Commentary On Night By Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel, born September 30, 1928, in Sighet, Romania. Of Jewish heritage, Wiesel lived a simplistic and normal life, for a young Jewish boy, in that and age. In his early years, Wiesel pursued Jewish religious studies and mysticism before his family was forced into the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, in 1944. Wiesel survived, and years later wrote the internationally renowned memoir Night. This firsthand account of his experience serves to shower readers with the harsh realities of human nature, the power that ideologies can have on the masses and the detrimental effects that these can have on society and in particular an entire race of people. In regards to this assignment, I will attempt to discuss, three topics, to the best of my ability.

In Wiesel’s recounting of his heartbreaking struggle whilst in Auschwitz, he tries to channel his experience, in all of its horror, and explain, in his own words how this affected him as well as others. One passage, in particular, struck me immensely in the most negative and calamitous of ways, “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 the 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 long as God himself. Never.” Indeed it presents a very factual event in our history, the condemnation and attempted genocide of an entire people and how it should never happen again (although history has proved otherwise). Wiesel, in my opinion, does not intentionally aim to invoke emotions of the readers such as apathy, disgust and anguish as some sick ploy for pity, be that as it may, his writing, through no fault of his own, most definitely will conjure such fervor, as it definitely brought out of me, emotions that care not to feel, as they are intense and difficult to handle. I refuse to think that he wrote this for selfish reasons such as monetary gain or fame. I feel as though Elie Wiesel seeks to educate the masses on this heinous matter, he aims to speak for those who cannot or will not for reasons known only to them, he wishes to speak out against the people who believed the Holocaust never happened. He searches for a way for people to be able to understand the seriousness of what happened and to recognize that an event such as this