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Who was Madame Schächter in the novel Night?
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Madame Schächter is a middle-aged woman in Night who, while on the train to Auschwitz, begins to scream about a fire she sees outside. Her cries foreshadow the fate awaiting the Jews, but the other passengers dismiss her as mad and even bind and gag her. This episode illustrates both her prophetic vision and the cruelty people can exhibit under trauma.
Madame Schächter is a character introduced relatively early in the novel Night (by Elie Wiesel). Madame Schächter is a woman who is on the same train as Elie (as a result of the moving of the Jewish people to concentration camps--as recalled by Elie in his novel). The importance of Madame Schächter's role in the novel is one which offers both foreshadowing and a grim view on how some people were regarded when exhibiting curious, or mad, behavior.
Madame Schächter begins to go mad on the train ride to Auschwitz. It is during the ride where she begins to rant about fire. She cries out to the other passengers, "I can see fire!" Fearful of her madness, some of the people on the train bind and gag Madame Schächter. It is not until they reach Auschwitz that the people on the train realize that a fire is actually burning....
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It is the fire of the furnaces (used to burn some brought to the camps).
The initial crying of "fire" denotes foreshadowing of what is to come, once the "passengers" reach their destination.
Mrs. Schächter screamed about fire in the boxcar on the way to Auschwitz.
During the transport to Auschwitz, a middle-aged woman begins hallucinating. She starts screaming about fire, and her screams are uncontrollable. The screams foreshadow the crematoriums waiting for the Jews at the concentration camps. No one knows that. They just try desperately to quiet her.
The first problem is that the woman has been separated from most of her family. At this point, families are still traveling together. However, this separation makes her go mad.
There was a woman among us, a certain Mrs. Schächter. She was in her fifties and her ten-year-old son was with her, crouched in a corner. Her husband and two older sons had been deported with the first transport, by mistake. The separation had totally shattered her. (Ch. 2)
The other passengers do not know what to do. They try various things to keep her quiet. Her screams upset them, because her madness makes them feel even more trapped. All of them are frightened and in a situation they cannot control. Up until now, they have tried to make the best of things. Now it seems as if things are at their worst. Their treatment of the woman gets harsher and harsher as they get more and more desperate.
Once again, the young men bound and gagged her. When they actually struck her, people shouted their approval: "Keep her quiet! Make that madwoman shut up. She's not the only one here…" (Ch. 2)
Her little son clings to her as they hit her harder and harder. By daylight she is quiet, until they get to Auschwitz. Someone reads the sign on the gate. She is screaming again. They have no idea where they are. They have never heard the name, and they do not know the significance of it. No one knows what awaits them there.