Chapter 2

Chapter 2 picks up with one of the first phases of the extermination: deportation. It tells of the torturous conditions that the Jews onboard one of these trains had to face. There were many of these conditions: little air, immense heat, cramped spaces, hunger, and thirst. These harsh conditions subjected upon the passengers, ignorant of their fate, results in a psychological breakdown. They lose their sense of public-ness. However, they start to realize that this was no ordinary trip, and this suspicion is confirmed when a German officer takes charge of their train. He reveals that he will shoot anyone who tried to escape.

The most notable character from this chapter is surely Madame Schächter, who is along with her ten-year-old son. She cracks underneath the harsh treatment, and starts screaming that she sees a fire outside. The Jews onboard become terrified, but soon comfort themselves by saying that she is crazy. She is tied up so she cannot scream, and her child watches and weeps. When she screams once more, she is beaten (by her own people, who support this action)

They finally reach Auschwitz. They are told that they’re at a labor camp, but that families will be kept together. This comforts the prisoners even further, but later Madame again starts to scream until beaten into a violent silence. The Jewish prisoners finally see their fate: the furnaces, barbed wire, and the smell of burnt flesh of the Bikenau camp.

The biggest idea present in the novel at this point is the cruelty towards humans. The Nazis cause, by treating the Jews as less than humans, them to do act as less than humans. Without societies laws, dignity, and deprivation of basic human rights, the Jews are exposed to a great dehumanization (notice: when in their ghettos, the Jews possessed at least a decent respect for one another and a large base of faith). The best example is when Madame’s fellow prisoners beat her up. I understand that it was to silence her (her rants made them scared), but to ruthless beat her with the support and encouragement of other prisoners is wrong.

Again the disbelief continues. The character of Madame is paralleled to Moshe (see the blog for chapter 1 for Moshe’s story).

However, as seen throughout history, the Jews try to reconcile themselves with an optimistic outlook and faith. During the Babylonian Exile, the Jews kept their faith strong by writing down the stories that had been passed down throughout generations orally. The Jews on the train, when Madame screams and yells, soothe themselves by calling her crazy. The Jews comfort themselves by knowing their families will be kept together in the labor camps.

'Listen to me, kid. Don’t forget that you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think of others. Not even your father. In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother, friend. Each of us lives and dies alone.' (110)

Chapter 1

Eliezer immediately assumes the role as narrator. He is of twelve years old, the only son in an Orthodox Jewish family that is completely grounded in the Jewish tradition and law (looking up where Sighet is, the home town of Eliezer, i found that it was then annexed to Hungary). His father is highly respected in the Jewish community. Eliezer studies the Talmud and the Cabbala, taught by Moshe the Beadle.Hungarians expel all foreign Jews, including Moshe. He makes his way back and tells of the deportation trains and other events in the Holocaust, only to face a ridiculing audience.

But then Hungarian falls into fascism. German armies occupy Hungary, and soon move into Sighet. Community leaders are arrested, valuables are confiscated, and (perhaps the most famous of them all) they are forced to wear yellow stars. They are eventually forced into small ghettos and harsh living conditions.

The Nazis begin their 'cleansing' by deporting Jews little by little. Eliezer and his family are the last to go. They (meaning Eli and his family) watch as their fellow Jews are forced into crowded streets carrying little. His family is herded into another ghetto, even smaller. Martha offers to hide them in her village, but recieves a no. The last of the Jewish community is herded up and are bound for Auschwitz.

When reading this first chapter, I could not help but to ask how circumstances come into effect. Eli happens to be living in Hungary (or anywhere in Europe, for that matter), how they really had no means of knowing what was really going on, how ignorance led to the refusal of the offer to be sheltered. Naturalism, anyone?

'What can we expect? It's war...'

'The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You don't die of it...'

Foreward

Francois Mauriac, a French journalist is the author of the forewards to Night of writing the preface. He tells of one specific interview. This was of Elie himself.

Elie tells of the horrific events at Holocaust. Muriac did not see the events himself, and had to have been shocked and appalled when Elie reveals that he was one of the children crammed into the trains and 'evacuated'. In Muriac's thoughts, he could not believe that any of it happened. But he comes to realize that it did; and to many others as well. Elie's story is a personal story, deeply rooted in personal experience, both physically and spiritually. It can be compared to that of Anne Frank, a German Jew.

Muriac also sees that the physical destruction isn't nearly as present as his spiritual depression. Many others experience the same loss of religion, in which one questions: how can God let something happen like this? Muriac is deeply affected by Elie's crisis of faith, in which the rest of the novel will explain. Muriac, however, sees suffering as a cornerstone of faith.

Mauriac concludes, and the power of Wiesel’s story, mostly the intensity of his spiritual crisis, overwhelmed him, and, struck speechless, he wept.

'Where is God? Where is He?' someone behind me asked... For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking:'Where is God now?' And I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows...'

Preface

The preface of Night gives a HUGE indicator on the events to come; according to the text, the subjuct matter was so depressing that no one would publish it (except for Bantam Books!). The spare-no-detail novel is an autobiography of the horror experienced by Elie Wiesel, which has changed the opinions and maybe even the outlook of life of the nonbeliever. As the preface puts it: "the shadow of death took on substance... six million times". But still people cannot believe?

It tells of how unforgettable and haunting (for lack of a better term) and grueling the concentration camp was for him, and how it almost makes life worth not living just from the sights and sounds of his people being 'purified' as the Natzis would say. The movie Conspiracy gave a great presentation of how the Germans felt and dealt with the Jews. Not only this, but certainly above all, their hatred for a people who had done no wrong towards them.

Being at the extermination camps is indescribable for Elie.

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 those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.