Night Themes
The main themes in Night are death, God and religion, and sanity and insanity.
- Death: The death camps represent a perversion of the social, cultural, and religious significance of death. Rather than treating death with dignity and allowing proper time for mourning, the death camps force people to focus solely on their own survival.
- God and Religion: Night tells the story of Elie’s changing relationship with God and religion as he struggles to make sense of the horror of the Holocaust.
- Sanity and insanity: Madame Schacter and Idek the Kapo serve as examples of the madness of the Holocaust.
Human Cruelty
Simply because of his faith and ancestry, Eliezer is forced to endure unfathomable suffering. He finds himself isolated from the eyes of the world and without any real hope that humanity will rise up and come to his aid. While imprisoned, he witnesses the murder of those who dare to cross the Nazi regime; recounting one particularly haunting memory, he describes the agonizing death of a young child who slowly suffocates while Eliezer and the other prisoners are forced to watch.
Eliezer and his father are stripped of their humanity, forced to endure physical inspections while naked, and constantly uncertain if they will be able to prove themselves worthy of the forced labor camps. From the moment they arrive in the camps, the smell of burning flesh rising from the nearby crematoriums is a tangible, omnipresent threat. Watching the smoke as it twines through the camp, they are constantly reminded of the precariousness of their position, an ever-present fear that the Nazis use to further torment those imprisoned.
Throughout the narrative, human life is routinely extinguished because of ability, gender, age, and for purposes of “medical” experimentation. Those who are imprisoned die from disease, starvation, a bitterly cold environment, hopelessness, and extreme mistreatment. Throughout the narrative, Eliezer describes the abject depths of human suffering, yet throughout it all, the SS guards who keep them imprisoned remain indifferent to the widespread anguish they so readily facilitate.
The Strength of Family
After he is separated from his mother and sisters, Eliezer commits himself to being a dependable and steadfast son to his father. The two work together, sharing their meager food rations when one of them is particularly weak and finding ways to remain together when so many families are separated. When Eliezer witnesses other sons abandoning their fathers to improve their own circumstances, he becomes resolute in his desire to remain faithful. He fervently prays for God to give him the strength to never do what those sons have done.
During one excruciatingly difficult march, Eliezer wants to give up and just “slide to the side of the road” where he can die; when he looks at his exhausted father forging resolutely on, Eliezer finds the determination to continue marching, believing that he has “no right to let himself die” and leave his already-weak father alone. When his father feels that he simply “can’t go on” because he is getting too weak, Eliezer remains by his father’s side, trying to navigate his medical care as best as possible with limited resources.
Unable to locate medical treatment, Eliezer attempts to relieve his father’s extreme thirst by locating water; he is tormented by his father’s desperation for relief, which conflicts with the medical reality that water will only create further physical discomfort. Together, Eliezer and his father face unfathomable challenges and endure relentless abuse; however, the bond they share and their commitment to helping each other survive bring glimpses of humanity and tenderness into their bleak existence. Their devotion to each other offers a sense of hope and encourages them in their efforts to survive multiple rounds of selection, abuse, and mental anguish.
Faith and Doubt
When Eliezer is thirteen, he is committed to his faith, studying the Talmud during the day and crying at the synagogue each night. He locates a mentor to guide him through what he believes, based on his limited life experience, to be some of the more challenging questions of Judaism. When Moishe the Beadle asks young Eliezer why he prays, Eliezer considers it a “strange question” because he’s never really considered it before. Because of the cruelty and inhumanity he experiences while imprisoned, Eliezer begins to question the God he has always believed in.
As he witnesses his fellow prisoners turned into smoke “under a silent sky,” he believes that those same flames have “consumed his faith forever.” After witnessing the execution of a young child, Eliezer’s faith is again shaken as he reflects that God must also be “hanging…from [the] gallows.” On Yom Kippur, Eliezer chooses not to fast, as tradition would indicate, because he refuses to accept the “silence” from a God who would allow such suffering. Even Akiba Drumer, who attempts to encourage the prisoners to be steadfast in their faith, eventually proclaims that “it’s over” because “God is no longer with [them].”
The horrors Eliezer witnesses and endures while imprisoned force him to examine the foundation of his beliefs. Instead of finding comfort in faith, Eliezer is angered by the apparent absence of God within the concentration camps. Because he develops such anger toward God during his imprisonment, there is a sense that young Eliezer has not completely lost faith that God exists but is instead questioning the nature of the God he has always believed in.
Survival
The theme of survival is central to Night by Elie Wiesel, depicting the harrowing experiences of Holocaust victims. The narrative explores how the instinct to survive can overshadow all other human concerns, including morality, faith, and relationships. Wiesel's account reveals the dehumanizing conditions of the concentration camps, where survival becomes the primary focus of the prisoners' existence.
One of the most poignant illustrations of survival is seen in the prisoners' relationship with food. The soup, a symbol of sustenance, becomes a marker of survival. After witnessing a hanging, Eliezer notes that the soup "tasted better than ever," indicating that the mere act of eating and staying alive takes precedence over the moral implications of the events around him. The dehumanization is evident as the prisoners become desensitized to death, focusing solely on their own survival. However, the hanging of a child profoundly affects Eliezer, making the soup taste of "corpses," highlighting the struggle between survival and the loss of humanity.
The narrative also aligns with Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs," where basic needs for food, shelter, and safety become paramount. Eliezer's initial interest in his Jewish faith and spiritual aspirations is overshadowed by the need to survive. This shift illustrates how the extreme conditions of the Holocaust strip away higher-level concerns, reducing life to mere survival instincts. The brutal environment forces individuals to prioritize their own survival over relationships and spiritual beliefs.
Eliezer's relationship with his father further underscores the theme of survival. As his father becomes weaker, Eliezer grapples with the burden of caring for him. The phrase "free at last" reflects the complex emotions Eliezer experiences upon his father's death, feeling both grief and relief from the responsibility. This reaction is not selfish but a testament to the overwhelming pressure to survive in the camps, where resources are scarce, and caring for others becomes an impossible task.
Trust and friendship are rare in the camps, as survival instincts often override these bonds. Initially, there are moments of loyalty and friendship, such as the maid Marta's offer to help the Wiesels escape. However, as the narrative progresses, the harsh realities of camp life erode these connections. Eliezer's growing detachment from his father and the lack of solidarity among prisoners illustrate how survival becomes the sole focus, leaving little room for trust or friendship. Despite this, small acts of kindness, like Alphonse securing extra food and Juliek playing his violin, offer glimpses of humanity amidst the struggle for survival.
Dehumanization
Dehumanization is a central theme in Night by Elie Wiesel, illustrating the horrific effects of the Holocaust on both victims and perpetrators. The narrative explores how the Nazis systematically stripped away the humanity of the Jewish people, and how this dehumanization extended to the victims themselves, who often turned against each other in their struggle for survival. This theme is vividly depicted through various events and symbols throughout the memoir.
One poignant example of dehumanization is the line "the soup tasted like corpses." After witnessing the execution of a child, Elie and his fellow prisoners find no solace even in basic sustenance. This line symbolizes the pervasive death and suffering that taint every aspect of life in the concentration camps, underscoring the loss of humanity and the struggle to maintain it amidst such horror.
The initial selection process at Birkenau is another significant event that highlights dehumanization. Families are brutally separated, and the randomness of life and death decisions underscores the complete disregard for human dignity. This moment marks the last time Elie sees his mother and sister, and it introduces the infernal state of the Holocaust where dehumanization leads to unimaginable cruelty.
Music in the concentration camps serves as a tool for control and humiliation, further emphasizing dehumanization. Prisoners are forced to sing songs that honor the Third Reich, showcasing the guards' power. This perversion of music strips away personal identity and autonomy, reducing the prisoners to mere instruments of entertainment for their captors.
Madame Schachter's experience on the train foreshadows the dehumanization that permeates the Holocaust. Her son's reaction to her screams—partly out of embarrassment—reflects how victims dehumanize each other. This moment foreshadows Eliezer's own internal conflict and eventual betrayal of his father, illustrating the pervasive impact of dehumanization on personal relationships and moral integrity.
Denial
In "Night" by Elie Wiesel, the theme of denial is a powerful force that shapes the experiences of the Jewish community in Sighet and reflects a broader human tendency to ignore or underestimate impending danger. This denial manifests in various ways, from ignoring warnings to underestimating the threat posed by the Nazis, ultimately leading to tragic consequences.
The Jewish residents of Sighet, including Eliezer's family, initially refuse to believe the rumors of the Holocaust. Despite Moshe the Beadle's firsthand account of Nazi atrocities, the townspeople dismiss his warnings as the ravings of a madman. This disbelief is partly due to their relatively normal lives in Hungary, which had not yet experienced the full force of Nazi antisemitism. The Jews of Sighet cling to the hope that the war will end before Hitler can harm them, demonstrating a denial rooted in a false sense of security.
Denial is further illustrated by the Jews' reaction to the German occupation. When the Germans first arrive in Sighet, they appear non-threatening, even charming. This facade leads the Jewish community to mock those who express concern, as seen in the passage:
This initial denial of the Germans' true intentions allows the Jews to maintain a false sense of normalcy, even as the situation deteriorates.Three days after he (the German officer) moved in, he brought Mrs. Kahn a box of chocolates. The optimists were jubilant: "Well? What did we tell you? You wouldn't believe us. There they are, your Germans. What do you say now? Where is their famous cruelty?" Night, Page 10
The denial persists even as the Jews are forced into ghettos and eventually deported. Mrs. Schachter's visions of fire during the train journey are dismissed as hallucinations, yet they foreshadow the horrors awaiting them at Auschwitz. It is only upon arrival at the concentration camp, witnessing the burning bodies, that the full reality of their situation becomes undeniable.
Denial also plays a role in the actions of the oppressors. As the prisoners are evacuated, they are ordered to clean the barracks, a small-scale example of the oppressors' denial of their atrocities. By erasing evidence of mistreatment, the Nazis attempt to obscure the truth from the advancing Russian forces, reflecting a broader pattern of denial in the stages of genocide.
Suffering
The theme of suffering in Night by Elie Wiesel is a profound exploration of the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain experienced during the Holocaust. Wiesel's narrative captures the relentless torment faced by the victims, highlighting the darkness and horror of their experiences. The suffering is depicted through the harsh realities of life in concentration camps, the loss of family, and the struggle to maintain faith amidst overwhelming despair.
One of the most harrowing depictions of suffering is through the character of Eliezer's father, who suffers from dysentery. The contaminated water in the camps, filled with fecal matter, becomes a source of poison rather than relief. Eliezer is torn between the knowledge that water will worsen his father's condition and the desperate pleas of his dying father. This situation underscores the cruel irony of their suffering, where basic necessities become lethal. Eliezer reflects,
I knew that he must not drink. But he pleaded with me so long that I gave in. Water was the worst poison for him, but what else could I do for him? With or without water, it would be over soon anyway.This moment captures the helplessness and inevitability of death in the camps.
The use of "night" in the narrative symbolizes the pervasive darkness and terror of the Holocaust. The recurring imagery of night represents the physical and psychological suffering endured by the victims. Mrs. Schachter's vision of fire during the train ride to Auschwitz foreshadows the crematoria, while the darkness outside the train mirrors the unknown horrors ahead. Upon arrival at Birkenau, the flames and the smell of burning flesh confirm the nightmare,
In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau.The continuous "last nights" before each traumatic event further emphasize the endless cycle of suffering.
Wiesel's narrative does not offer simple solutions or rationales for the Holocaust. Instead, it presents the complexity of human evil and the failure of humanity to prevent such suffering. The narrative challenges readers to confront the dissolution of human bonds and the inaction of nations. The moments of "Never Shall I Forget" and the child hanging from the gallows are poignant explorations of human cruelty and suffering. Wiesel's work compels readers to examine their own lives and moral responsibilities, acknowledging that everyone bears a share of the blame for allowing such atrocities to occur.
Holocaust
In "Night," the Holocaust is a central theme, vividly depicted through Elie Wiesel's personal experiences. The memoir provides a harrowing account of the atrocities faced by Jews during World War II. Wiesel's narrative is not just a recounting of events but a profound exploration of the loss of faith, the struggle for survival, and the depths of human cruelty. Through his story, Wiesel emphasizes the importance of remembering the Holocaust to prevent such horrors from happening again.
Wiesel uses biblical allusions to draw parallels between historical Jewish suffering and the Holocaust. He references the Jewish exile in Babylon and the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans, highlighting the recurring theme of Jewish persecution. For instance, Wiesel writes, "Saturday, the day of rest, was the day chosen for our expulsion," echoing the Jewish exile in Babylon. Such allusions serve to connect the Holocaust to a broader history of Jewish suffering, underscoring its significance.
The memoir also explores the theme of a world transformed by the Holocaust. Wiesel introduces Moshe the Beadle, who warns of the "world of mysticism, [is] a world fraught with peril." This foreshadows the danger and destruction that the Holocaust brings, pulling Elie from his spiritual pursuits into a world of violence and hate. The Holocaust shatters the world Elie once knew, replacing it with a reality where survival becomes the primary concern.
The title "Night" itself symbolizes the darkness and loss of faith experienced during the Holocaust. As Elie witnesses unimaginable horrors and loses his family, he grapples with his belief in a merciful God. The pervasive evil he encounters leads him to question his faith, reflecting a broader existential crisis faced by many Holocaust survivors. This loss of faith is a crucial aspect of the Holocaust's impact, as it represents the profound spiritual and emotional toll on those who lived through it.
Wiesel's firsthand account makes "Night" a powerful tool for understanding the Holocaust. His graphic descriptions and emotional depth allow readers to experience the horror alongside him. By sharing his story, Wiesel ensures that the memories of the Holocaust remain vivid, serving as a warning against the dangers of hatred and intolerance. The memoir's effectiveness lies in its ability to humanize the victims and convey the lasting impact of the Holocaust on individuals and the world.
Hope
In Elie Wiesel's Night, hope emerges as a persistent theme amidst the backdrop of despair and suffering. Despite the brutal conditions and the constant threat of death, moments of hope flicker throughout the narrative, offering a glimpse of humanity and the will to survive. Wiesel's portrayal of hope is complex, showing how it can sustain life even in the darkest times.
Hope is often intertwined with acts of kindness and camaraderie among the prisoners. In chapter three, a Polish prisoner advises the inmates to maintain their faith and support each other, emphasizing that losing hope leads to death. This advice highlights the importance of mutual support and the belief that hope can be a lifeline in the harsh conditions of the concentration camp. Similarly, Elie lies to his relative Stein about the wellbeing of Stein's family, offering him a glimmer of hope to sustain his will to live.
Despite the overwhelming despair, Elie finds hope in small, unexpected places. During the forced march from Buna to Gleiwitz, Elie contemplates giving up but remembers his father, which reignites his determination to survive. This familial bond becomes a source of hope, driving Elie to persevere. Additionally, the poignant story of Juliek playing his violin amidst the dying men serves as a powerful symbol of hope and the enduring spirit of humanity.
Hope is not only a personal struggle for Elie but also a collective experience among the prisoners. When the Russians are near, the prisoners are filled with hope that the war will soon end and they will be liberated. This shared hope momentarily lifts the prisoners' spirits, showing how hope can unite and strengthen people even in dire circumstances.
Wiesel's narrative demonstrates that hope, though fragile, is a vital force that can sustain life. Whether through acts of kindness, familial bonds, or the anticipation of liberation, hope persists in Night, offering a counterbalance to the pervasive despair and illustrating the resilience of the human spirit.
Expert Q&A
What does Elie Wiesel mean by "The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew, it was ruled by delusion"?
3 Educator Answers
Quick answer:
Elie Wiesel's statement, "The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew, it was ruled by delusion" refers to the misguided beliefs held by both Jews and Germans during the Holocaust. Jews in the ghetto clung to the delusion that their situation would improve and they were in control, viewing their separation from the Germans as a positive change. The Germans, influenced by Hitler's propaganda, believed in their superiority and justified their treatment of Jews. Thus, these delusions, rather than the Germans or Jews themselves, dictated the rule in the ghetto.
A delusion is a strongly held belief that people have even though its premise defies reason and science. It is often associated with mental disorder, but in a real sense, everybody harbors delusions. Elie Wiesel, in writing after the Holocaust, is afforded the luxury of examining the events in hindsight. The delusions that Jews held tight probably helped them to survive their horrible condition and seemed completely reasonable at the time. The delusions that they held were that they were in control and that their condition would improve in the near future. They saw the opportunity to live separate from the Germans as a positive turn of events. They would not be subjected to Nazi hostility and antisemitism. Wiesel explains the feelings held by those in the ghetto through this delusional belief:
"People thought this was a good thing. We would no longer have to look at all those hostile faces, endure those hate-filled stares. No more fear, No more anguish. We would live among Jews, among brothers." Night, Page 12
This statement is obviously not reflective of what was really happening at the time. The Jews were sent to live in ghettos so that it would be easier to move them to camps in the future. This, however, was not what the Jews were thinking was going to happen. Here is another delusion that Wiesel points out:
"Most people thought that we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army. Afterward, everything would be as before." Night, Page 12
The Germans, on the other hand, operated under the delusions of Adolf Hitler. Their delusions were that they were somehow superior and had every right to treat Jews in this manner. Since both groups acted on behalf of their delusions, Wiesel states that neither was in charge of the ghetto, but the delusions themselves ruled over the people.
Explain the quote from Night: "The ghetto was ruled by delusion."
Perhaps this poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller might help you understand:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
The laws that were imposed on the Jews did not seem so bad...the wearing of stars, the closing of businesses, the moving to ghettos...none of this meant death. It was a gradual process that the Jews didn't realize the seriousness of until it was much too late to act. As a peaceful people, the Jews expected that the restrictions put on them were tolerable and would soon end. They did not in their wildest dreams think of the possibilities of concentration camps, torture, starvation, and death. Had they seen a glimpse into this future, I am quite certain they would have rebelled most violently.
Explain the quote from Night: "The ghetto was ruled by delusion."
The Jews of Sighet never fought against each new law and edict passed because they thought if they went along with it the war would end and they wouldn't have to fight. They believed wholeheartedly that if they did everything that was asked of them that no one would treat them poorly. When the Jews were given the yellow stars of David to wear Elie's father tried to reassure his community by saying that the stars were harmless and they weren't lethal. Elie, thinking back as he writes this memoir write, "Poor father, of what then did you die?"because that was the attitude the Jews had of everything they were asked to do. In the ghetto the Jews were happy to be left alone away from the persecution so they accepted it. They had literally deluded themselves into thinking that they would remain safe and get to go home soon. The ghetto was quite literally ruled by the Jews' delusions about the war and the capabilities of the Nazi regime.
Themes and Lessons in Elie Wiesel's Night
15 Educator Answers
Summary:
In Elie Wiesel's Night, key themes include the struggle to maintain faith in the face of overwhelming evil, the inhumanity of the Holocaust, and the loss of innocence. Lessons from the memoir emphasize the importance of remembering history to prevent such atrocities and the resilience of the human spirit amidst unimaginable suffering.
What is the primary lesson taught in Elie Wiesel's Night?
Elie Wiesel's Night is a haunting tale of 15-year-old Eliezer's experience with his father in the Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Buna death camps, which were operated to control and kill Jewish people under the Nazis' oppressive regime during World War II. It can be argued there are two primary lessons Wiesel relates to the readers of Night: One is about always remembering the atrocities of the death camp. The second is about the delicate nature of faith in God when one experiences evil committed by humanity, and how questioning a god is often central to faith itself.
Eliezer witnesses things that haunt him and shake him to his core.
Throughout the book, he repeats the phrase "never shall I forget" when
recounting horrible experiences he has: his first night there, the corpses of
innocent Jewish people in ovens, the internal silence that he experiences
inside himself, and the abhorrent behaviors he sees in the people around him.
It becomes most important that he—and all of us—remember this horrible time in
human history.
His faith in God is shaken by these atrocities. Before his experiences in the
death camps, Eliezer views faith the same way he views breathing: it is an
intrinsic part of his life, and God is all around him. But watching the
horrible things that go on around him (committed by the Nazis and by fellow
Jewish prisoners desperate to survive) makes him question how a benevolent god
could be responsible for such evil. Through this narrative, a message rings
clear about how easily one's faith can be challenged. Eliezer questions God in
chapter three:
"Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?"
The questioning of God's plan and God's presence is something Eliezer does
throughout the story, and something Wiesel suggests is a part of any faithful
person's journey.
The story Night helps us to understand existential questions of faith
and memory through the backdrop of one man's experience in a true-life horror
story.
What is the primary lesson taught in Elie Wiesel's Night?
I don't think Wiesel is trying to tell a single lesson through book. Furthermore, I think different readers are going to pull different main lessons from it depending on their perspectives. One lesson that I think is immediately understood by many readers is that the Holocaust was awful, and the prison camps were basically hell on Earth. Wiesel's account is unflinchingly graphic, and readers are meant to be disgusted with the treatment that these prisoners had to endure. Tied closely with those conditions is a lesson about the dehumanizing result of the camps. The guards didn't treat the prisoners like real people, and the prisoners themselves stopped seeing each other as fellow humans. In fact, the men and women even stopped seeing family members as people to love and care for. Readers see this when Eliezer feels that his father is a threat to his own survival. His father is now a burden instead of a blessing. The dehumanization of Eliezer and the others results in a complete loss of identity. They simply care about self-preservation. Any kind of faith, human dignity, and spirit has been completely driven out of them, and that's a tough lesson to learn about.
What is the primary lesson taught in Elie Wiesel's Night?
In literary history, Elie Wiesel's Night is most significant as a benchmark in Holocaust literature. Its publication in 1960 paved the way for other such memoirs to emerge. As a teaching tool regarding the Holocaust from a personal perspective, it is invaluable, humanizing the people whose lives were destroyed by Nazi oppression.
Reading about the Holocaust in a history textbook is a much more remote experience than perusing a personal account of the events. One might reel at the number of people killed, and one might be given some details about the horrific conditions that camp inmates were forced to endure, but the sensory details and emotional content Wiesel's text grants the reader a more striking experience. Elie and his fellow victims are fleshed-out personalities, making their sufferings much more palpable and real to the audience than if they were relegated to statistics in an academic text. By reading Night or other Holocaust literature, the reader is shown that the Holocaust's victims were real people with loved ones, dreams, and beliefs that were all taken from them by the horrors that they witnessed.
Indirectly, Night also teaches the reader the importance of memory. Wiesel adamantly believed that the horrors of the Holocaust should never be forgotten so that they would never be repeated.
What themes about humanity emerge in the first chapters of Elie Wiesel's Night?
One of the big themes in Night is the doubt in the existence of a good, benevolent God. While Elie never really doubts that God exists, he wonders how God could allow something as awful as the Holocaust to happen. It's the classic question of if God is good, then why is evil permitted existence. Wiesel establishes this theme up front in the first chapter.
Moishe the Beadle is the first character Wiesel introduces us to and through him, he introduces the idea of man's relationship with God. Moishe is a teacher of the Kabbalah, and he plays an important role in young Eliezer's life. He tells Eliezer that faith is less about certainty and more about questioning:
Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him, he liked to say. Therein lies true dialogue. Man asks and God replies. But we don't understand His replies. We cannot understand them. Because we dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we die. The real answers, Eliezer, you will find only within yourself.
Once Eliezer is pulled into the horrors of the Holocaust, he comes to realize this truth all too painfully. He repeatedly asks where is God amidst the evils of humanity.
What themes about humanity emerge in the first chapters of Elie Wiesel's Night?
In chapters 1 and 2 of Elie Wiesel's Night, different themes emerge in regards to humanity. In chapter 1, the main theme is denial. Despite ever worsening conditions and the opportunity to flee, Elie's family and the other Jews of Sighet cling to hope. The characters' beliefs might seem delusional to the reader, but as these men and women have no idea about the horrors that await them, their denial about the situation is not completely unfounded.
In chapter 2, the main theme is dehumanization. Stripped of their possessions, the Jews of Sighet are loaded into cattle cars for transportation to Auschwitz. Throughout the journey Mrs. Schachter raves on about a fire only she can see. Her madness alludes to the fate shared by many of the men, women, and children standing around her: the ovens at Auschwitz. Though further dehumanization occurs in later chapters, chapter 2 sets the stage for what is to come.
What positive lessons does Elie Wiesel suggest in Night about the Holocaust?
While it's hard to glean anything truly positive from Elie's experience, one positive impact is that he became more sensitive to human kindness. When one is surrounded by brutality, the significance of compassion is all the greater. He points out the kind people he encounters in the camps, and he also becomes closer to his father, since each are all the other has.
Also, the horrors of the Holocaust are a kind of caution—a rallying cry to make sure similar horrors be stopped before they can grow into something similarly destructive. Wiesel points out at the beginning of the novel how the warnings of Moishe the Beadle were ignored by the people, who found such horrific atrocities too incredible to be true. Now we know they aren't.
Though the Holocaust is one of humanity's greatest atrocities, it stands as a symbol that these things can happen and that people need the sensitivity to sniff such fascism out.
What positive lessons does Elie Wiesel suggest in Night about the Holocaust?
The primary positive focus of the memoir is Elie's closer relationship with his father. Elie's first description of his father is that he is "unsentimental." However, once Elie and his father are left with only each other after their transition to Auschwitz, they begin to look after each other. One of the most poignant events in the memoir is when Elie's father gives Elie a knife and spoon as his "inheritance" when he thinks he is about to be killed. This moment is tragic, yet also demonstrates the love and forethought Elie's father had for his son.
Another positive element of the memoir is that, amidst the horrors of concentration camp life, the bright and beautiful elements are all the more appreciated by Elie and the other prisoners. For instance, Elie takes time to describe the people who were kind to him and the other prisoners, including the pipel and the woman whom he was able to meet again several years later. Additionally, the haunting scene in chapter six of Juliek playing the violin is another example of beauty in the midst of suffering. The song that Juliek plays before his death is described in a personal and meaningful way by Elie and demonstrates the effect that that moment had on him.
What positive lessons does Elie Wiesel suggest in Night about the Holocaust?
One of the most resounding lessons to emerge from Wiesel's work is the idea that individuals must always speak out against aggression and the denial of individual rights. The narrative offered is so powerfully horrific that the conclusion of the work makes it a moral, ethical, and political reality which demands speaking out against any order which takes away human rights and dignity. In examining the setting which denies bonds between families and human beings, one cannot be helped but speak out against such injustice. One positive lesson from the work is that anything which could be remotely similar to what Eliezer experienced has to be struck down immediately.
What positive lessons does Elie Wiesel suggest in Night about the Holocaust?
One positive lesson is that the Holocaust allowed some people to value their family more than they did before deportation. Elie's relationship with his father is not the best is could be. His father sees him as an immature boy, and Elie sees his father as oblivious to what is happening around him. By the end of the book, Elie has taken responsibility for his father and most certainly is closer to him before their camp experience.
Another positive lesson is that Elie gains an immense amount of self-knowledge during the Holocaust. He learns what he is capable of and that exacting revenge (such as the freed prisoners immediately hunting down their oppressors) doesn't usually help someone heal from a horrific experience.
While Elie learns some valuable lessons from being a Holocaust victim, one must still argue that those lessons could have been learned without his having to endure such awful circumstances.
What positive lessons does Elie Wiesel suggest in Night about the Holocaust?
The key positive lesson to emerge from this horrendous account of what the Holocaust meant for Jews is the message that humans must never forget the depths to which they have sunk. One of the most powerful passages comes just afte Eli arrives at Auschwitz with his father and they contemplate the chimneys with the smoke rising from them. Eli writes a kind of prose poem talking about how that moment is carved onto his heart and soul for all eternity:
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transofrmed into smoke under a silent sky.
The positive to come from such an experience is that the author calls us to never forget and to never erase the reality of man's depravity from our memory. By so doing, humans can remember and make sure that such a dark chapter of human history is not repeated. Wiesel makes it very clear that humans must never forget the Holocaust, because to forget it, and to pretend that it didn't happen, only would allow similar atrocities to occur once more. This is the main positive message that emerges from this text: by remembering, humans ensure that hopefully there will not be a repeat episode.
What is the theme of identity in Night by Elie Wiesel?
Night by Elie Wiesel recalls the author's experiences in the concentration camps during World War II. The author was fifteen and sixteen years old. After ten years away from the experience, Wiesel was able to write his recollections of the horrific time that he spent with his father in the camps.
A major theme in the story is the loss of identity which begins in Wiesel’s home town:
First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death.
The same day, the Hungarian police burst into every Jewish home in town: a Jew was henceforth forbidden to own gold, jewelry, or any valuables. Everything had to be handed over to the authorities, under penalty of death.
Three days later, a new decree: every Jew had to wear the yellow star.
In the beginning of the story, Wiesel was a typical teenage boy of the times. His Jewish faith was his life’s blood. When he enters the concentration camps, the Nazis begin to strip away every part of his identity. His hair is shaved; he is dressed like all the prisoners; and he is a number rather than a name.
Quickly, he loses his innocence. When Wiesel sees babies being killed, he feels that God may have forsaken the Jews. One of Wiesel’s greatest struggles was with his deterioration of his faith in a loving and fair God.
Through each change from the ghetto to the cattle cars to the camps, Wiesel begins to lose himself. More and more, he and his fellow Jews are dehumanized. Every camp accentuates Wiesel and his father’s pain and physical and mental abuse. As the confinement continues, his health deteriorates and his chance of survival diminishes. When a person is denied the basic necessities of life—food, water, warmth, security—the loss of humanity and individualism completes itself. Many who surrounded him also lose their lives.
Wiesel’s entire Jewish community was taken in cattle cars to Birkenau. Later, they were taken to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, Wiesel loses his mother and sister. However, he was fortunate to be able to stay with his father. Wiesel and his father are moved to two other camps: Buna and then Buchenwald where his father dies, and Wiesel is liberated.
Through the first person narration, the author forces the reader to spend each day with him in the camp. His imagery and descriptive language make it impossible not to go with Eliezer as he struggles to survive and to keep his father alive.
Wiesel is an admirable character. Many other sons in the camps completely lose their humanity. One story is told of a son who kills his father for bread. Harboring guilt for his feeling that his father is a burden, Wiesel attempts to nurse his father and defend him.
More than once, he is conflicted about the support of declining father. Wiesel knows that he is barely able to take care of himself. During the night, Elie falls asleep. In the morning, he finds that his father has died and been taken to the crematorium. Within his mind, he feels guilty relief for himself and for the suffering of his father.
When his father dies, he becomes so lost that all he does is eat to keep alive. The death of his father discontinues the rest of the story at Buchenwald. To Wiesel, nothing else mattered but to live.
In Elie Wiesel's Night, how does the theme of witness manifest?
The world should have known about--and believed--the atrocities Hitler was committing against the Jews and others because there were witnesses who were telling the world about them. Unfortunately, the world did not believe. The same is true of the Jews themselves. They had warnings, in the form of witnesses, who tried to tell them what was going to happen and was already happening. Because no one wanted to believe such horrible things could be true, no one listened.
Three specific and significant examples of such witnesses can be found in Night, by Elie Wiesel, though there are many others, as well.
The first witness is Moshe the Beadle, Elie's friend and religious mentor. Of course Moshe is a bit of an eccentric character, but when he is deported as a foreign Jew and comes back with the stories of what is happening to the Jews, no one quite believes him. Because he is kind of a crazy uncle-type, a rather mystical spiritualist, and of course because of the Jews' unwillingness to believe such things could happen, Moshe's warnings go unheard.
The second witness who goes unheeded is Madame Schachter. In fairness to the Jews who heard but did not heed her, the woman's warnings come in the form of a crazy rant which does not make any sense to them--until they arrive at the death camp. She knows what is possible, however, because her husband and two sons have already been taken away. The Jews should have listened to her warning, though there is little they could have done at this point to avoid what was ahead of them.
She screams and rants ceaselessly about fire and smoke, but her words do not make sense to those around her, and eventually they abuse her into silence. In her case, the Jews did not make the connection between her ravings about fire and the atrocities Moshe the Beadle told them about, but Madame Schachter serves as a witness to them, nevertheless.
The most obvious witness is Elie himself. Though he wrote this story from the distance and perspective of time, his voice serves as a witness to man's cruel and senseless inhumanities. He says,
“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
The most compelling commitment Elie makes to being a witness is recorded on his first night in 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.
Not only will Elie never forget, but he will continue to tell this story as a witness to what can happen, testifying to what is possible in the dark depravity of man's souls.
This theme of witnesses who try to warn others is consistent with similar themes in the story, such as missed opportunities to avoid worse trouble. It is clear that Elie Wiesel highlights characters in his story who testify about the horrors to come as well as uses his own voice to testify about what else might happen if man's worst nature is left unwatched and unchecked.
In Elie Wiesel's Night, how does the theme of witness manifest?
The theme of witness can be seen in several instances from chapter one. The most evident example would rest with the townspeople of Sighet. They are witnesses to Moshe the Beadle and the stories he tells about what he experiences. The witness the telling of his narrative and they reject what he has to say. In this example, the witness is an agent of denial, an act of negation. Moshe the Beadle, himself, embodies the theme of witness because of what he has seen. He witnesses Nazi atrocity after atrocity. Children being used as target practice. People forced to dig their own graves. Senseless killings that are preceded by the worst of deliberate cruelty. Moshe witnesses all of these and rushes back to Sighet to relay his experiences to others. For Moshe, the purpose of him being spared was for him to be a witness. It becomes even more stinging when this purpose is denied by the townspeople's rejection.
Finally, I think that one can see God as a witness. The relationship that Eliezer and Moshe share is predicated upon an exploration of God as a witness. When Eliezer asks Moshe about lacking the ability to understand God's answers and Moshe counters with suggesting that the questions are more important, God is a witness in Chapter 1. The witness position that God holds in Chapter 1 is a way to introduce the theme of God's role in the narrative, something furthered throughout the book.
Considering Elie Wiesel's preface to Night and the theme you identified in the novel, how does the text introduce and support this theme?
Elie Wiesel’s preface to Night notes that it is crucial to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive so that it is never repeated, a key theme in the book. Wiesel believes survivors who testify have a duty “to bear witness for the dead and for the living.”
To bear witness for the living is to help avoid future genocide. To bear witness for the dead is to keep their memories alive because “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
The atrocities are unthinkable. Elie tells his father "that I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes." His father responds,
The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria.
Another theme is that despite the Nazis' dehumanizing of prisoners, occasional glimmers of humanity surface. When another prisoner tells them to lie about their ages, the man acts against his own self-interests. If a Nazi had overheard, he would have been beaten or worse.
Prisoners sharing their meager rations also shows people retaining their humanity. His father sees that Elie ate his ration and does not eat his, saying "Me, I'm not hungry." A distant relative, Stein, "would bring a half portion of bread...And he himself was so thin, so withered, so weak..."
Families clung to one another, as Elie and his father do. Two brothers, Yossi and Tibi, "lived for each other, body and soul." There are also examples of people who do not help loved ones, as when Elie does nothing after his father is struck, but this is understandable given their fear, which also highlights the importance of the sacrifices they do make for one another.
To keep her memory alive, Wiesel writes poignantly about his little sister Tzipora, dedicating Night to her and to his parents. He describes her as his "little sister, Tzipora, her blond hair neatly combed...a little girl of seven." Upon arriving at the camp,
Tzipora was holding Mother's hand...I didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.
What is one theme in Elie Wiesel's Night?
There are several themes present throughout of the book. One of the most important is the idea that the actions of man can dehumanize other men. The writer has experiences that "dehumanize" him, meaning that he loses the qualities (to some extent) that make him what is, the defining aspects of his humanity.
We see this in his response to his father. Near the end, Elie struggles emotionally as his father's health declines. Prior to this, Wiesel told the reader a story about the Rabbi Eliahou and his son in which the son leaves the father behind on the forced march, presumably because he believes the father is moving too slowly. The son wants to save himself, so he lets his father fall behind. When Elie hears Rabbi Eliahou tell this story he prays that God will never allow him to leave his own father behind.
However, by the end of the book, Elie has thoughts of doing just that. As his father is dying of dysentery, Elie thinks to himself that he would be better off if his father would just go ahead and die. Once he does die, he briefly thinks "free at last!" Elie suffers with guilt over these thoughts. But his experience with suffering, cruelty, and death have changed him and he can no longer look at things the way he did before his imprisonment.
See the link below for other themes in the book.
Elie Wiesel's reaction to his father's beating in Night
8 Educator Answers
Summary:
In Night, Elie Wiesel's reaction to his father's beating is one of helplessness and guilt. He feels powerless to stop the abuse and later experiences remorse for not intervening, reflecting his internal struggle and the dehumanizing effects of the concentration camp environment.
How did Elie Wiesel react to his father's beating in Night?
At Birkenau, Elie Wiesel finds himself strangely apathetic when he witnesses his father being beaten. Due to an attack of colic, his father asks for the bathroom, but the Kapo beats him instead. Elie is both petrified and stunned at his passivity and his inability to save his father from physical suffering.
Another instance of Elie's father suffering a beating is at the work camp in Buna. While the prisoners are loading diesel motors onto the trains, Idek, the Kapo, suddenly decides to vent his irritation on Elie's father. Idek viciously beats the older man with an iron bar because he claims that the old man is working too slowly. As Elie watches his father receiving a terrible beating, he finds himself nursing ambivalent thoughts. First, he remains silent and does not speak up in his father's defense. He even wonders whether he should run away so that he will not have to suffer the same fate. Then, he finds himself irrationally angry at his father for not being smart enough to escape Idek's wrath and for not doing everything he could to prevent Idek from getting angry.
Elie's own reaction is a great sorrow to him, as he thinks that being at the camp has dehumanized him.
How did Elie Wiesel react to his father's beating in Night?
In chapter 5, Elie and his father initially believe they have both have passed the first selection. A few days later, the Blockälteste announces that he has been given a list of numbers and those called need to report for a second selection. Elie then sees his father running towards him with a worried look on his face. Elie's father says that his number has been called and he will have to participate in the second selection. In one of the most moving scenes of the novel, Elie mentions that his father began to speak rapidly and run out of breath as he attempted to say goodbye to his son for what he thought was the last time. Elie's father has desperate look on his face and begins confusing his words as speaks to his son. Elie's father then gives his son a knife and spoon before leaving for the second selection. When Elie receives the knife and spoon from his father, he remembers thinking that those two items were his entire inheritance. After Elie's father leaves for the second selection, Elie wanders around in a daze at work. Later that evening, Elie is relieved to reunite with his father, who survived the second selection process.
How did Elie Wiesel react to his father's beating in Night?
In Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie's father learns that his name has been written down for selection. His first reaction is to reassure his son, Elie. He tells him that nothing is for sure and that there is still hope. He believes it is possible he will be given a reprieve, or at least that is what he tells Elie. However, as the time for Elie to go to work comes closer, his father begins to speak quickly.
"He would have liked to say so many things. His speech grew confused; his voice choked. He knew that I would have to go in a few moments. He would have to stay behind alone, so very alone" (Wiesel 71).
Before Elie can leave, his father gives him his knife and spoon. Elie calls it "the inheritance" (Wiesel 71). Elie, at first, refuses to take it, but his father pleads with him, and finally, he does.
When Elie gets back to camp that night, he is surprised and pleased to see that his father is still there.
How did Elie Wiesel react to his father's beating in Night?
Throughout much of Elie Wiesel's autobiographical depiction of the Holocaust, Night, the author's main character and stand-in for Wiesel, Eliezer, is highly critical of his father Shlomo's mental and physical weaknesses. The imperative of survival under the most horrendous conditions, Wiesel/Eliezer emphasizes, requires a deadening of one's emotions. Personal attachments are a weakness, and having to care for one's father under such circumstances is, the author suggests, a serious burden. Forcibly uprooted, along with the rest of the Jews in Hungary, and sent to German concentration camps like Auschwitz where the weak were immediately sent to their death and the rest forced into hard labor under inhumane conditions in the service of the Third Reich, Eliezer's family has been split up and he, the child, becomes the parent to the father. The depth of Eliezer's antipathy toward the older man whose weaknesses he resents reaches terrible extremes. In Chapter 4 of Night, the young narrator describes the violent fury of a Kapo, a Jewish prisoner suborned into the service of the prison guards, who takes his own anguish out on Shlomo:
"I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact, I was thinking about how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself. What is more, the anger I felt at that moment, was directed, not against the Kapo, but against my father. I was angry at him for not knowing how to avoid [the Kapo's] outbreak.That is what concentration camp life had made of me."
Later in Chapter 4, Eliezer again is given reason to resent his father. Franek, a foreman at the camp, demands he give up the gold crown on his tooth. Eliezer objects, but Franek knows Eliezer's vulnerability: Shlomo. Franek begins a regular daily routine of beating Shlomo until Eliezer and his father give in and surrender the gold crown. In short, Eliezer believes that his life, difficult as it is, would be less so if not for the albatross hanging around his neck in the form of his own father.
As Chapter 5 begins, the Jewish prisoners attempt to honor their most sacred days, the Jewish New Year and beginning of the period of atonement. For Eliezer, however, it is all an empty gesture. His experiences in the the concentration camps, the constant displays of cruelty, the enormous suffering and atmosphere of death, have eroded his spirituality. He no longer believes in God, or, at least, in the notion of a Supreme Being dispensing justice and protecting those who believe. "I no longer accepted God's silence," he laments in this chapter. Eliezer tells now of the process of selection. The SS has arrived, and Jews will once again be subjected to the inhumane process of being divided into those who will die and those who will be spared for at least one more day. The weakest among the prisoners will be separated from the rest and sent to their deaths. Dr. Joseph Mengele, one of the most notorious of all the Nazi war criminals, and his SS doctors are conducting the selection.
To reiterate, Shlomo has been, in Eliezer's view, a burden. The son has had to take care of the father, a reversal of relative positions. Now, however, the father has bad news for the son: he has been selected. Whereas Eliezer has grown accustomed to his father's weaknesses, he is now confronted with a father who is still concerned for the son and who seeks to reassure the latter. Eliezer describes the situation as follows:
"He (Shlomo) felt that his time was short. He spoke quickly. He would have liked to say so many things.... He knew that I would have to go in a few moments. He would have to stay behind alone. So very alone."
Shlomo insists that Eliezer take his, the father's, knife and spoon, arguing that he doesn't need such items anymore, and that "they might be useful to you." When Eliezer hesitates, Shlomo insists that his son do as he says, a rare moment of parental authority and assurance.
Wiesel's story is a depiction of life under the most terrible of circumstances. The dehumanizing environment in which the prisoners were forced to live has robbed the teenage narrator of his ability to empathize with his father's plight. At this final moment, however, the son reverts to being the child and the father is, once more, the parent.
How did Elie Wiesel react to his father's beating in Night?
Dr. Mengele arrived at the camp to "weed out" those too sick and weak to work. All of the prisoners are reviewed and if their number is written down they must remain in camp for further examination and possible death. At first Elie's father doesn't think his number has been written down. After several days a group of numbers are read off and they are told to stay behind in camp that day. When Elie's father realizes his number has been called he runs to Elie in a panic and tries to be brave. He tells his son that maybe there is still hope, but he gives Elie his knife and his spoon. He tells Elie that he will have more use of it now.
"Look, take this knife," he said to me. "I don't need it any longer and it might be useful to you. And take this spoon as well. don't sell them. Quickly! Go on. Take what I'm giving you!" (pg 50)
In Night, how did Elie respond when the gypsy struck his father and what was his father's reaction?
Elie does nothing when his father is struck. In fact, his inability or unwillingness to defend his father gives him pause:
What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal's flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast?
Elie has internalized the rules of the camp, the first of which is, do not attract attention to yourself. This incident occurs after brief orientation to life at Auschwitz, where an SS officer has explained that they each have a choice, "Work or the chimney!" In such a place, where brutality is the only constant, Elie learns quickly that any attachment, even to his father, can make himself a target. He is ashamed, but also filled with a burning rage: "I shall never forgive them for this." His father, understanding his shame, is quick to say that he is not hurt; but pain is not what Elie is angry about: he is angry about his sudden transformation from a human with dignity into little more than a beast of burden.
In Night, how did Elie respond when the gypsy struck his father and what was his father's reaction?
Shortly after arriving at Auschwitz, Elie and his father are directed to a specific barrack, where they are given their prison uniforms and informed that they will be working in the concentration camp. After being transferred to another barrack, a Gypsy inmate is put in charge and his father has a sudden colic attack. After Elie's father politely asks the Gypsy in charge to go to the restroom, the Gypsy strikes him hard across the face with such force that he falls to the ground. Elie is both shocked and petrified after witnessing his father get slapped across the face and stands still, unable to move or ascertain what just happened. Elie also recalls thinking that he will never forgive his father for provoking the Gypsy's wrath. In an attempt to ease his son's pain and anger, Elie's father whispers into his hear that it didn't hurt.
In Night, how did Elie respond when the gypsy struck his father and what was his father's reaction?
This is a good question. Here is a little context. When Elie, his father, and the other prisoners came into the barrack of the camp that they were staying, a gypsy was in charge. He gave permission for the people to sit. When Elie's father asked to use the bathroom, the gypsy struck him out of nowhere.
When the gypsy struck Elie's father, Elie did nothing. He just looked on, and let it happen. The reason why Elie did nothing was because he was shocked. He did not know what to do. Also what could he do?
Elie's father knowing that Elie was in a state of shock and guilt (for doing nothing), whispered to Elie that he was fine and the that slap in the face did not hurt.
Here is the quote from the work, to give you the drama unfold. The Gypsy stared at him for a long time, from head to toe. As if he wished to ascertain that the person addressing him was actually a creature of flesh and bone, a human being with a body and a belly. Then, as if waking from a deep sleep, he slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours.
I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal's flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast? Remorse began to gnaw at me. All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this. My father must have guessed my thoughts, because he whispered in my ear:
"It doesn't hurt." His cheek still bore the red mark of the hand.
How do interactions with his father, Juliek, the French girl, Rabbi Eliahou, his son, and the Nazis impact Wiesel's hope and will to live?
2 Educator Answers
In Elie Wiesel’s Night, the people with whom Wiesel interacts in the death camp strengthen his desire to live.
Elie’s interaction with Juliek show how people became inured to death. Elie and Juliek watch a hanging. Juliek whispers, “will it be over soon? I'm hungry." Conversely, when Elie, Juliek, and others are being crushed together and gasping for air, Juliek’s actions are heart-wrenching. Elie hears a violin in the “dark barrack where the dead were piled on top of the living.” It was Juliek playing a fragment of a Beethoven concerto. Elie writes that, “Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound.” Although Juliek dies afterwards:
He was playing his life ... His unfulfilled hopes ... his extinguished future ... and bidding farewell to an audience of dying men.
Rabbi Eliahu's story shows the best and worst in people. Rabbi Eliahu was “a very kind man, beloved by everyone in the camp.” He cannot find his son, with whom he had “endured the suffering, the blows” for three years. Elie recalls that the son had seen his father fall behind and let “the distance between them become greater ... He had felt his father growing weaker and ... thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival.”
Yet, signs of humanity remain. After Elie endures a severe beating, he:
... felt a cool hand wiping the blood from my forehead. It was the French girl. She was smiling her mournful smile as she slipped me a crust of bread. She looked straight into my eyes. I knew she wanted to talk to me but that she was paralyzed with fear.
Perhaps the most poignant is Elie’s interaction with his father. When “it was still possible to buy emigration certificates,” Elie had asked his father to emigrate. "I am too old, my son," he answered. "Too old to start a new life." The father says, "The yellow star? So what? It's not lethal."
When the family is deported, the Nazis are vicious. "There are eighty of you in the car," the German officer added. "If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs." Elie observes, “My father was crying. It was the first time I saw him cry. I had never thought it possible." Elie loves his father throughout. He writes:
And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed. "Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done.
Elie calls out for his father during the crushing scene, "Father, are you there?"
Despite all these horrors, Elie wants to live. He writes:
I tried to rid myself of my invisible assassin. My whole desire to live became concentrated in my nails. I scratched, I fought for a breath of air ... I prevailed. I succeeded in digging a hole in that wall of dead and dying people, a small hole through which I could drink a little air.
Wiesel's desire to survive is most impacted by his father. From the very beginning of the novel, Wiesel emphasizes the strength of the family bond, and, once separated from his mother and sister, Wiesel does what is necessary to stay with his father. Having someone to care for and depend on gives him a purpose for carrying on. At the end of the novel, as they are being transported on a train, Wiesel thinks his father is dead, and he says, "Suddenly, the evidence overwhelmed me: there was no longer any reason to live, any reason to fight" (Wiesel, 99). His father, however, is not dead, and he continues to be an inspiration for Wiesel to persevere.
The French girl plays a small role in giving him hope, but the fact that he recognizes her years later shows that her small act of kindness does leave an impression on him. When Wiesel is beaten brutally by one of the guards, it is the French girl, who actually speaks German (though no one knows it), who gives Wiesel encouragement to stay strong and not react and make the situation worse.
The encounter with Rabbi Eliahou and his son strengthens Wiesel's desire to live in a different way. As they are being marched from one concentration camp to another, Wiesel witnesses the rabbi's son running ahead when he realizes his father cannot keep up. Once he realizes what has happened, Wiesel prays that he will never do what Rabbi Eliahou's son had done. In spite of the horrifying circumstances, Wiesel will not abandon his own father.
Juliek brings Wiesel a few moments of peace during the journey. When the Nazis have taken so much away, Juliek plays Beethoven, and Wiesel seems to feel as if Juliek is playing from the very depths of his soul. It does not really provide a desire or will to live so much as a moment of respite that lulls him to sleep. When Wiesel wakes to find Juliek dead next to him, there is not a lot of reaction to the death. At this point in the journey, it seems that Wiesel has become somewhat numb to the deaths of those around him.
Finally, the Nazis provoke Wiesel's anger and his determination not to be beaten by them. They have him under their control, but he is not going to give in to their treatment of him. While Wiesel does fear the Nazis' brutality, he also does not give in to it, and he does what he needs to survive. It is this strong will which carries him through the horrific marches he is forced to endure in the end.
What realization does Elie make about Rabbi Eliahou and his son in Night?
2 Educator Answers
Quick answer:
In Night, Elie realizes that Rabbi Eliahou's son deliberately abandoned his father during their forced march to Gleiwitz to increase his own chances of survival. Despite years of suffering together, the son chose self-preservation over familial loyalty when he saw his father faltering and slowing down, fearing that staying with him could jeopardize his own life. This revelation shocks Elie, who prays that he never acts similarly towards his own father.
As Elie and his father are catching a bit of rest in a shed on the march/run to Gleiwitz, Rabbi Eliahu, his mustache ice-laden, finds the father-son pair and inquires about his own son. Elie notes that this rabbi's words always bring peace, and his countenance has never lost its innocence.
For three years, the rabbi and his son have endured everything together: physical abuse, starvation, and camp rotations. And now, the rabbi is in desperate search of his son, having lost him somewhere along the road. He notes:
We lost sight of one another during the journey. I fell behind a little, at the rear of the column. I didn't have the strength to run anymore. And my son didn't notice. That's all I know. Where has he disappeared? Where can I find him?
At first, Elie can't recall seeing his son, and Rabbi Eliahu leaves without any idea regarding his son's location. And then, suddenly, Elie does recall an important memory. As they ran, Rabbi Eliahu's son had run alongside Elie for a while. But the horrible realization Elie has is that the rabbi's son left him on purpose:
His son had seen him losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run in front, letting the distance between them become greater.
A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father?
Elie realizes that the rabbi's son is no longer willing to risk death for a father who may not make it through this new form of torture. He prioritizes his own life over providing support for his father, and he does so without telling his father about his plan. He abandons his father in an effort to give himself a better chance of survival.
That night, Elie prays to God that he will never become the son that Rabbi Eliahu's son has become.
The horrible realization that Eliezer comes to is more of a statement of what is as opposed to what should not be. In the factory, after evacuating Buna, Eliezer and his father take turns sleeping through the night. While awake, Eliezer sees Rabbi Eliahou in search of his son. Eliezer realizes that the son abandoned the father while on the run in the belief that the father would not make it and survive. The estrangement of father and son, and more pressingly, the abandonment of son from father fills Eliezer with a certain dread. He hopes that he would not do what the Rabbi's son did. He hopes that he will demonstrate the loyalty and commitment that the Rabbi's son so sorely lacked. The horrible realization that Eliezer might be experiencing subconsciously, and that we know as readers, is that the true horror of the Holocaust lies in this condition. While the Nazis and Hitler do represent evil, the very idea that any set of circumstances would demand that children abandon their parents in the name of mere survival represents the worst of the Holocaust. This realization- the severance of emotional connection and bonds to one another and to one's own blood- is something that haunts at Eliezer, and serves as a foreshadowing for his own predicament when his father takes a drastically fatal turn in his health.
In Night, what does the behavior of fathers and sons in chapters 3-5 reveal about self-preservation versus family commitment?
1 Educator Answer
The question is asking us to analyze what is seen in chapters 3, 4, 5 regarding the relationship between fathers and sons. In seeing these examples, what is noticed in terms of self- preservation and family commitment? Are there clear instances where one is favored or another? To put it another way, does survival become more important than family? I think that this question is going to be more evident and more intense as the narrative continues. Certainly, there are examples in the chapters of how family commitment trumps that of self- preservation. Eliezer and his father stay together in chapter 3. When Dr. Mengele makes his initial selections, Eliezer and his family stay together. We do not see one of them sacrifice the other. In fact, the father laments this, suggesting to Eliezer that it might have been better had he gone with his mother, for at least they would have died together. This suggests that family commitment is superior to self- preservation at this point in the text. It is interesting to note that when Eliezer's father is beaten for coughing, Eliezer does not rush to his defense. No one is blaming Eliezer as it is so difficult to blame any of the prisoners of the Nazis. Yet, it is noteworthy because whether it is liked or not, the moment does reflect an instant where self- preservation is more important than family commitment. This is expanded in Chapter 4, where Eliezer actively moves away from his father being beaten. When Eliezer tries to teach his father to march, it can be seen as solidarity of family, but in keeping with the narrative being detailed, it is something that Eliezer keeps teaching his father to preserve himself, expanding the idea that Eliezer is appropriating the form of the concentration camp world around him. Chapter 5 shows again a moment where there is a fundamental choice between self- preservation versus family commitment, but this time Eliezer's father chooses family commitment when he stays with his son in the infirmary. It becomes highly telling and relevant that Wiesel constructs the narrative with the father, the older generation representing the bonds of loyalty to the family, while the aspect of self- preservation is more evident in the younger generation in terms of it being more dominant with Eliezer.
In Night, how did the Holocaust change father-son relationships?
1 Educator Answer
The way in which the narrative in Night is framed shows how the relationship between Eliezer and his father was dramatically changed as a result of the events and the experience of the Holocaust. Prior to the experience of the Holocaust, there is a distinct leveling of power between Eliezer and his father. The exposition of the narrative reveals this when Eliezer suggests that the respect from the outside world that Eliezer's father received took precedence: "My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin." In the narrative's exposition, Eliezer's father possess power and respect. The power balance is revealed when Eliezer asks his father to further his religious studies:
One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of Kabbalah. "You are too young for that. Maimonides tells us that one must be thirty before venturing into the world of mysticism, a world fraught with peril. First you must study the basic subjects, those you are able to comprehend."
Eliezer's father is the controlling force within the home. The relationship between them is one where the father's word is taken without question and hesitation. When crisis engulfs the family, it is the father who asserts leadership. In moments such as going to the cellar and burying the family savings and even demonstrating steadfast strength, Eliezer's father is seen as the pinnacle of power and control in the family unit: "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 ones. Naturally, we refused to be separated." The father's strength and confidence is what defines the relationship between he and his son. This experience is before the entry into the camps and before the full extent of the Holocaust transformed this father/ son relationship.
When Eliezer and his father enter Auschwitz- Birkenau, the force of what is seen does much to transform the previous unshakeable strength of Eliezer's father. When Eliezer's father sees everything around him- the death, the suffering, the cruelty- his resolve begins to waver. He admits a sense of failure and defeatism, something that was not evident earlier: "What a shame, a shame that you did not go with your mother. I saw many children your age go with their mothers." Eliezer notes that his father could not generate answers of strength and confidence, noting that his father "didn't answer" and that "he was weeping" and "shaking" out of the pure fear of that which surrounded him. The extent of the Holocaust ends up changing his father from a previous fortress of strength into a shanty of frailty and fear.
As the experience of the Holocaust increases, Shlomo's weakness becomes even more evident. It arises at the same time that Eliezer begins to assert a distance from other human beings. His will to survive, almost in an animalistic manner, separates him from his father.
And he began beating him with an iron bar. At first, my father simply doubled over under the blows,but then he seemed to break in two like an old tree struck by lightning. I had watched it all happening without moving. I kept silent. In fact, I thought of stealing away in order not to suffer the blows. What's more, if I felt anger at that moment, it was not directed at the Kapo but at my father. Why couldn't he have avoided Idek's wrath? That was what life in a concentration camp had made of me.
This moment marks a significant change in the father/ son relationship between Eliezer and his father. There was no longer the source of respect and obedience that was there before the camps. Rather, there is a sense of detachment and even resentment over how the father is unable to meet the demands of survival in the camps. Later on, Eliezer becomes the source of power in the relationship, as he seeks to teach his father how to survive:
I decided to give my father lessons in marching in step, in keeping time. We began practicing in front of our block. I would command: "Left, right!" and my father would try. The inmates made fun of us: "Look at the little officer, teach-ing the old man to march. Hey, little general, how many rations of bread does the old man give you for this?" But my father did not make sufficient progress, and the blows continued to rain on him. "So! You still don't know how to march in step, you old good-for-nothing?"
This moment marks the point where Eliezer assumes a paternalistic role and his father is more of a child, a student who is in search of his own teacher or master just as Eliezer sought in the beginning of the narrative. As the demands become even more, Eliezer has to assert greater control of his father in the hopes of survival. At one point in this shifting dynamic, the father's "childlike" condition becomes evident:
"Don't yell, my son. Have pity on your old father. Let me rest here a little. I beg of you. I'm so tired and I have no more strength.
He had become childlike: weak, frightened, vulnerable.
"Father," I said, "you cannot stay here."
It is at this point where the Holocaust had permanently changed the relationship between Eliezer and his father. The events and experience of the Holocaust forever alters the relationship between father and son. The conclusion of the novel is one where the father calls out to his son and is beaten, and the son is too scared to even move. It is at this point where the horror of the Holocaust is evident. It was a moment in time where the basic bonds of intimacy such as the ones shared between father and son were transformed and even repudiated in the name of survival.
In Night, what is the significance of Rabbi Eliahu's son in Eliezer's relationship with his father?
1 Educator Answer
Quick answer:
The significance of Rabbi Eliahu's son in Eliezer's relationship with his father in Night is as a foreshadowing device. Rabbi Eliahu's son abandons his weakening father, prompting Eliezer to vow never to do the same. However, as his own father weakens, Eliezer struggles with similar feelings, highlighting how the Holocaust strained even the closest familial bonds.
The mention of Rabbi Eliahu's son operates as a foreshadowing technique to reflect the relationship Eliezer will have with his own father.
Rabbi Eliahu is a minor but significant character in Night. In the process of evacuating, Eliezer encounters Rabbi Eliahu looking for his son. Eliezer tells the Rabbi that he has not seen the boy. Later, Eliezer remembered that he had "noticed his [Rabbi Eliahu's] son running beside me" but also that he was "losing ground, sliding back to the rear of the column." It occurred to Eliezer that Rabbi Eliahu's son had seen his father and allowed "the distance between the [to] become greater." With this realization, Eliezer vows to avoid this in his own relationship with his father:
A terrible thought crossed my mind: What if he had wanted to be rid of his father? He had felt his father growing weaker and, believing that the end was near, had thought by this separation to free himself of a burden that could diminish his own chance for survival.
"Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done."
Wiesel includes this detail to show that one of the true horrors of the Holocaust was how it fundamentally transformed emotional relationships. Rabbi Eliahu's son demonstrates how the need for survival in the Holocaust superseded the emotional primacy of the relationships between children and their parents.
Eliezer turns out to move away from that prayer he offered to the "Master of the Universe." As his father becomes increasingly weaker, Eliezer is forced to offer up more of his own rations to save him. For example, Eliezer is forced to take care of his father by surrendering his own soup. Rather than willingly embrace this, he "grudgingly" gives his father his soup with a "heavy heart." Eliezer remarks that his behavior shows that "Just like Rabbi Eliahu's son, I had not passed the test." In bringing up Rabbi Eliahu's son, Eliezer vividly shows how the Holocaust impacted him by transforming the most elemental emotional connection that a boy could have.
How did Elie Wiesel's father help him survive in the camps in Night?
1 Educator Answer
Quick answer:
Elie Wiesel's father plays a crucial role in helping him survive the Holocaust in the book "Night". He offers Elie invaluable advice, shares his food rations, and motivates him to persevere through their horrific circumstances. Notably, he prevents Elie from falling asleep in the snow, which would have led to certain death. Elie's father's presence provides a sense of purpose that enables Elie to withstand exhaustion and starvation, ultimately contributing to his survival.
Despite the fact that his father is often a burden to Elie, the older man's presence in the camps is one of the major reasons why Elie ultimately survived. Throughout their internment, Elie is constantly concerned with his father's well being and considers himself indispensable to his father's survival. This attitude probably helped keep Elie from succumbing to exhaustion and starvation. There are two good examples of this in section six. During the forced march from Buna to Gleiwitz, Elie suggests that his survival was prompted by his father's presence running at his side. He believed that if he faltered and could not go on, his father would also certainly perish:
My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me....He was running at my side, out of breath, at the end of his strength, at his wit's end. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support.
A little later in this section, Elie is again on the verge of giving in to exhaustion when his father saves him. After marching (more like running) forty-two miles, he drops to the snowy ground to sleep. His father pleads with him to move on and not to fall asleep on the frozen "carpet" of snow:
"Don't let yourself be overcome by sleep, Eliezer. It's dangerous to fall asleep in the snow. You might sleep for good. Come on, come on. Get up."...I got up, gritting my teeth. Supporting me with his arm, he led me outside.
Even though Elie's father does not survive the camps, it could certainly be argued that Elie lived on primarily because he had a purpose in life during the horrible year he spent imprisoned. In his book Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl, also a camp survivor, argued that apathy and lack of purpose was one of the major reasons why prisoners died. They simply gave up because they could see no reason to carry on such an abominable existence. For Elie, no matter how bad things got, he always had his father (his father died shortly before the liberation of Buchenwald) to give him a purpose and a reason for living.
What are some examples of loyalty in Night?
1 Educator Answer
Quick answer:
Examples of loyalty in Night include Elie's refusal to leave his family in chapter 1, choosing to stay with his father during selections in chapter 3, and giving up his crown to save his father in chapter 4. In chapters 5, 6, and 7, Elie and his father stick together through evacuations and life-threatening situations. However, there are moments of disloyalty, such as Elie's fleeting thoughts of abandoning his father in chapter 8.
In chapter 1, the Wiesel family's former maid, Maria, visits the family and begs them to come stay with her at a shelter she has prepared. Elie's father refuses but tells Elie and his sisters they can go if they want to. "Naturally, we refused to be separated."
In chapter 3, at the first selection, Elie is waved to the left; however, he waits to see which way his father is waved, planning to join his father whichever way he goes.
In chapter 4, Franek wants Elie's crown. Elie refuses, so Elie's father is beaten because he cannot march correctly. Elie tries to teach his father to march, but Elie's father cannot get it right. Finally, Elie gives up his crown to save his father.
In chapter 4, the young pipel is tortured and murdered because he, and the oberkapo he served, refused to give up the other names of the people who were involved in the theft of the weapons.
In chapter 5, Elie and his father know they will either stay in the camp together or evacuate the camp together. There is no question of being separated.
In chapter 6, Elie and his father stay together while running. They also make sure to wake each other up so they won't starve to death. An example of disloyalty is when Rabbi Eliahu's son abandons him during the run.
In chapter 7, Elie frantically wakes up his father when the other prisoners think he is dead and are going to throw him off the train. Also, in chapter 7, Elie's father calls Meir Katz over to save him. Another example of loyalty in chapter 7 is when the father catches two pieces of bread: one for himself and one for his son. An example of disloyalty is when the son kills his father for his two pieces of bread.
In chapter 8, Elie remains physically loyal to his father, finding him after the air raid and giving his father his rations. However, he also shows disloyalty by his thoughts, when he hopes he won't find his father after the raid. Also, he shows some disloyalty when he thinks that perhaps he should be having his father's rations. In addition, his thoughts after his father dies are that he is "free."
Parent-child relationships and trust in Elie Wiesel's Night
3 Educator Answers
Summary:
In Night, Elie Wiesel explores the theme of parent-child relationships and trust through his bond with his father. The harrowing experiences in concentration camps test their trust and dependence on each other, revealing both the strength and fragility of familial ties amidst extreme suffering and dehumanization.
How is trust depicted between the father and son in Elie Wiesel's Night?
Although Eliezer’s relationship with his father deteriorates the longer they are together in the concentration camps, there is a degree of trust between them.
One early way this is shown is in Birkenau, when the Gypsy hits Shlomo powerfully in the face after the man asks where the toilets are. Eliezer, petrified and enraged that he did not react, is reassured by his father, who turns to his son and whispers, “It doesn’t hurt.” This shows that Shlomo knows his son well, and he knows what to say in order to comfort Eliezer. Although Eliezer clearly sees his father is lying, he also recognizes this gesture as one of kindness.
A second example that shows the trust between Eliezer and his father comes when they are in Auschwitz. Shlomo reassures his son, saying that his mother “must be in a labor camp” along with Tzipora, who is “a big girl now.” Eliezer recognizes this as a lie, but he indulges his father in order to keep their spirits up. This shows trust because the father and son are relying on each other to survive mentally.
Another example occurs at Buna when Franek wants Eliezer’s gold crown. Although Eliezer wants to immediately give up his crown in order to avoid Franek’s ire, Shlomo says, “No, my son. We cannot do this.” Eliezer resists Franek’s threats and torture of Shlomo, who cannot march properly, all because of his father’s advice. This shows that Eliezer still sees his father as an authority figure and trusts his judgment.
Each of these examples, and more, throughout the text shows that Eliezer trusts and loves his father, even when he becomes annoyed that he is responsible for caring for the aging, ailing man.
How does Night by Elie Wiesel portray parent-child relationships?
I think that this is one of the most profound elements out of Wiesel's work. One of the strongest and most base of claims in the work is how the experience of the Holocaust inverted all of reality. In this inversion, Wiesel places the parent/ child relationship. It might be comforting to think that the connection between parent and child is something that can remain intact in the Holocaust. Yet, Wiesel does not believe in any such notion. His vision of what was present during the Holocaust is one where the inversion of the parent/ child connection is one of the most haunting of elements.
Eliezer and his father are shown to be together, for the most part. There is some level of adolescent distance featured when Eliezer wishes to study the element of Jewish mysticism and Shlomo is more concerned with the day to day events of the community and his business. Throughout the harrowing ordeal, Wiesel shows how the dehumanization of the Nazi victims end up infecting them to the point where they replicate the same patterns of abuse that are being perpetrated unto them. This is seen at several points. When Madame Schachter's child turns from his mother's beating, not speaking out, but rather vicariously living through the mob, it is a reminder of how the inversion of values in the Holocaust impacts all human connection. At the same time, when Eliezer and his father witness a father stealing bread for his child and the beating of father at the hands of the child for food, it is another element of inversion. Children abandoning parents during times of crises are reflective moments of how the parent/ child bond is not immune to the dehumanization that is such a part of the Holocaust narrative. Certainly, this is seen in Eliezer, himself, where a base instinct and drive to survive cuts off the ability to hear his father's cries. When Shlomo cries for water, yearns for someone to hear him, and Eliezer remains silent, it is the ultimate telling point as to how the true horror of the Holocaust was the severance of bonds between human beings, something that reared itself in the relationship between children and their parents. When Eliezer cannot recognize the vision staring back at him at the end of the narrative, it might be a telling sign of how estranged children can no longer acknowledge or understand their connection to parents in such a time period.
How does Night by Elie Wiesel portray parent-child relationships?
There are contrasting examples of parent and child relationships, particularly father and son, in Elie Wiesel's Night. Throughout the memoir, Elie does his best to remain faithful to his father, despite incredible difficulties and brutality. In fact, for Elie and his father, their roles are increasingly reversed over the course of the story. Elie takes on the parental role as he is constantly vigilant to his father's needs and survival. He feels guilty that he cannot do more for his father, who seems to age quickly in the camps. Unfortunately, Elie is sometimes paralyzed by fear in the face of his father's tormentors. Mostly, however, he is an important resource for his father. At one point in the forced march from Buna to Gleiwitz, as Elie is desperate to stop and even to die, he forces himself to go on for the simple reason that he cannot let his father down:
My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me....He was running at my side, out of breath, at the end of his strength, at his wit's end. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support.
Again, at Gleiwitz, Elie show his devotion to his father during one of the infamous selections. When his father is sent to the left, and certain death, Elie goes after him and causes such confusion that he is able to direct his father back to the right and survival. Finally, however, there is nothing Elie can do and his father dies of dysentery at Buchenwald.
In contrast, there are two examples of father and son relationships which totally break down in the midst of the violence and inhumanity of the concentration camps. In section six, Elie tells the story of Rabbi Eliahou and his son. During the forced march from Buna, the Rabbi's son had attempted to distance himself from his father. Unlike Elie, the boy was perfectly willing to abandon his father if he felt it would lead to his own survival. In section seven, Elie relates an even more brutal story of a son who hastens his father's death over a morsel of bread. As the Jews pass through a German town, the civilians throw pieces of bread into the train cars just to see the men fight over the food. Elie witnesses a man clutching a piece who is instantly attacked by another man that turns out to be his own son:
"Meir, Meir, my boy! Don't you recognize me? I'm your father...you're hurting me...you're killing your father! I've got some bread...for you too...for you too..."
While Elie is certainly not perfect in his relationship with his father, he never resorts to abandonment or violence. He is with his father almost to the end, describing the last time he saw him:
Bending over him, I stayed gazing at him for over an hour, engraving into myself the picture of his blood-stained face, his shattered skull.
Father-Son Dynamics in Night
4 Educator Answers
Summary:
In Elie Wiesel's Night, father-son dynamics illustrate the dehumanizing effects of the Holocaust. Wiesel portrays the erosion of familial bonds under extreme conditions, such as when Eliezer witnesses a son kill his father for bread. Despite maintaining a close relationship with his father, Eliezer is haunted by moments of inaction, highlighting the struggle for survival that often led to neglect or betrayal. The memoir underscores how the Holocaust severed even the deepest familial ties.
List examples of father/son relationships in Night.
In the original Yiddish version, Eliezer gives a more personalized account of his father’s death. In his account, it is clear that the relationship between father and son has evolved. In his last moments, Eliezer’s father tries to call his son, but Eliezer refuses to respond to his father’s calls. Eliezer states that he was afraid of the blows from the SS. However, his refusal to go to his father’s side attracts the wrath of the SS toward his father. The soldier descends on Eliezer’s father with blows to the head, and Eliezer froze in fear, hoping that his father would stop calling him.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz, some of the older sons attempt to put up some resistance, but their fathers ask them to stand down. The respect the boys have for their fathers forces them to obey their parents’ request and stop the idea of a revolt.
The story of Bela Katz remains one of the saddest stories in the book. Bela Katz had been selected to join the Sonderkommando because of his strength. His first assignment was to place his father’s body in the fire. One can only imagine the grief, and, despite the pain, resistance was futile. Thus, Bela Katz is left with no choice but to do as requested in order to survive.
Eliezer witnessed a pipel aged thirteen beat up his father because he had not made his bed properly. The event shows the changing relationships between fathers and sons in the concentration camps. Some of the children were losing respect for their parents due to the conditions in their new environment.
List examples of father/son relationships in Night.
In his memoir Night (1958, 1960) Elie Wiesel narrates his experience in the network of Auschwitz concentration camps. Wiesel details father-son relationships to show how natural, loving bonds deteriorate when individuals are faced with intolerable situations. For instance, Wiesel narrates an anecdote where a prisoner murders his father for a taste of bread, thus demonstrating the breakdown of humanity in the face of cruelty (101-102). Wiesel, who fears he will resort to this type of violence, clings to his father in an effort to maintain humanity. Wiesel and his father, Chlomo, endured the Auschwitz camps from late May, 1944 until mid-January, 1945. Ultimately, Wiesel’s father, suffering from dysentery, died before the camp was liberated on April 11, 1945.
The first primary example of father-son relationships occurs early in the novel, during the first days at Auschwitz. Wiesel’s father, seized with colic, asks for the restroom. The guard strikes the old man and Wiesel does not prevent the violence: “I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid. I had looked on and said nothing” (39).
Later, Idek, a Kapo prone to violence, lashes out on Wiesel’s father and beats him with an iron bar: “I had watched the whole scene without moving. I kept quiet. In fact I was thinking of how to get farther away so that I would not be hit myself...That is what concentration camp life had made of me” (54).
In another moving scene, Rabbi Eliahou searches for his son, who left his father behind during the Death March. Wiesel recalls: “A terrible through loomed up in my mind: he had wanted to get rid of his father! He had felt that his father was growing weak, he had believed that the end was near and had sought this separation in order to get rid of the burden…My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done” (90-91).
Finally, in one of the most moving scenes of the memoir, Wiesel narrates the death of his father. Wiesel recounts his father’s last moments: “Then my father made a ratline noise and it was my name: ‘Eliezer…’ I did not move…His last word was my name. a summons, to which I did not respond…I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like – free at last” (111-112).
What is Wiesel's message about fathers and sons in Night?
Wiesel does not focus his work and writing exclusively on the relationship between fathers and sons. His advocacy for greater understanding of the Holocaust is more general in scope. Wiesel's most famous work, Night, does offer some insight on the relationship between fathers and sons. Wiesel places this relationship in the scope of the Holocaust. Wiesel argues that the real tragic condition of the Holocaust was the dehumanization that resulted. Individuals lost dignity in the eyes of one another. Certainly, the Nazis dehumanized the people they targeted. Yet, Wiesel also makes clear that a component of this tragic condition was the way in which victims dehumanized one another.
Certainly, this is evident in the relationship between fathers and sons. When Rabbi Eliahu's son deliberately "loses" his father in order to save himself, Eliezer offers a prayer that he does not do the same. In true Wiesel tragic fashion, Eliezer does the exact same thing as his father calls out his name and Eliezer fails to respond. The message present regarding fathers and sons becomes that the true horror of the Holocaust is one in which bonds between loved ones are severed in the name of survival. Transcendent notions of the good are replaced with contingency and temporality. This becomes the message that Wiesel delivers about both the relationship between fathers and sons during the Holocaust and the true terror that exists within it.
Describe the father-son interactions in Night.
Elie has a close, loving relationship with his father throughout the novel, which is illustrated by their selflessness and compassion towards one another throughout the Holocaust. Elie and his father look out for each other and are inseparable during their time spent in the concentration camps. Both Elie and his father share their rations with each other in times of need and prevent each other from dying on separate occasions. In contrast to his own loving relationship with his father, Elie witnesses sons neglect and physically attack their fathers. While the Jewish prisoners are marching in the snow, Elie recalls seeing Rabbi Eliahu's son neglect his father by purposely marching at a fast pace in an attempt to lose him. After his conversation with Rabbi Eliahu, Elie prays not to be selfish and cold like the rabbi's son. Elie also recalls seeing a son brutally beat his father for a piece of bread while being transported in a cattle car. The extent of inhumanity during the Holocaust impacts the closest bonds, which is illustrated by the way that sons fight and neglect their fathers.
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