Hannah DeBacker

Analysis of Night by Elie Wiesel Modern Western Civilizations Fourth Hour

Elie Wiesel, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech stated, I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation (Wiesel, 119). Night by Elie Wisel tells the story of his experience of the holocaust. He swore to fight prejudice and human humiliation after what he had to go through as a Jew in a concentration camp. A story of terror and humiliation, of a young man part of a mass of people treated like animals. He, like millions of others, was stripped of his dignaty and humanty, and ceased to be treated like a person, let alone an individual. Wiesel tells of how his spirit died in the camps, his physical body wishing for actual death to come, he was already dead to the world the human existance he knew before he entered Auchwitz. Durring the first few hours and days at the concentration camp, the Nazis take away Weisels humanity and start to kill his spirit little by little. After the long journey to the camps in a packed cattle car, Wiesel and several other new inmates are forced to strip, shower, and run naked to the pile of prison garb, only to have illfitting striped outfits thrown at them. Wiesel recounts, In a few seconds we had ceased to be men. (37). All of their personal items, even the clothes off their backs have been taken away. They are forced to run outside in the cold, clutching their belts and shoes, naked. The S.S. officers treat them as if they arent human; taking everything they have in the blink of an eye without any remorse. Later, Wiesels prisoner number is tattooed on his arm. He relates, I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name (42). Peoples names were even taken away. They were numbered, their human souls and bodies and individuality taken from them. Wiesel recounts, Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. (34). Souls were stolen, people beaten down as animals, treated as if they were lower.

During the holocaust, The S.S. treated all prisoners with severe cruelty, but none so much as the Jews. They made people want death as a release, stripping people of their humanity and making them give up all their dignity. Wiesel recounts of his experience, saying that when running for hours and hours, the S.S. officers shouted degrading phrases at them: "Faster, you tramps, you flea ridden dogs!...Faster, you filthy dogs! (85). The Nazis, like many other groups that persecutors, did not care one bit about any of the people they murdered, or starved, or tortured. When the Germans were evacuating all the camps and movie inward to get farther from the eastern front, Wiesel tells of the conditions in a small town: We stayed in Gleiwitz for three days. Days without food or water (95). Even prisoners receive food and water, but the Jews were considered lower than prisoners, lower than animals. The Nazis made them cease to feel human by crushing their spirits, breaking them down so all they could do was work. The Jews were not treated as people, and therefore did not feel like them. Being forced to work for your oppressors with little or no food, sleeping in heaps of people that are all basically corpses, and waking up every day wondering when you are going to die, that is inhumanity. Elie Wiesel survived the holocaust, being treated like an animal and losing his whole family just because of their religion. Wiesels memoir, Night, gives some hope that he started living again, and that he started to regain his dignity. In the preface to the new translation of Night, Wiesel states, The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future. Wiesel, through writing this book shared his story with the world, and he started to live again by speaking out against persecutions. By making his story known, he has made sure that the people of the

world to come will not have to endure what he endured. Elie Wiesel may not have started feeling whole again for a long time, and still may not feel whole, but his story will live on. Night is a powerful memoir by Elie Wiesel that tells the story of his experience with the holocaust. The Jews were treated almost as inhumanely as possible, being killed immediately or forced to do hard labor for the Nazis. One could be beaten or shot anytime just by looking at someone the wrong way. Wiesel survived a constant struggle between life and death, feeling like a corpse after losing his dignity. He states that after the first days at Auschwitz, All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invadedand devouredby a black flame. (37). Jews were no longer people to the Nazis, they humanity was lost, Dignity was removed, and souls were crushed. Elie Wiesel lived. He felt like a corpse and was treated like an animal, and under horrible he survived. He may not be healed completely and may never be, but his story will never be forgotten. He lives to fight prejudice, to make sure that the Holocaust never occurs again. To make sure that people will remember, because the world tends to forget.

Works Cited
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 1986.