Student Question
What significant events happen to Elie Wiesel and the Jews of Sighet in Night?
Quick answer:
In "Night," Elie Wiesel recounts the harrowing experiences of the Jews of Sighet during WWII. Initially feeling safe, they soon face expulsion, with Moshe the Beadle returning to warn them of the horrors to come. The Germans arrive, leading to their confinement in a ghetto and eventual deportation to Auschwitz, where Elie's family is separated. His mother and sister are killed, and his father dies during forced labor. Elie survives and is liberated from Buchenwald in 1945.
Many significant events happen to author Elie Wiesel and the other Jews of Sighet in Night. First of all, WWII is going on around them, and though they feel reasonably safe in Sighet, they soon find out they are not. Elie's teacher, Moshe and the other foreign Jews are expelled first, and when Moshe makes his way back to his village, nobody will believe what he tells them about what is happening to the Jews. Soon after that, the Germans show up in their town, and at first, life goes on as usual, but in a fairly short time, the Jews are moved to the ghetto. From there, they are transported to Auschwitz, where Elie and his father are separated from Elie's mother and sisters. Elie later learns that his mother and sister were sent to the gas chambers. The Jews of Sighet who survive selection at Auschwitz are then sent to other concentration camps for forced labor. Many die along the way, Elie's father included.
"I awoke on January 29 at dawn. In my father's place lay another invalid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing" (Wiesel 106).
Finally, those who were still alive, including Elie Wiesel, were liberated at Buchenwald by the American soldiers on April 11, 1945.
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