Night 1: Before the Germans arrive at Sighet, nighttime is for Elie a time of spiritual and physical renewal. It is a time of studying religious texts, of prayer, and of restful sleep. This comforting sense of night is forever lost as Elie experiences the horrible, dreadful nights of the concentration camps.
Night 2: Elie describes how in the ghetto, as his father was telling stories, "Night fell," foreshadowing the news of their deportation. The notion of "night" falling on the Jews becomes a running theme throughout the book. There are several instances where the phrase precedes some dreadful event.
Chapter 2
Night 3: Darkness characterizes the cattle train ride to Birkenau-Auschwitz. In the darkness, Madame Schachter goes out of her mind and yells incessantly about the fire, flames, and furnace. When she points and screams about the fire and flames, the other Jews see only darkness. Darkness is also a character of night that allows the young to flirt and people to relieve themselves without being seen.
Chapter 3
Night 4: The overwhelming sense of Elie's experiences during the first day of camp is that it is like a nightmare. As Elie and the other prisoners walk past the chimneys at Birkenau, they stand motionless, unable to comprehend the sights: "We stayed motionless, petrified. Surely it was all a nightmare? An unimaginable nightmare?" (Chapter 3, pg. 28) Elie thinks he's dreaming. After pinching his face, in disbelief he utters, "How could it be possible for them to burn people, children, and for the world to keep silent? No, none of this could be true. It was a nightmare...." (Chapter 3, pg. 30)
That first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's mind. His entire narrative story seems like an account of one long, endless night: "So much had happened within such a few hours that I had lost all sense of time. When had we left our houses? And the ghetto? And the train? Was it only a week? One night-one single night?" (Chapter 3, pg. 34)
Chapter 5
Night 5: The impression of "last nights" anchors the timeframe of Elie's narrative. There are numerous instances of last nights: the last night at home; the last night in the ghetto; the last night on the train; the last night at Buna.
Night 6: "Night" carries with it the notion of uncertainty and fear. Short of representing death, night becomes an imagery of the unknown. As Elie and the other prisoners prepare to leave Buna, there is a greater fear of what is to come: "The gates of the camp opened. It seemed that an even darker night was waiting for us on the other side." (Chapter 5, pg. 80)
Chapter 7
Night 7: One night, on the winter trek to Buchenwald, Elie is almost strangled to death by an unknown attacker. Elie does not know the reason for the attack. Night brings out the worst dangers.
The nights become bleaker as the narrative progresses. Thus, Elie detests the "long nights" of the winter: "We were all going to die here. All limits had been passed. No one had any strength left. And again the night would be long." Chapter 7, pg. 98
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tracking: Memory
Memory 1: Although the whole of Night is a series of memories, there are many cases where either "forgetting" or "remembering" plays a significant role in the narrative. In the first chapter, Moshe the Beadle and all the foreign Jews of Sighet are expelled by the Hungarian Police. The Jews of Sighet are troubled but soon after the deportation, the deportees are forgotten and town life returns to normal.
Moshe returns to Sighet and recounts the horror stories of the Gestapo's extermination of the Jews. He tries to recall from memory, the stories of the victims' deaths: "He went from one Jewish house to another, telling the story of Malka, the young girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias, the tailor, who had begged to be killed before his sons...." (Chapter 1, pg. 4)
The German army sets up two ghettos in Sighet. The Jews of the "little ghetto" are deported first and just three days later, even as they move into the previous occupants' homes, the Jews of the big ghetto forget about them.
Chapter 2
Memory 2: During the train ride, the Jews try desperately to silence the maddening screams of Madame Schachter. They even go so far as to hit her. Just as the Jews are able to block Madame Schachter out of their minds, they see the flames of the furnace and smell the odor of burning flesh at Birkenau. There, they are reminded of Madame Schachter's visions.
Chapter 3
Memory 3: The first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's memory. Repeatedly, he uses the phrase "never shall I forget." Elie does not have to try to remember anything because even if he tries to forget, the memories are eternal, forever.
Upon arrival of Auschwitz, the SS officer in charge gives the new prisoners an introduction to the camp. He says, "'Remember it forever. Engrave it into your minds. You are at Auschwitz.'" (Chapter 3, pg. 36)
As the prisoners talk about God and wonder about their fate, Elie finds that only occasionally does he think about the fates of his mother and younger sister. The rigors of concentration camp life have dulled his sense of memory.
Chapter 4
Memory 4: At Buna, Elie is beaten by Idek the Kapo and a young French girl comes to his aid and tells him to keep his anger and hatred for another day. Years later, Elie Wiesel recalls running into her in Paris. They reminisce about the days in the concentration camp. Such memories are hard to forget.
Chapter 5
Memory 5: After the prisoners go through the selection process, they forget about it until a few days later when the head of the barracks reads off the numbers of those selected. Although the prisoners forget, Dr. Mengele, the one who makes the selections, does not forget.
Akiba Drumer, sensing that his death is near, makes Elie and others promise to remember him when he is taken away by praying the Kaddish. Due to the harsh treatment they receive, after only three days since Akiba Drumer is taken away, Elie and the others forget to pray the Kaddish for him.
Chapter 6
Memory 6: During the train ride in the dead of winter, the prisoners forget about everything-death, fatigue, and their physical needs. The unbearable sufferings that the prisoners undergo desensitize their senses-they are able to block everything from their minds.
Elie remembers that Rabbi Eliahou's son had tried to abandon his father during the winter march. That memory makes him pray to a God that he no longer believes in, to give him the strength not to do what the rabbi's son had done.
Memory 7: Elie cannot forget the smile his father shows him even in the midst of his suffering. "I shall always remember that smile. From which world did it come?" Chapter 6, pg. 86 Elie asks. These seemingly minor, death-defying gestures are particularly memorable.
Memory 8: Elie finds it hard to forget the last concert Juliek gives to an audience of dying men. The memory of the last concert is heightened by the lasting images of Juliek's dead body and his smashed violin. And whenever Elie Wiesel hears Beethoven's concerto, he remembers the face of his friend, Juliek, and his last concert.
Chapter 8
Memory 9: When he awakes from his sleep, Elie remembers that he has a father. Sleep and fatigue had gotten the better of him; the survival of his body overcomes him to the point of forgetting about his father.
At Elie's father's death, there are no prayers, no candles lit to his memory, no tears. In the depth of his memory, Elie admits feeling a sense of relief in not having to worry about his father anymore. He feels free from his father's physical presence, but not from the memory of his father, which remains with him forever.
Moshe returns to Sighet and recounts the horror stories of the Gestapo's extermination of the Jews. He tries to recall from memory, the stories of the victims' deaths: "He went from one Jewish house to another, telling the story of Malka, the young girl who had taken three days to die, and of Tobias, the tailor, who had begged to be killed before his sons...." (Chapter 1, pg. 4)
The German army sets up two ghettos in Sighet. The Jews of the "little ghetto" are deported first and just three days later, even as they move into the previous occupants' homes, the Jews of the big ghetto forget about them.
Chapter 2
Memory 2: During the train ride, the Jews try desperately to silence the maddening screams of Madame Schachter. They even go so far as to hit her. Just as the Jews are able to block Madame Schachter out of their minds, they see the flames of the furnace and smell the odor of burning flesh at Birkenau. There, they are reminded of Madame Schachter's visions.
Chapter 3
Memory 3: The first night of camp is forever etched into Elie's memory. Repeatedly, he uses the phrase "never shall I forget." Elie does not have to try to remember anything because even if he tries to forget, the memories are eternal, forever.
Upon arrival of Auschwitz, the SS officer in charge gives the new prisoners an introduction to the camp. He says, "'Remember it forever. Engrave it into your minds. You are at Auschwitz.'" (Chapter 3, pg. 36)
As the prisoners talk about God and wonder about their fate, Elie finds that only occasionally does he think about the fates of his mother and younger sister. The rigors of concentration camp life have dulled his sense of memory.
Chapter 4
Memory 4: At Buna, Elie is beaten by Idek the Kapo and a young French girl comes to his aid and tells him to keep his anger and hatred for another day. Years later, Elie Wiesel recalls running into her in Paris. They reminisce about the days in the concentration camp. Such memories are hard to forget.
Chapter 5
Memory 5: After the prisoners go through the selection process, they forget about it until a few days later when the head of the barracks reads off the numbers of those selected. Although the prisoners forget, Dr. Mengele, the one who makes the selections, does not forget.
Akiba Drumer, sensing that his death is near, makes Elie and others promise to remember him when he is taken away by praying the Kaddish. Due to the harsh treatment they receive, after only three days since Akiba Drumer is taken away, Elie and the others forget to pray the Kaddish for him.
Chapter 6
Memory 6: During the train ride in the dead of winter, the prisoners forget about everything-death, fatigue, and their physical needs. The unbearable sufferings that the prisoners undergo desensitize their senses-they are able to block everything from their minds.
Elie remembers that Rabbi Eliahou's son had tried to abandon his father during the winter march. That memory makes him pray to a God that he no longer believes in, to give him the strength not to do what the rabbi's son had done.
Memory 7: Elie cannot forget the smile his father shows him even in the midst of his suffering. "I shall always remember that smile. From which world did it come?" Chapter 6, pg. 86 Elie asks. These seemingly minor, death-defying gestures are particularly memorable.
Memory 8: Elie finds it hard to forget the last concert Juliek gives to an audience of dying men. The memory of the last concert is heightened by the lasting images of Juliek's dead body and his smashed violin. And whenever Elie Wiesel hears Beethoven's concerto, he remembers the face of his friend, Juliek, and his last concert.
Chapter 8
Memory 9: When he awakes from his sleep, Elie remembers that he has a father. Sleep and fatigue had gotten the better of him; the survival of his body overcomes him to the point of forgetting about his father.
At Elie's father's death, there are no prayers, no candles lit to his memory, no tears. In the depth of his memory, Elie admits feeling a sense of relief in not having to worry about his father anymore. He feels free from his father's physical presence, but not from the memory of his father, which remains with him forever.
Tracking: Faith
Faith 1: Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age,Elie has a naïve, yet strong faith in God.
Chapter 3
Faith 2: Many of the prisoners try to cope with their situation by talking of God. Akiba Drumer, a devout Jew with a deep solemn voice, sings Hasidic melodies and talks about God testing the Jews.Elie , however, ceases to pray. He identifies with the biblical character Job, who questions God when misfortunes come upon him. Similarly,Elie begins to doubt God's absolute justice.
Chapter 4
Faith 3: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies with the death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful spiritual death. The death of the pipel is related to the death of his faith in God.
Chapter 5
Faith 4: On the Jewish New Year, Elie feels a strong rebellion against God. He becomes the accuser and God the accused. But in his rebellion against his faith in God, he also feels alone and empty.
The Jews debate whether they should fast for Yom Kippur. As an act of obedience to his father and also as an act of rebellion against God,Elie swallows his food. In the camps, his physical needs become more important than his faith.
Faith 5: Even the most devout, religious Jews begin to lose faith. Akiba Drumer does not make the selection when "cracks" begin to form in his faith. A rabbi from Poland, who always recites the Talmud from memory, concludes that God is no longer with them. For some, losing their faith in God is akin to losing their will to live.
Faith 6: As Elie recuperates in the hospital after his foot surgery, a faceless neighbor tells him that he has more faith in Hitler than in anyone else because he's the only one who's kept his promises to the Jewish people. This is a direct attack on those who have clung to their faith in God. The ultimate insult is that even Hitler is an object worthier of faith than is God.
Chapter 6
Faith 7: Recalling the actions of Rabbi Eliahou's son, Elie prays to the God he no longer believes in, that he have the strength to never do what the rabbi's son had done in abandoning his father. Rabbi Eliahou's search for his son rekindles inElie a sense of hope and faith. Elie feels that at the very least, he should be faithful to his father to the end.
Chapter 3
Faith 2: Many of the prisoners try to cope with their situation by talking of God. Akiba Drumer, a devout Jew with a deep solemn voice, sings Hasidic melodies and talks about God testing the Jews.Elie , however, ceases to pray. He identifies with the biblical character Job, who questions God when misfortunes come upon him. Similarly,Elie begins to doubt God's absolute justice.
Chapter 4
Faith 3: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies with the death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful spiritual death. The death of the pipel is related to the death of his faith in God.
Chapter 5
Faith 4: On the Jewish New Year, Elie feels a strong rebellion against God. He becomes the accuser and God the accused. But in his rebellion against his faith in God, he also feels alone and empty.
The Jews debate whether they should fast for Yom Kippur. As an act of obedience to his father and also as an act of rebellion against God,Elie swallows his food. In the camps, his physical needs become more important than his faith.
Faith 5: Even the most devout, religious Jews begin to lose faith. Akiba Drumer does not make the selection when "cracks" begin to form in his faith. A rabbi from Poland, who always recites the Talmud from memory, concludes that God is no longer with them. For some, losing their faith in God is akin to losing their will to live.
Faith 6: As Elie recuperates in the hospital after his foot surgery, a faceless neighbor tells him that he has more faith in Hitler than in anyone else because he's the only one who's kept his promises to the Jewish people. This is a direct attack on those who have clung to their faith in God. The ultimate insult is that even Hitler is an object worthier of faith than is God.
Chapter 6
Faith 7: Recalling the actions of Rabbi Eliahou's son, Elie prays to the God he no longer believes in, that he have the strength to never do what the rabbi's son had done in abandoning his father. Rabbi Eliahou's search for his son rekindles inElie a sense of hope and faith. Elie feels that at the very least, he should be faithful to his father to the end.
Tracking: Death
Death 1: One day, Moshe the Beadle, who had been deported, comes back to Sighet to tell the story of the extermination of the Jews by the Gestapo. Although Moshe begs desperately to be heard, no one believes him. He tells Elie, "'I wanted to come back to Sighet to tell you the story of my death.'" (Chapter 1, pg. 5) Moshe the Beadle considers himself as already having gone through death. As someone who has experienced death and miraculously lives, he wants to save others from having to go through that same death.
Death 2: Elie identifies the German soldiers by their steel helmets with the emblem, the death's head. It is the first impression Elie has of the German soldiers.
The Jews are not allowed to leave their houses for three days-on pain of death. The term, "on pain of death" is used several times in the narrative to emphasize the harsh reality of the German's threats.
As the Jews are forced to wear the yellow star, Elie's father replies, "'The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it....'" Chapter 1, pg. 9 Elie responds, "Poor Father! Of what then did you die?" (Chapter 1, pg. 9) The yellow star symbolizes the mark of distinction that sends many Jews to their deaths. In retrospect, Wiesel feels that his father and the Jews of Sighet conceded to their deaths by submitting to every German decree. With each submission, they die a bit more.
As the ghettos are emptied by the deportation of the Jews, rooms that were once bustling with activity, lay open with the people's belongings still remaining. It is like an "open tomb" in that there is no longer any sign of life.
Chapter 3
Death 3: The crematories serve as factories of death. The big, fiery furnace is where those who do not make the selection are sent. The threat of being sent to the crematory is likened to being sent to the grave.
As the prisoners witness the burning of babies, they begin to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. It is a prayer that the living offer up on behalf of the dead. "Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves." (Chapter 3, pg. 31) The threat of death is so imminent that the Jews recite the prayer for their own souls.
Death 4:
The SS officer who introduces them to Auschwitz is described as having the odor of the Angel of Death. He tells the Jews that if they do not work, they will be sent to the crematory. The idea of being sent to the furnace becomes a firm reality.
Elie realizes, as he settles in during the first night of camp, that he has changed: the child in him is dead. It is the death of his old identity-the death of his innocence.
On the electric wires at Auschwitz, there is a sign with a caption: "Warning. Danger of death." Elie considers it a mockery because everywhere in the camp, there is constant danger of death.
Chapter 4
Death 5: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies withthe death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful, spiritual death.
Chapter 5
Death 6: The selection process determines who will live and who will die. Dr. Mengele, the notorious SS officer, is the person who heads the selection. He moves his baton to the right or to the left, depending on the health of the prisoners. Dr. Mengele is like the Angel of Death. He is the messenger of death.
As the prisoners prepare for the evacuation of Buna, the bell rings. It signals the start of the winter march. The sight of the prisoners setting out in the winter is likened to a burial procession. The prisoners realize that many of them will not make in through the march alive.
Chapter 6
Death 7: On the winter march, the prisoners who cannot keep up are either shot by the SS officers or trampled upon by the others. The winter march is a march to their deaths. As Elie sees his friend Zalman fall behind, he begins to think about his painful foot: "Death wrapped itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt I could touch it." (Chapter 6, pg. 82) The presence of his father is the only motivation that keeps him going.
Chapter 7
Death 8: On the train ride, dead corpses are thrown overboard onto the snow. "Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a field in Poland." (Chapter 7, pg. 94) By this time, Elie is indifferent to death.
As the Jews on the train feel that the end is near, they all begin to wail like animals that are about to die. The cries are a primal, instinctive, and reactionary response to death. Many die like animals, without the dignity accorded to human beings.
Chapter 8
Death 9: At Buchenwald, Elie's father struggles with dysentery. Elie tries to revive his father's spirit, but it is of no use. Elie's father is taken away during the night. Elie feels guilty that he cannot find the tears to weep. Concentration camp existence has robbed him of the proper response to his father's death. Elie is emotionally dead.
Chapter 9
Death 10: In his Holocaust experience, Elie undergoes near physical, spiritual, and emotional death. It is graphically reflected in the mirror as he sees the image of a corpse staring back at him.
Death 2: Elie identifies the German soldiers by their steel helmets with the emblem, the death's head. It is the first impression Elie has of the German soldiers.
The Jews are not allowed to leave their houses for three days-on pain of death. The term, "on pain of death" is used several times in the narrative to emphasize the harsh reality of the German's threats.
As the Jews are forced to wear the yellow star, Elie's father replies, "'The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it....'" Chapter 1, pg. 9 Elie responds, "Poor Father! Of what then did you die?" (Chapter 1, pg. 9) The yellow star symbolizes the mark of distinction that sends many Jews to their deaths. In retrospect, Wiesel feels that his father and the Jews of Sighet conceded to their deaths by submitting to every German decree. With each submission, they die a bit more.
As the ghettos are emptied by the deportation of the Jews, rooms that were once bustling with activity, lay open with the people's belongings still remaining. It is like an "open tomb" in that there is no longer any sign of life.
Chapter 3
Death 3: The crematories serve as factories of death. The big, fiery furnace is where those who do not make the selection are sent. The threat of being sent to the crematory is likened to being sent to the grave.
As the prisoners witness the burning of babies, they begin to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. It is a prayer that the living offer up on behalf of the dead. "Someone began to recite the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I do not know if it has ever happened before, in the long history of the Jews, that people have ever recited the prayer for the dead for themselves." (Chapter 3, pg. 31) The threat of death is so imminent that the Jews recite the prayer for their own souls.
Death 4:
The SS officer who introduces them to Auschwitz is described as having the odor of the Angel of Death. He tells the Jews that if they do not work, they will be sent to the crematory. The idea of being sent to the furnace becomes a firm reality.
Elie realizes, as he settles in during the first night of camp, that he has changed: the child in him is dead. It is the death of his old identity-the death of his innocence.
On the electric wires at Auschwitz, there is a sign with a caption: "Warning. Danger of death." Elie considers it a mockery because everywhere in the camp, there is constant danger of death.
Chapter 4
Death 5: As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies withthe death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful, spiritual death.
Chapter 5
Death 6: The selection process determines who will live and who will die. Dr. Mengele, the notorious SS officer, is the person who heads the selection. He moves his baton to the right or to the left, depending on the health of the prisoners. Dr. Mengele is like the Angel of Death. He is the messenger of death.
As the prisoners prepare for the evacuation of Buna, the bell rings. It signals the start of the winter march. The sight of the prisoners setting out in the winter is likened to a burial procession. The prisoners realize that many of them will not make in through the march alive.
Chapter 6
Death 7: On the winter march, the prisoners who cannot keep up are either shot by the SS officers or trampled upon by the others. The winter march is a march to their deaths. As Elie sees his friend Zalman fall behind, he begins to think about his painful foot: "Death wrapped itself around me till I was stifled. It stuck to me. I felt I could touch it." (Chapter 6, pg. 82) The presence of his father is the only motivation that keeps him going.
Chapter 7
Death 8: On the train ride, dead corpses are thrown overboard onto the snow. "Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a field in Poland." (Chapter 7, pg. 94) By this time, Elie is indifferent to death.
As the Jews on the train feel that the end is near, they all begin to wail like animals that are about to die. The cries are a primal, instinctive, and reactionary response to death. Many die like animals, without the dignity accorded to human beings.
Chapter 8
Death 9: At Buchenwald, Elie's father struggles with dysentery. Elie tries to revive his father's spirit, but it is of no use. Elie's father is taken away during the night. Elie feels guilty that he cannot find the tears to weep. Concentration camp existence has robbed him of the proper response to his father's death. Elie is emotionally dead.
Chapter 9
Death 10: In his Holocaust experience, Elie undergoes near physical, spiritual, and emotional death. It is graphically reflected in the mirror as he sees the image of a corpse staring back at him.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Night Book Notes Summary by Elie Wiesel
| advertisement |
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
THE AUTHOR
Elie Wiesel 1928 –
A survivor of the Nazi Concentration Camp at Auschwitz, Wiesel won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. He was born on September 30th 1928 in Sighet, a small town in the province of Transylvania, Romania.
Wiesel comes from an Orthodox Jewish family and his father Shlomo was a shopkeeper. Two of his grandparents were Rabbis, and Elie spent much of his early years learning about his Jewish faith.
The town of Sighet was at the hub of a thriving Jewish community in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1940, Transylvania was absorbed into the Hungarian nation.
Elie was the only boy in his family, having three sisters. He was an intelligent child and spent much of his time immersed in books rather than playing games outside. His mother Sarah was also well educated and had graduated from High School.
Elie took on all the Orthodox traditions and his family was part of the Hasidic group within Judaism who were renowned for their piety. As part of the traditions of this sect, Elie wore peyes (side curls), and donned the traditional leather phylacteries that bound scripture to the forehead and arm prior to morning prayers. Many of the ceremonies involved meditation, chanting and devotional readings. Elie was fortunate that he was surrounded by devout Jews who would help him in his quest for knowledge in order to develop his faith in God.
As he approached his teens, Elie started studying the mystical text of the Kabbalah. This philosophy was based on interpretations of Judaic prophecy, dreams, numerology, scripture and sacred mysteries. Many thought he was too young to start this study.
Whilst the Jews in German-occupied Europe were being rounded-up and sent to the Concentration Camps, those in Hungary seemed to escape, and with the approach of the Russian Army, it would appear that the Jews in Sighet would escape the slaughter, but Hitler was determined to resolve the Jewish question, and in 1944 the Jews of Hungary were gathered together. The German Army, when they occupied Hungary, installed a puppet regime under their control. To ensure that the Hungarian Jews were destroyed quickly, Adolf Eichmann himself came to Hungary to oversee the deportation of the Jewish community.
Elie was fifteen when his family, community and his faith were destroyed upon the deportation of his village in 1944 to the Auschwitz Concentration camp in Poland. Whilst at the camp, Elie witnessed many atrocities. The first trauma he had to endure was the splitting up of his family. The men and the women went separate ways and he never saw his mother and sister again.
Elie was able to remain with his father even though they were shuttled from camp to camp. They endured hard labor, the bone-numbing cold, and malnutrition. In addition to these hardships, there would be the occasional beating from the guards.
As the end of the war approached and the Russians came close to Auschwitz, Elie and his father became part of the Germans' panic evacuation of Auschwitz. They were force-marched out of the camp for some forty-plus miles and then transported for ten days in a cattle car until they reached Buchenwald. There they endured further indescribable hardships and Elie's father Shlomo died of a blow to the head, although he was also suffering from dysentery, starvation, and exhaustion. It was shortly thereafter that American forces liberated this camp.
After the war, Wiesel went to live in France where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, while supporting himself as a choirmaster and teacher of Hebrew. He became a professional journalist, writing for newspapers in both France and Israel.
For ten years, he maintained a self-imposed vow of silence and wrote nothing about his wartime experience. In 1955, at the urging of the Catholic writer Francois Mauriac, he set down his memories in Yiddish, in a 900-page work entitled UnDie Welt Hot Geshvign (And the World Kept Silent). The book was first published in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Wiesel condensed the work into a shorter version which became known as La Nuit (Night), but several years passed before he was able to find a publisher for the French or English versions of the work. Even after Wiesel found publishers for the French and English translations, the book sold few copies. The holocaust was not something people wanted to know about in those days," he reported in an interview with Time magazine. "The diary of Anne Frank was about as far as anyone wanted to venture into the dark."
In 1956,Wiesel came to New York City on an assignment. He was forced to stay in this country for a year after being in a car accident and confined to a wheel chair. After he recovered, a friend convinced him to apply for U. S. citizenship and he became a citizen in 1963. He subsequently married and now lives in New York City.
Since his first work, he has become a prolific writer and public speaker.
His life’s work has been championing individuals and communities that suffer. He has made important speeches concerning such subjects as the Vietnamese Boatpeople, the missing thousands of Argentina, nuclear proliferation, the plight of Arabs in Palestine. He made a controversial trip to Moscow in 1965 when he visited Russian Jewish refugees. He was present at the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, and gave evidence in the trial of the war criminal Klaus Barbie in Lyons, France.
He has received numerous accolades including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Martin Luther King Medallion, the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement, the Joseph Prize for Human Rights, the Prix M'dicis, the Prix Rivarol, and the Prix de l’Universalit'.
As mentioned earlier, Wiesel became a prolific writer and he had over twenty-five published books, which were autobiographical and non-fictional, starting with ‘Night’ in 1960, ‘Dawn’ in 1961, and ‘The Accident’ in 1962, which are collectively called ‘The Night Trilogy. His last work in this category was ‘All Rivers Run to the Sea’, published in 1995. He also had around ten pieces of fictional work published including ‘The Town Beyond the Wall’ in 1964, ‘The Oath’ in 1973, and ‘The Forgotten’ in 1992. He has also produced cassettes, a musical piece called ‘A Song Lost and Found Again’, videos, plays and articles for various American publications including The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Parade.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)