Night is a compelling story about a boy’s life growing up during the Holocaust. There is hardship and suffering but in this report I will tell you how he got through it.
Night. It is an interesting title because it could mean so many things but what it means as the title of this story goes very deep into the books context. It is called Night because Elie Wiesel feels as if it happened over night, every night something changed and worsened for him. Like when the Gestapo came and took his family over night. Or when people would be killed randomly overnight. Everything happened in the night. Elie Wiesel witnessed it first hand. He was a Holocaust survivor in the 40’s and the book is written by him about his experience as the main character. The death and sadness he witnessed is unexplainable as they are put into death camps where death and work is all that happens.
It all started in their small Transylvanian town called Sighet. Everyone was living happily and in peace, unaware of the hate the Nazi Party had against the Jewish culture. Everything was going excellent until in the night, a group of Hungarian Police and Gestapo came and took a small crowd of people. The citizens of Sighet began to wonder what is happening. Then life went back to normal. One of the captured people survived and came back to tell the town what was happening, they were killing the Jews. No one believed him until Gestapo and police came back. This time they set up Ghettos for all the Jews in the town. This finally made people realize that something terrible was being plotted. Eventually, all Jews of Sighet were taken into cattle cars to transport them to camps. People finally realized they were being targeted. This go the story and plot rolling. Elie and his father were put together in a camp. Their first day, they watched innocent people and children burned to death, but they were chosen to work as slaves. Time passed by, they moved camp to camp, starving and unhealthy. They were being treated like animals in cages. All they have become was creatures, skin and bones, that worked 12 hours a day, and ate a slice of bread each day if they were lucky. Eventually, on a march through the snow, Elie’s father collapses as he becomes extremely weak. Doctors say he is very sick and is dying. One night, Elie goes to sleep in the bunk above his father. In the morning, a different inmate is resting there. Whether he died or is still alive, his father will be turned to ash at the crematorium. Elie never saw his father’s face again. There was no way for Elie to change things now. He was on his own and just had to work when he had to and fend for himself now. He lost everything, including his last bit of hope. Time passes and eventually months after his father died, Elie is freed from the dangerous camp by the Allied Forces. Elie changed in many ways over his tortuous journey through the concentration camps.
This was an excellent story because many people could relate to the pain and suffering Elie went through in this story. This story is very detailed and compelling for the reader’s enjoyment so you can understand everything the character goes through, This tory is a type of story that you can read and imagine and relate. It is just a great overall book that you can understand. Anyone who reads this book will not regret the time taken to read this excellent story about the boy who survived the Holocaust but left behind his innocence and is haunted by the death and violence that was witnessed.
