Less than Human or Stronger Than the Average (Night by Elie Wiesel Essay Example)
In the book Night, the main character, Eliezer Wiesel’s character development and belief, changed drastically throughout the book. Elizer’s autobiography and this book is an adaptation of his experiences from his point of view in World War Two, as a Jew in Nazi controlled Europe.
Eliezer was born in Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania. In school he would study the Torah, one of the five main religious books of the Old Testament, and the Cabbala, a Jewish mysticism. The first act of anti-semitism seen is when one of his teachers, Moishe, is on a train that gets overtaken by the Germans secret police force, the Gestapo, and everyone is slaughtered. From a outward and modern perspective we see this as the true mission of the Nazi party, but upon Moishe’s returned to town, no one believed him and he was deamed as crazy and a lunatic. In 1944, Germany occupied Hungary and everyone began to realize and experience the repressive and controlling measures that were being put upon them. “First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death” (Night, pg. 10). Having barbed wire fences built around the town made everyone begin to question what was going on. Not to mention having the jewish population being split into ghettos separated from the rest of the population.
The main theme of the story really begins when the jewish contingency started being shoved into cattle cars which were being used to relocate them to concentration camps. Particularly Auschwitz-Birkenau, the gates of hell. In the processing station of these camps, the families are separated, which means that Eliezer and his Father parted ways with his mother and sister, who would dreadfully not make 24 hours within the camp's perimeter. They were then inspected to see if they were physically inept enough to work in the camps, or if they should be executed on the spot by gas chambers or by firing squads. Gratefully, Eliezer and his father were deemed fit enough to be put to work, while they are physically healthy, what they will witness will be mentally burned into their memories the rest of their lives. The burning of individuals, ‘by the truckload’ being poured into open-pit furnaces. “Was I alive? Was I awake?... men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent” (Night, pg. 32). Unbeknownst to the new inmates, this was a solution partially thought up by Kurt Prüfer, a SS employee and one of the minds that took part in the conception for a ‘perfect mobile cremation technology’. This sight, already burned Elizer’s memory, made him question reality, asking himself if it was a dream, or more accurately a nightmare. This moment signified that what the inmates now do and how they act will end up deciding whether they survive for another day or if that day shall be their last.
After being stripped of their clothes and other personal possessions they brought, their hair was shaved off, and they were then disinfected. The subhuman treatment by the guards began when some prisoners were given special roles, the inmates marched into Auschwitz and eventually arrived at the work camp section, named Buna. Physical and mental abuse by the vicious guards and selected workers began to chip away at the prisoners. Along with beatings and humiliations against Eliezer and the other jews, such as Eliezer having his golden tooth torn out of his mouth with a rusty spoon by a foreman. Fear that had been instilled in the minds of the prisoners and the guards was enforced with even more cruelty. A young boy who had been associated with a rebel group within Buna was hanged, but he was too light to actually suffocate immediately. He was left hanging for hours, fighting for his life. The inmates knew that anyone who dared to help him would surely be shot and killed, so no one helped, they just watched.
Everyone's focus then became on survival, in a every man for themselves mentality. This went so far that Eliezer and his father promised to focus on themselves and not to go out of the way to help each other. Meanwhile, other fathers were being betrayed and beaten by their sons who used this as an excuse to switch the power balance. Eliezer questioned his faith, because of the importance of elders and how they should be respected and how it should be upheld in any aspect. Some of the prisoners still prayed to God and kept religious practices alive. Elizer questioned why, if God is all knowing and has control over all people; why does he let the Nazis continue there mission; why does he allow the inmates to go crazy; why is there a war going on. “Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night,...” (Night, pg. 67). Without answers, Eliezer renounces Judaism for a time, feeling betrayed and solitary in these times of evil and chaos, but also leaves himself feeling more free with his life.
After months of working, fighting, and struggling to survive Eliezer gets injured and his foot ends up needing to be operated on. Unknown to the prisoners, the tides of war had changed and the Nazis happened to be losing the war and have been given orders to evacuate the camp before the Russian communist army arrives. However it is supposed to take Eliezer two weeks to recover, a fellow infirmary patient warns him that if he does not leave with the other group that those that remain will most likely be killed. Elizer spends some time considering his choices but decides to leave with the others. Thus begins the Death March, in the middle of a snowstorm, where many more die on the way. Finally the group arrives at Gleiwitz which is 50 miles away from Buna, they are then crammed into cattle cars yet again and sent off to Buchenwald. Out of the 100 jews in the cattle car, only 12 survived the train ride. Eliezer and his father survive the ride because of a combination of mutual support and concern for each other. However, Elizer’s father will die in Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, a broken man from what he used to be, finally free from the tournament that he had endured within the concentration camps. The same day that the American forces, liberated the camp from the Nazis. Eliezer survived the war and went on to write this book, Night. His story sheds light on the true horrors that took place behind closed doors during the Nazis reigh of Europe against the Jews, Slavs, and other groups that were deamed inferior. Even though the horrors of the events that happened within the camps are over 70 years old, they will continue to stay with Eliezer and the world, and will haunt society as a whole.
Works Cited
Bartlett, Karen. "These Men Offered 'Perfection in Cremation Technology' to the Nazis. We Can Learn from the Records They Left." TIME, Aug. 2018, time.com/5371687/nazi-camp-crematorium-builders/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2022.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill and Wang.
