Night
Written by Elie Wiesel
Plot
In May, 1944, Eliezer Weisel and his family were forced from their home and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. During "Selection", Elie and his father were separated from his mother and three sisters. Elie retells the agony he, his father, and other innmates endured in WWII.
Characters
Eliezer Wiesel
A Jewish man who survived the Holocaust. He tells the story of how he did in his memoir Night. He was only fifteen when he was deported to Auschwitz, and he was liberated in Buchenwald at the age of sixteen.
Shlomo Wiesel
Eliezer Weisel's late father. His and Elie's greatest worry throughout the book was to stay together. Shlomo perished during the Holocaust, two and a half months before his and Elie's camp was liberated.
Tzipora Wiesel
Elie's little sister who was taken to the gas chambers with her mother soon after their arrival in Auschwitz. She was only seven.
Conflict- Internal
Man vs. Self
Eliezer struggled to keep his faith in god. "...I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man...I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. In the midst of these men assembled for prayer, I felt like an observer, a stranger." (Elie Wiesel, 68)
Things That Stood-Out to Me
Cattle Cars
When Elie and his family was first transported, they could only fit eighty people to a car. Near the end, they were able to force about a hundred people into each car. This was because everyone was so skinny from being malnourished that they took up less space than before.
Public Hangings
Elie and the other inmates witnessed many hangings while they were in the Buna concentration camp. They were often forced by the nazis to watch the life drain from people as they hung from the gallows.
Pipels
Elie only ever saw one victim weep as he was hung. He was a sad-eyed child with the face of an angel. He was a pipel, or a young boy favored and given special privileges by an inmate with power, such as an Oberkapo. After the pipel's Oberkapo was found to be planning a revolt, the pipel was tortured and sent to the gallows. He was too light for his rope and Elie was forced to watch him as he writhed for more than half an hour.
Air Raid Sirens followed by the All Clear (Very good quality recording)
Air Raid
A boy was sent to the gallows after he stole soup during an air raid. This was the first hanging Elie Weisel ever witnessed in Buna.
Dachau Concentration Camp Bell
Bells
The bells rang in order to keep the inmates on schedule. When Eliezer hurt his foot and went to the hospital, he was relieved because he no longer had to obey the bells.
Settings
Sighet
The transylvanian town Elie and his family lived in until their deportation.
Birkenau
Elie was separated from his mother and Tzipora during selection here.
Auschwitz
Elie and his father were moved to Auschwitz the next day.
Buna
Elie witnesses many hangings in Buna.
Buchenwald
Shlomo Wiesel died a short time after his arrival here in late January due to sickness, malnutrition, and a blow to the head from an SS officer. Elie Wiesel was liberated here on April 11, 1945.
The Juliek's Concerto
Juliek's Finale
After the death march to Gleiwitz, the dead were piled on the living and dying. In the dark, cold, silence, a young boy named Juliek, whom Elie had met in Auschwitz, played a Beethoven concerto on his violin. "Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound." (Wiesel, 95) By daybreak, Juliek was hunched over, dead.