NIGHT
Please leave your comments about Night. What stands out in this survivor’s story to you? What do you think of Wiesel’s religious transformation during the period described in the book?
Please leave your comments about Night. What stands out in this survivor’s story to you? What do you think of Wiesel’s religious transformation during the period described in the book?
April 5th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
i liked night, not as much as maus but this was also an interesting read. The part that really stood out for me was closer to the end when elie’s dad was dying and the guy with both of them told him to stop wasting his time and food on him and to use the enrgy and food for himself. Also how him and his dad made it that far and how the father kept saying he couldnt make it but elie told him to keep going and even though he did not make it to freedom he came pretty close, and he also handed off his “valuables” which was a spoon and knife i think. He also told him about the “treasure” that was hidden before they left their home. Wiesel relious beliefes changed alot throught the book because he went from being the most religious guy to hating God for letting something like this happen, to not knowing if there was a God, accepting him and thanking him he made it, it kept changing from time to time. Even when he had to fast for his religion he didnt know whether to or not because to him he had to fast every day anyway. Overall it was a good book that had you haning in there until the last page.
April 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I remember reading Night back in Senior year of High School, so when I re-read it agian I wasen’t as shocked by the graphic imagery. You really get a different perspective when reading it because its all a first hand account. It really makes you think about how hard some of the decisions these people had to make. Especially Eli struggling with the thought of deserting his father or taking care of him. Another thing that Night does is show you a differnt view of the victims. In this book it talks about how they people that where in the camp with him where very savage. (lady in the train screaming and being beaten, fighting for food) Its shows how these people basically became animals because of their treatment by the Nazis.
April 6th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I remember reading Night back in Senior year of High School, so when I re-read it agian I wasen’t as shocked by the graphic imagery. You really get a different perspective when reading it because its all a first hand account. It really makes you think about how hard some of the decisions these people had to make. Especially Eli struggling with the thought of deserting his father or taking care of him. Another thing that Night does is show you a differnt view of the victims. In this book it talks about how they people that where in the camp with him where very savage. (lady in the train screaming and being beaten, fighting for food) Its shows how these people basically became animals because of their treatment by the Nazis.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Night was a good novel I liked hearing the account of the story from soemone who actually experienced. You get to read about what that person was going through at that particular time and how it made them feel, with no one else retelling the story. Throughout the book his religious feelings change in the beginning he is religious and when the Holocaust happens, he begins losing faith. He talks about how he prays, but he does not believe. It was supprising to see how far him and his father made it together and how far his father actually made it. I thought for sure his father had given up while he was on the cattle car. When they did take his father away that was so sad, I couldn’t imagine what he was going through. The end where he looks in the mirror is also a very strong point in the book. He describes himself as a corpse and he said that image never left him. I’m sure looking in the mirror proved all the destruction those people did to his body, but he was still alive.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I enjoyed Night. One of the scenes that sticks out in my mind is the first night he stayed in Auschwitz. After the brutal ordeal in the cattle car it was clear that normal life had disappeared. Wiesel says something to the effect that after he was “processed” by the SS and shaved he was no longer himself but a body that resembled his physical existence. This book did a great job in showing the psychological torment that prisoners had to deal with on top of the physical brutality of the concentration camps. It was really nice to have a firsthand written account of a survivor as well.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
In the beginning of the chapter in Night, what I remember the mst was when the author was describing the news of the deportation in the ghetto. His father’s broken voice trying to give hope to a situation that would only terrify a child or others. In the next few pages the author saw his father cry for the first time. It is very hard to imagine your father crying especially when they are your protector and would be thought of a sign of weakness…in this case the unwelcoming fear of events that were to take place. As for his mother, no expression or words, she was numb. Any mother just like any father in this situation would be numb. The author also remembered of his personal search for God and what his life would be like…but at that moment even he fell numb too. Whne the Hungarian police ordered the Jews to walk faster out of the ghetto…the author admits that this is when he began to hate. He saw these policemen as the first oppressors, faces of hell and death….this is one of the most profound statements he made…among others in this book. The many moments that the author and his family endured during the Holocaust left haunting memories and he never knew when his time for death was coming. The experience left a silent God and the desire to live was meaningless which almost destroyed his belief in God, questioning why his God would alow hese terible things happen to innocent people. The author also states that no wonder why he could never sleep again after seeing children and babies being placed into the pits and burned…the flames!!! The adult pit was next to the children’s pit…and he knew…noone cared. Elie Wiesel stated that humanity was not concerned about the Jews because even the absurd was considered rational. On page 43…Never shall I forget- living forever is not what he wants to do. God served no purpose, even God was consumed…God had purpose and value but no longer was used…anger for God here in his words. Never shall he forget, he does not want other people to forget…he can’t forget because of the magnitude-it’s impact!!! Elie Wiesel after the Holocaust chose not to remain silent, as it became his duty to tell his story and the story of his people…for him to remain silent would have been just another part the Nazis had taken from him. This author’s philosophy of life-self-questioning. If man wanted to die it reduces death however death to some sucks the suffering.Maybe to be told by God to know everything there is to know but this reminds us to keep searching and maybe he will live his life differently now, to actively search for God…even though he will never find Him. Aimless search? Not pointless. Life is not negotiable…whatever he endured during the Holocaust fact is its done and he cannot go back. I thought this book was a powerful account from a Holocaust survivor, I enjoyed this much more than Maus.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I liked Night very much. Of course, just like any other Holocaust book, the story is ver sad. One of the things that really stuck out to me while I was reading was how Wiesel describes how bad things really were around him. He talks about how everything was so brutal and violent and at one point he says he even saw himself loosing his humanity and his faith both in people and in God. Another interesting thing about this book was how Wiesel describes his faith. At moments he does give up on God in a way, but by the end of the Holocaust he still says he has his faith. To me, that is very awesome. I do believe in God and I can’t imagine going through something like this and still saying God is good, even though I know He is.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I read this book on a plane many many years ago but couldn’t really recall specifics until I read it again. What struck me for a second time and jogged my memory was the story of the woman on the cattle call screaming. I now remember when originally reading this I thought this must have been a barbaric and heartless bunch of people to restrain her like this, but now because of age, insight, or this class I realize they did what was necessary to survive. Everyone more or less had the hysterical mindset of this woman but they did everything in their power to keep it in and focus on survival, and her screaming made this helpless situation more difficult.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:35 am
The notion that people gathered to ‘celebrate’ Rosh Hashanah in that hell is astounding. Wiesel’s active participation as well as his accusation against his own God display a dichotomy that is perplexing. Were Wiesel and others indeed ’saying Kaddish for themselves’? The Kaddish itself is not a prayer of mourning as such but an extolling of God and exclamation of faith. The inner turmoil of Wiesel seems to echo this duality within Jewish doctrine. Wiesel’s early ‘kabbalah’ trainer taught him to question, that the questions are only answered from within. This is the exact process that seems to be playing out within Wiesel’s psyche during ‘the Kingdom of Night’.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Nothing subtle about Night. One moment we have the crazy philosopher bum entertaining the neighborhood, two pages later… BAM!!! the Nazis arrive. The terror of Night begins and quite frankly doesn’t let up. Wiesel takes you from torture to hell with torture being your only break. More compelling then any of the stories are the moments when Elie digresses on his still boiling feelings about the atrocities he lived through. It’s unimaginable the horrors he endured as a child and I’m amazed he became so skilled a writer. The emotional roller coaster is exhausting as Wiesel investigates how he felt the moment his mother and sister disappeared, bringing his father back and forth from the dead, debating on whether or not to leave his father, losing his father, and finally his mindset at the time of liberation and production of Night. Quite enjoyable (as far as one of these things can be enjoyed), well written, and makes you mad as hell.
Night makes you feel the way you should feel when dealing with the topic of the Holocaust. Angry!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:29 am
The style in which Night had been written really stood out for me. Even though it didn’t have any pictures, it still appeared animated to me in the way he depicted the different events that had taken place during that horrible time in his life. I can really picture myself in the situations he was in just by reading each paragraph of this book. By Wiesel using vivid details to describe his experiences in Auschwitz and beyond, that terrible situation became so real that I felt like I was actually living through it while reading this book. When Wiesel decided to march on with the others even though he had a problem with his foot just so he can remain by his father’s side was the part of the story that really got to me. I don’t know it is to have a close relationship with my dad since he left us when I was 5yrs. old, but I can definitely understand the love that Wiesel had for his father. I still love my father very much even though we were not that close. My dad means everything to me just like Wiesel’s dad meant everything to him. That is why it was so sad the way that Wiesel was trying to wake his dad up before they got off the train but he didn’t wake up and he had to leave his dad behind. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost my dad.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Night was a book that you thought would have a decent ending. With Eliezer and his father surviving so much and getting lucky with the selection, you would have thought that they both would have survived together. Since every other tale has had familys splitting up, I thought this one would be different. All of this being a 15 year old boy. Tremendous will power on his part for keeping himself alive and his father as long as he could. I also thought it was kind of ironic how he runs into the girl he was working next too and the post thematic stress disorder due to the women throwing coins in relation to throwing bread. He stated that villagers would doing it for fun, when the lady says she like to give to charity. I guess he didn’t see it that way.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am
I feel the best allusion Weisel offers about his religious dilemma is that in the Book of Job. The answer to this Biblical reference provides such an insufficient answer with respect to the Holocaust that Weisel throws out the whole concept of God. This transformation is only one facet in the multitude that Weisel shows to his readers. Another that he guides you through is the development as his emotional and psychological progress, from people crying and caring to simlpy watching others get trampled on. Many occasions he finds himself stunned at his own lack of emotional response when something happens to himself or his father. Weisel also presents the entire spectrum of converts to the Nazi cause for authority. Another incident that impacted me was the child who was yelling at his father to work harder or he wouldn’t get anymore soup. This goes to show you that everyone fell into the machine that was Nazism, from simple compliance to extreme cases of borderline mind-controlling. Overall, the book definitely presents a much darker, honest, and personal aspect of the Holocaust then Maus does. Weisel’s religious tract doesn’t have a happy ending but it does have an honest one and this only helps emphasize the reality in the book.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
This was not the first time I have read Night, but I feel like this time I read it for a better understanding of what was actually going on. Weisel uses a lot of metaphors to attempt to illustrate how he felt, which are difficult to understand for someone who is younger. When you really stop and think about what he is describing it has such a bigger impact on you, and really helps to show you what he was feeling. I liked the way Weisel did not try to cover up his true feelings during his account. He knew he had some horrible feelings and was ashamed of himself many times, but he still told the world everything to illustrate how inhumane their situation was. This is really apparent when he describes how he had feelings of guilt for wishing that his father was already dead while he was trying to feed him and take care of him; he wanted to survive and he knew his father wouldn’t and that is what people did in the camps, forgot about everyone else and just fought for their survival. Also, when he describes how the people in the train would literally kill one another just for a morsel of food it showed just how animalistic people can become when faced with death. Night illustrates how much people changed in the camps and how difficult it truely was to survive each day and face life or death decisions constantly.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
This was my first time reading this book, and i think Wiesel did an amazing job describing his experience during the Holocaust. I think that him and his father were very fortunate to have been together as long as they were. Even though his dad ended up dying shortly before liberation, not many families, or even friends had been able to stay together as long as they did. I think that having each other helped give them hope and kept them alive. As for Eli’s religious transformation, i probably would have felt the way he did. He used to be very religious, doing his readings everynight, and prayers, and continued to do so until he felt GOd had abandoned them. There was a part in the book where the Jews at Buna were either praising God or praying to him (i cant remember at the moment), and Weisel asked himself why he should praise God, why should he thank God when he had abandoned them? It isnt clear as to whether or not he found hope in God again or not. I think that after his father died, he may have lost all faith completely.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Night is a vivid memoir about the atrocities that mankind is capable of and it has so far stood out to me the most out of all the Holocaust survivor stories we have come across. This was my first time reading this and with what we have already covered in this course so far made a very large impact on me. I really felt that the narrative came alive and i was very aware of the cold feelings that come along with this book. What stood out to me the most was the fact that i was reading a story about someone who physically survived the Holocaust but emotionally did not. Two times in the book this really jumped out to me: one was when he witnesses the babies being burnt alive and the other when the boy is hung with the two men. In both cases Elie is stern in his belief that as these children died in front of him so did his God. One quote that stood out to me was when he said that even if he lives as long as God himself, he would not forget the images of the babies burning and turning to smoke in front of him. Again i feel that Elie went from being like most of the Jews around him at the time and believed that God would get them through the horrors they were witnessing to someone who by the end of the narration was completely desolate and empty. He became a person with no faith in God or in humanity (I think he alludes to throughout the story with the woman tossing the coin for the kids to fight over). Lastly i took a very strong notice that at the end, even after surviving the death camps, Elie looks in the mirror to find a dead man. Physically he may have survived, but i got the feeling that emotionally he died a long time ago.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Being the second time I’ve read this book, it still didn’t cease to shock me. Wiesel’s account of how he and his father survived in the death camps and what horrible experiences they had to go through still left me astonished the second time around. One of the things that stood out to me was when Idek started to beat Elie’s father with a iron bar, and instead of Elie getting mad at Idek, he got angry with his father for not knowing how to avoid being beat. It was sad to see that the only thing he had in mind was to get further away so that he wasn’t beaten as well. Not saying that I blame him because I’ve never been in that situation, but it was just something that stood out to me. It showed what concentration camp had done to him. As far as his religion goes, and believing in God or not changed throughout the book. Before he was in the camp, he was very religous and would spend most of his time praying and asking Moshe questions about the mysteries of the cabbala. I feel that because of all the disturbing things Weisel endured in the camps he got angry with God. He describes how he feels alone in a world without God. Therefore, in the end, I think he no longer believed.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Although Night lacks the visual components that the graphic memoir and film contain, Night was still effective in allowing me to visualize Elie’s tragic experience. His use of metaphors, similes, and vivid imagery made me feel as though I was an actual witness. When talking about how a group of prisoners in a circle began to pray he says, “thousands of lips repeated the benediction, bent over like trees in a storm.” This made me compare the frail men to trees swaying due to a fierce wind. They were so destroyed from being part of this experience that they could no longer be compared to strong, deep-rooted trees, rather they were more like scrawny trees who were easily moved. He then reminisces about a particular time the Nazi’s left two cauldron’s of soup unattended, “Two lambs with hundreds of wolves lying in wait for them. Two lambs without a shepherd, free for the taking.” Comparing himself and the other inmates to hungry wolves showed me how desperate these men were, how their animal instincts intrinsically surfaced for survival. He also compares the prisoners of the camps to animals when he talks about how the Kapo’s would choose workers, “They pointed fingers the way one might choose cattle, or merchandise. The feelings Elie express in this statement cause me to empathize with the fact that these prisoners did not even consider themselves humans because of the way the Germans constantly reinforced such ideas. To compare himself to merchandise or cattle makes me feel terrible that anyone would be forced to even ponder this thought. Once again this inferiority image of himself is portrayed when he talks about the prisoners all marching to their next location, “These human waves were rolling forward and would have crushed me like an ant.” Comparing the marching prisoners to the great strength of a wave made me feel that during this event there was no caring for other, one was to only worry about themselves. To the prisoners ever other marching body was so expendable, like an ant, that no one carried what happened to anyone but themselves. I think that Elie fulfilled his goal in captivating his readers so they would not forget his, or other’s experience during this time.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Compared to Maus, Night is in a different league. Even though Maus, had a visual aid, it sill had that little effect that a graphic novel may have. Night seemed to be a more serious and on topic throughout the whole book. The way Wiesel described his experience throughout the whole Holocaust is just, incredible that he was able to survive. And even that he was able to function after what he and everyone else went through. This was the second time I read this book, and it still had the same effect on me as it did the first time i read it.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Night was a very hard read for me. I think the tone was alot more serious than Maus and also it was displayed differently than Maus. Maus was an easier read because it was a graphic novel. One part of the book that really stands out to me is the part where Wiesel talks about how he realized that even he had really lost his sense of humanity. That must have been hard to realize that you could not do anything to save yourself from that feeling of not even being like regular human beings.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
The mental imagery that one gets from Night is almost clearer than the images drawn in Maus. Wiesel’s precise choice of words made each scence vivid in my mind. To me, the part that stands out the most is the scene where his father asks where the bathroom is and he is struck down to the ground. Preceeding this scence, it was the first time he saw his father crying, making him seem vulnerable. Now, here is his father helpless and defenseless. I think this also correlates with his struggle with his faith. He had such an absolute faith in God his whole life until seeing the horrors of the Holocaust. How could God let this happen? How could this happen in this day and age? It rattled his entire faith. Not only does he experience hatred of the Germans, but the evilness of human kind through the selfishness of the others around him. However, I do not believe he ever lost his faith, but questioned it and maybe by the end made it stronger
April 7th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Weisel’s way of writing this survivor story was one of the most vivid memoirs I ever read. What made this more significant then Maus was the fact that it was a story from an actual survior rather then someone telling the story of a survivor. The part that stood out to me the most was in the beginging when the mother and the sister were seperated from him and his father, then they vaguely talked about throughout the rest of the story. Right then and there, there lives were drastically changed and they didn’t speak of what happened to them until the end of the story. His religious stand point change drastically in the story. You could tell from being hurt and tortured to being desensitized to everything around him. This made me think that he began to lose faith because he felt there was nothing he could do, and the situation was no longer connected to higher power.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
what I really meant to say was… you could tell he was changing by the way he reacted to certain situations from feeling bad for people that were being hurt and tortured to being desensitized to everything around him.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:37 am
I remember reading this book years ago. It was disturbing to me then, but I honestly considered it “another Holocaust tale”. Reading this book today, whoever, impacts me in a drastically different way. Wiesel paints graphic images that are incredibly vivid; it makes you feel like you are experiencing these horrendous events along side him. What I found particularly interesting was the author’s stuggle to continuously believe in God. In the beginning of his take, Wiesel was devoted to God, and believed that God’s power could be seen everywhere. However, he questions his faith during his tragic experiences in concentration camps. He is confused; he does not understand how God could let something as terrible as mass murders happen. He is also disgusted by the selfishness that the Holocaust brought out in prisoners, and even himself. Such happenings force Wiesel to question whether God truly exists. I believe that such religious unstability is natural in traumatic incidences, such as the Holocaust.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Hearing about the Holocaust throughout our class, in the readings, documentaries, and in a truly profound statement in our text when a Holocaust victim declared that most Jews were more afraid of the Germans than of death itself, made me ask alot of questions. And I thought to myself “No God would ever punish humans in the way that humans have found possible to do onto another.” In Night, I was able to hear the account of someone who was religiously strong in faith and in the belief of God the immortal, and how mere mortals forced Eleizar to question the very foundations of what he once saw as glorious and of greatness, his belief in good and justic through God. Night shows the anger that exist in Eleizar for his misfortunes, similar to how Job in the Bible reacts to the loss of his most prized belongings such as his family, etc. As Job asks God why he allowed the terrible events to occure, Eleizar also demands answers from God. Yet, he is only asking questions because he assumes that God is still out there, watching the fate of the Jews. I feel that he only questions the existance of God so that he can be heard by God. “Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, Lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank him for?” Eleizar wants God to prove him wrong.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:33 am
i read night in high school, but i don’t remember being so emotionally affected by it at that time. this time, there were parts that were hard to get through. especially the parts nearing the end when his father’s health was declining and elie was faced the decision to help himself or to continue trying to help his father. as i said in the previous blog where we wrote about maus, i was much more affected by this more detailed account of the holocaust than i was by the graphic novel maus. i feel that the religious transformations that elie goes through during the story are completely natural. i can’t imagine being in a situation so horrible and not questioning the existence of god.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I never read any of the books we are reading for class. In my high schoo we didnt even talkmuch about the holocaust. the book night was moving, like many other holocaust surviver books it was sad, but this book really hit home, i kno how it feels to be at a helpless age and put in a situation that makes you under go a change. this book was different from maus in the aspect that it was realistic… i loved it!
April 9th, 2008 at 7:14 am
The young men and women who had no choice but to chose what they could do to stay alive it is like the article, “The dilemma of Choice in the Deathcamps” Eleizar had to make decisions that he was not proud of but it is the same with all of the other victims and survivors that had to live in the rat hell hole that the Nazi PIGS put these innocent people in. The decision to make a choice and to have to live with that choice meant life or death, and the nightmare of the rest of their life being tormented by that choice that they were forced to make. HOW UNFAIR TO THEM THIS IS!!
I hope that by the end of his life he had reconciled with YHVH. I cannot tell in the book if he did. I can see his righteous anger towards Him and I believe that Eleizar and any other Jew has the right to be angry with YHVH. This unjust behavior of human beings YHVH the creator of the heavens and the earth promised to Abram the “land flowing with milk and honey” Was this part of it? The beatings the starvation, the burning of human flesh? Why would YHVH allow His people to suffer like this. Being pissed off at God is okay in my worLd they have every right to turn their backs on Him. I only hope that YHVH would make a clear message to the Hebrews of the unjust treatment they endured so that it would not seem so wasteful that He has a reason for this, that their be a truth brought from it. To make some kind of sense of it. Eleizar, had no choice but to chose!
April 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
“Night” is the most moving and real account of anything I’ve ever encountered about the Holocaust. I think it was so real to be because it came from a primary source. Most of the accounts of the Holocaust that are out there today come from historians, and are written just like any other major historical event would be written. This account however doesn’t just focus on the facts or bullet points of what happened, we can actually feel a sense of the hardships both mentally and physically that someone like Ellie went through during that time. I also found it interesting becuase I feel that if I had been in Ellie’s shoes during the Holocaust that I would have also had the major dilemma with God just as he had. On page 79 he compares the lives of the Jews at that time to the horrible things that Adam and Eve endured as well as other biblical characters however stating that those consequences were rational to the betrayl that they have been convicted of. He goes on to question, what have these people done? They’ve only prayed for you and you let this happen. I found this excerpt the most touching throughtout the whole book because I at that point could actually feel his pain. His whole struggle with God and his role is very natural and I think that anyone who can say that they could not identify with this struggle obviously does not fully understand the impact that the Holocaust had on the world then and still today.
April 10th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Wiesel’s transformation in his religious beliefs changed gradually. As things had gotten worst for the Jews, he started to really question God and his devotion towards saving the oppressed in their time of trouble. Then, the fact that little babies were being smashed and torn apart limb from limb constantly without any interference their to stop it really caused him to wonder whether God was really devoted to saving the oppressed in horrible situations, even though they have done everything he told them to in order for them to stay in his favor.