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Night

Night The Holocaust was the most horrific time that man has known. To survive this atrocity, the Holocaust victims man upon man atrocity, one had to summon bravery, strength, courage, and wisdom that many did not know they possessed. One survivor is Elie Wiesel, whose exquisite writings have revealed the world of horror suffered by the Jewish people. Elie Wiesel's statement, "...to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all..." stands as a succinct summary of his views on life and serves as the driving force of his work. Elie Wiesel was born as Eliezer, a free Jewish male, on September 30, 1928, in the remote town of Sighet, Hungary. The third child and only male of four, his family was prosperous and respected within the town. In 1941, life was good for the Wiesel family, and the Sighet Jews. Unaware of the turmoil in the world around him, Eliezer was content with studying his religion, and enjoying life as the son of a father with high political connections. He was devoted to his studies to love and serve his god. He was befriended by one of the locals, Moche the Beadle, who agreed to be his spiritual Master. Gradually, in seemingly insignificant, isolated instances, life for the Sighet Jews began to change. Sometime toward the end of 1941, the foreign Jews were expelled from this town, sent to destinations unknown to any of them. This included his Master, Moche. Moche returned in late 1942 with horrific accounts of what he had witnessed. “He (Moche) told his story and that of his companions. The train full of deportees had crossed the Hungarian frontier and on Polish territory had been taken in charge by the Gestapo. There it had stopped. The Jews had to get out and climb into lorries. The lorries drove toward the forest. The Jews were made to get out. They were made to dig huge graves. And when they had finished their work, the Gestapo began theirs. Without passion, without haste, they slaughtered their prisoners. Each one had to go up to the hole and present his neck. Babies were thrown into the air and the machine gunners used them as targets. This was in the forest of Galicia, near Kolomaye. How had Moche the Beadle escaped? Miraculously. He was wounded in the leg and taken for dead. … Throughout Europe, similar horrific tales of slaughter and abuse began to surface as Adolf Hitler became more successful and aggressive in his quest to create a purely Aryan nation. “Another, considerably more violent phase of anti-Jewish activity took place in 1938 and 1939; it was initiated on November 9-10, 1938, the infamous Kristallnacht, or night of shattered glass.” Passports were still being issued for Jews to travel to Palestine; however, many elders refused to leave. The task of starting over in a foreign land proved to be overwhelming, and no one believed these conditions would intensify nor continue. As long as the Jews did not cause trouble, they were left to manage themselves with minimal daily interference from the soldiers. As the war in the outside world escalated, their world started to disintegrate. The soldiers moved them every couple of weeks to a new location, leaving behind personal belongings, and suffering through humiliating personal searches. The soldiers were becoming more visible and interjecting themselves in the daily routines. They started imposing strict restrictions, including house arrest for the entire town. Eventually the yellow star was to be worn by all Jews at all times. The soldiers attempted to break the human spirit, forcing the Jews to leave their homes and live in ghettos, with boarded windows. However, the Jewish community not only survived, they thrived. “Little by little life returned to normal. … A little Jewish republic … we appointed a Jewish Council, a Jewish Police, an office for social assistance, a labor committee, a hygiene department—a whole government machinery.” The Sighet Jews were transported to Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz. As history would reveal, Auschwitz was the worst death camp that a person could be sent. There were approximately 1,300,000 Jews killed there by the end of the war. The Jews on the trains to the concentration camps experienced hysteria, bewilderment, confusion, and utter despair. Trying to survive the journey became a battle within and amongst themselves. Upon arrival to each new camp, sometimes camp veterans shared learned survival techniques in exchange for promises of later favors. Men over 18 were separated from women and all children under 18. Men over 50, very young children, babies, and the infirmed were often burned upon arrival to avoid being a burden on the camp. The fate that Eliezer saw for himself was more horrible than what Moche had described. 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 that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never. Pg. 43 Fathers and sons, relatives and friends did everything they could to stay together, surviving unspeakable horrors and torments at the hands of the concentration camp soldiers. Ultimately, however, it was each man for himself. The front was getting closer, necessitating frequent moves to other camps. After one particularly difficult march, through a blizzard the Rabbi Eliahou came to the shed, looking for his son. For three years they had been together, suffering their fates and keeping each other going. Eliezer did not remember seeing him, so the Rabbi left to continue his search. I suddenly remembered seeing his son running by my side. I had forgotten that, and I didn’t tell Rabbi Eliahou! Then I remembered something else: his son had seen him losing ground, limping, staggering back to the rear of the column. He had seen him. And he had continued to run on in front, letting the distance between them grow greater. A terrible thought 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 the end was near and had sought this separation in order to rid of the burden, to free himself from an encumbrance which could lessen his own chance of survival. I had done well to forget that. And I was glad Rabbi Eliahou should continue to look for his beloved son. And, in spite of myself, a prayer rose in my heart, to that God in whom I no longer believed. My God, Lord of the Universe, give me strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahou’s son has done. The Wiesel’s were fortunate, they stayed together until the death of Eliezer’s father, January 28, 1945. Eliezer survived the internments at camps Auschwitz, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald. He witnessed the American tanks liberation of Camp Buchenwald on April 11, 1945 at six o’clock p.m. Elie accepted France's offer to receive concentration camp survivors, and was placed in a French Orphanage. As an adult, he eventually settled in Paris. “He became acquainted with Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac, who eventually influenced Wiesel to break his vowed silence and write of his experience in the concentration camps, thus beginning a lifetime of service.” Mr. Wiesel has become one of the most prolific and well-respected authors about the Holocaust. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He is the chairman of the planning the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Even today, the impact of the Holocaust has been tremendous on the free world. Writings such as Night, Schlinder’s List, and The Diary of Anne Frank, have raised the world’s awareness about this horrific historical event. Elie Wiesel’s survival is one story out of the thousands of Jews that survived this horrible tragedy. These survivors have demonstrated that the human spirit is capable of enduring the worst of times. Their revelations have allowed the world to empathetically witness their sufferings, ensuring that such atrocity never happens again. Their bravery, strength, courage, and wisdom have set precedence that others strive to achieve. In the words of Elie Wiesel, this atrocity is never to be forgotten or repeated. “Let us remember, let us remember the heroes of Warsaw, the martyrs of Treblinka, the children of Auschwitz. They fought alone, they suffered alone, they lived alone, but they did not die alone, for something in all of us died with them.” Bibliography: Bibliography Cargas, Harry James, ed. Responses to Elie Wiesel: Critical Essays by Major Jewish and Christian Scholars. New York: Persea Books, Inc., 1978 Prince, Angel. March 10, 1997. Elie Wiesel Bio. Online. (http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7ECAP/HOLO/ELIEBIO.HTM). Rittner, Carol, ed. Elie Wiesel: Between Memory and Hope. New York: New York University Press, 1990 Rosenfeld, Alvin and Irving Greenberg. Confronting the Holocaust: The Impact of Elie Wiesel (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1978), 35. Online. Elie Wiesel’s Contribution to Holocaust Writings. 18 November 1999. (http://www.bxscience.edu/orgs/holocaust/poetry/wiesel.html). Speilvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: Comprehensive Volume. California: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning Company, 1999. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972. Wiesel, Elie. Dawn. New York: Bantam Books, 1982.

Word Count: 1469

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