken away in the night. 
Elie loses his innocence in this dark night of his life. He will never again be a young man as he once was; even though his ordeal in the camp does not last much longer than a year, he leaves the camp as an old man in spirit, for he has lived too hard and seen too much. He has lost his innocence by having to live through such harsh and horrific realities.
He sees so much death in this story. While every death does not impact him personally--and in fact he naturally grows rather desensitized to it--the deaths he sees are horrid. Death in the camps is an inevitability, the constant presence in his life during this time, and it seems inescapable.
Perhaps the most devastating loss for Eie is his loss of faith. We learn in the beginning of the story that Elie is not just a practicing Jew but a young man of great faith, with a sensitivity to spiritual matters. As the story  progresses, we see Elie's faith be tested and then slowly diminish--and we can hardly blame him for it. Eventually, he is unable to pray, and we understand why.

Blessed be God's name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because he kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end up in the furnaces? Praised be Thy Holy Name, for having chosen us to be slaughtered on Thine altar?

To think that God does not love him is awful; to live through an experience that causes him to doubt God's promise to an entire group of people is crushing, and Elie is crushed. We know that he was a boy who prayed devoutly and with fervor; he grows into a boy who sees no reason to pray because he does not believe God will honor his prayers, if He is even listening to them. 
Just as the image of "night" is black, dark, bleak, and isolating, so is Elie's life in the concentration camp. We know that, though he is changed, Elie eventually recovers from this devastating experience and goes on to write another book entitled Dawn, symbolic of hope and a new day.

Answer

In many ways, night comes to represent the evil that Elie is forced to face in his world.
While living in the ghetto, this image is used as a transition of mood. Consider the mood in this section:

A sunny spring day, people strolled seemingly carefree through the crowded streets. They exchanged cheerful greetings. Children played games, rolling hazelnuts on the sidewalks. Some schoolmates and I were in Ezra Malik's garden studying a Talmudic treatise.

The mood is light and there is a ray of hope in the interactions of the people, then that mood is cut with one very short sentence:

Night fell.

At this point, the mood changes and Elie's world quickly changes as well. Rumors begin to circulate; people become suspicious and fearful. Word quickly arrives to confirm their fears: they will soon be transported away from their home.
We see this image again as they are offered a place of hiding by their former maid:

My father wouldn't hear of it. He told me and my big sisters, "If you wish, go there. I shall stay here with your mother and the little one..."
Naturally, we refused to be separated.

Again, this offer of hope is followed by a very short sentence:

NIGHT.

Because the family refused the offer of a place of hiding, the tentacles of evil creep ever closer to the family, and things will never be the same after they leave home. They will all face suffering that they cannot fathom at this point, and his baby sister and mother will be murdered at Auschwitz.
While in transport, a woman begins screaming about the flames of a fire, and everyone is immediately startled, looking for the fire she has seen:

Some pressed against the bars to see. There was nothing. Only the darkness of night.

Night presses in on them in transport, and they resort to beating the woman to try to keep her quiet, slipping into evil ways themselves in their fear and confusion. Yet the woman's screams prove eerily prophetic as they reach their destination:

Someone near a window read to us: "Auschwitz."
Nobody had ever heard that name.

Their journey through the night brings them to one of the most historically evil locations in history, and Elie will face further acts of horror—as well as moments of deep introspection about the meaning of it all—through many long nights which lie ahead of him at this point.

Night

What does night symbolize, as a theme and idea, in Elie Wiesel's novel Night?

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