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Theme Of The Holocaust In Elie Wiesel's Night

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The Holocaust was a cruel and terrifying time, especially for the groups targeted. Before it began, the Wiesels had been a deeply religious Jewish family. Elie Wiesel was only a teenager when he and his family were torn from their home and sent to concentration camps. There, he faced many horrors including the deaths of his family and the distortion of the person he once was. Wiesel has recounted these horrific events in his memoir, Night. Although many realize the significance of this novel, it has been criticized for its depressing subject matter. Night is important because it tells the painfully true details of the Holocaust in a way that cannot be forgotten. This memoir illuminates the terrors of the concentration camps from a first hand …show more content…

If the public allows for these crimes to be forgotten, it only benefits those who committed such inhumane acts of violence. In his preface, Wiesel states that he is “... a witness who believes he has a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory.” (Wiesel viii) Even after their reign of terror is over, letting the stories of those who suffered to be lost in time allows the Nazis and their allies one last victory over the Jews. Already, the victims had felt abandoned. “For [Wiesel] belongs to a traumatized generation, one that has experienced the abandonment and solitude of [his] people…” (Wiesel 119) To act as if nothing happened would be abandoning them once more. Furthermore, forgetting makes the public accomplices. It does no good for anyone involved in the situation except for the despot. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented, Sometimes we must interfere.” (Wiesel 118) By writing this novel Wiesel was taking a stand against the people who caused his so much trauma. He is interfering in his own way, by making sure the public does not allow the past to be

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