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Elie Wiesel Night Quotes

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When humans are faced with repressive situations, they tend to lose hope and as a result, they fall into the hands of their intimidators out of fear. In the memoir Night, taking place during the holocaust, Elie Wiesel recounts his experience of Nazi abuse and the few individuals fighting to escape Nazi persecution while maintaining their humanity. Ultimately, Elie argues that despite existing in a world of oppression, certain individuals defy their identity as victims and, instead, take part in acts of resistance that display what is left of their humanity. In the face of imminent death, a condemned prisoner whom Elie describes is still able to wage a protest through the form of expressing the free will and passing on hope to those around …show more content…

The Lageraltese starts reading the verdict, “According to the law…prisoner number…is condemned to death. Let this be a warning and example to all prisoners.’ Nobody moved… The thousands of people who died daily in Auschwitz and Birkenau, in the crematoria, no longer troubled me. But this boy, leaning against the gallows, upset me dearly.” (Wiesel, 62) What is so distressing about this quote is the way the Lageraltese refers to the condemned young man when they begin reciting his ruling- as a number rather than a genuine person with an identity. Even though Elie witnesses thousands of deaths every day, this specific killing left a lasting impression on him because the victim was a young boy who still had a lot of life left to live but was tragically taken from him. Elie may have a personal connection with this young man, as they are probably similar in age, have experienced …show more content…

After marching in thick snow and cold winds for miles, all of the Jews pile on top of each other in the barrack of Gleiwitz due to exhaustion. As Elie fights for air, he hears a familiar voice. “Mercy!’...I myself was crushed under the weight of other bodies. I had difficulty breathing. I dug my nails into unknown faces. I was biting my way through, searching for air. No one cried out… ‘Are you alright, Juliek?’... ‘All right…All right…Not too much air…Tired…My feet are swollen…It's good to rest, but my violin…’” (93) Because the prisoners lack essentials for survival, their survival instincts have taken over and they will do anything to get a breath of air. Even though the prisoner's rest area is very limited, hundreds of individuals are piled on top of each other. Although the Jews are being hurt physically, many are also being hurt mentally as they are reluctantly and painfully turning on each other as their self-preservation comes on. Turning against one another causes Jewish tensions to increase and divides the community's principles and ideals. It just goes to demonstrate how inhumane the Nazis were. While the prisoners in this barrack are being pushed to their limits and are on the inch of their lives, Juliek longs for his violin valuing his identity and passion. All of the prisoners are squashed on top of each other when Juliek starts playing a

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213 Words | 1 Pages

The book Night by Elie Weisel helps show what Elie went through and what it was like in the Holocaust. He writes about everything that happened on the way to the camps and what happened at the camps. He also writes about one lady who kept seeing a fire and other ways other people dealt with everything happening. Weisel wrote, “Never shall I forget about the flames that consumed my faith forever” (34). This quote helps show how Weisel has changed because seeing that babies thrown into the fire and the smoke that came after affected him

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456 Words | 2 Pages

In the beginning of the book Night Elie describes himself as someone who believes profoundly. One way that Auschwitz and/or other campers have affected this by, putting him down, watching innocent people die by getting either shot or hanged in front of his little eyes. In the first chapter of Night the quote, “Why did I pray? Strange question.

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537 Words | 3 Pages

Elie Wiesel and his family were deported from the town Sighet to camp Auschwitz. Elie and his town were gathered into train carts vigorously. The German SS officers shouting ”if anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs” (24). While on the train carts there were an average of eighty Jews in one cart, Elie saying “there was little air, thirst became intolerable, as did the heat” (23). Although the Jews of Sighet were warned they did not listen.

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204 Words | 1 Pages

When they evacuate the Camp, they had to run in the snow and the soldiers would shoot people who couldn’t keep up. Elie had a friend named Zalman who got a stomach cramp while running and stopped for a minute but was trampled on by the other prisoners. They got to rest after many hours of running and Elie and his father want to keep each other awake because they are afraid death will come in their sleep. A rabbi comes to Elie wondering if he has seen his son, Elie said no, but he later remembered that he saw the rabbi's son running ahead of him so he wouldn't be killed. They later continue marching and reach a camp called Gleiwitz.

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916 Words | 4 Pages

Events similar to crushing the former inmates shows how much each prisoner is emotionally dead. Near the end, the still-alive prisoners are at the lowest possible stage of their pride and feelings due to the pain that are inflicted upon them. By the end of the journey to Gleiwitz, affected by the horrendous actions inflicted by the Nazis, the captives kill their own comrades, and do not have feeling for their death or life, they are simply mentally

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

He speaks of watching the young boy, that everyone had grown fond of, be mercilessly hanged. Elie witnesses the child struggle to hold onto life, as the weight of his body was not enough to kill him instantly, like the other two adults who had been hanged. “But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing…” (Wiesel 65). Elie speaks of the boy’s suffering, yet, Elie preserves through the trauma of the event, though he mentions how the soup tastes like corpses that night.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

This quote is the final sentence of the book. Elie was liberated from Auschwitz, but had become ill so he was in a hospital room. He looked at himself for the first time since he was in the camp. Throughout his life in the concentration camp he became frail, and had lost a significant amount of weight. He had narrowly escaped death countless times, one being when he wasn’t chosen during selection, and another being the trip he had to endure during liberation.

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833 Words | 4 Pages

The street we lived on, Serpent Street, was in the first ghetto”(11). These ghettos would only give a mere glimpse of what was to come in the next few years. The Jews of Sighet were then transported by cattle car to their first concentration camp named Birkenau. After this Elie was transported to many other concentration camps and these surroundings only became a source of constant terror and pain. An extreme example of the pain and terror he suffered is shown in this quote, “AT six O'CLOCK the bell rang.

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272 Words | 2 Pages

Elie: Throughout the book we see Elie change from a relatively normal teenage school boy and into a emotionally hardened young man who has become so accustomed to death that he rarely gives it a second thought, even if the person dying was a friend . This change took place because of the tortuous conditions that the Nazi´s subjected him to and that he lost so many family members and friends along the way. My passage shows Elie at a time when he is just starting his journey, yet you can tell that the concentration camps and the Nazi´s have already had a very serious effect on him. ¨He must have died, trampled under the feet if the thousands of men who followed us.

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686 Words | 3 Pages

Elie was beaten countless times by other people. No one was safe from the anger and hatred that fueled the Nazis. But what stood out to everyone in the camp was the tragic death of the young boy who was hanged. His death lasted longer and the horror the others had to witness as they walked away. Nothing could be done, this moment is where Elie no longer believes his religion.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

In the story “Night”, Elie Wiesel walks us through his horrible experience that he had to go through as a little boy. Just recently, I got to hear this experience from a different perspective from a survivor of the Holocaust, Mr. Guy Prestia. He talked to us about the horrible things that he had to go through for years and years, but he survived. I am honored to show you how Mr. Guy Prestia exemplifies the qualities of a survivor as described in some quotes from “Night”. To begin, Mr. Guy Prestia is doing his job of stepping up and using his voice, to preach about what he had to go through, that some others can’t do.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

Elie gives many examples of why this happened to him, one example being forced to watch the public execution of a young boy along with two other men. The three had been convicted of stealing weapons during a raid, Elie describes this event in horrifying detail. “The three condemned prisoners together stepped onto the chairs. In unison the nooses were placed around their necks.” After the hanging the prisoners were commanded to march around the bodies.

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1732 Words | 7 Pages

Following the many months after the death of Elie’s father, the liberators made their way into Buchenwald, the camp in which Elie was located, and set all of the prisoners free. As stated by Elie Wiesel, no one thought of revenge or of their hunger, they solely thought of throwing themselves onto the provisions (Wiesel 119). The people who were terrified throughout this entire nightmare, were finally free and did not want to think about the hate that had consumed their captors. After this horrendous journey, Elie was a different man than he was only a year ago. The night had left him scarred mentally and physically.

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691 Words | 3 Pages

Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish” (Wiesel 64). Again, Elie further comprehends the cruelty of man; when the soldiers hanged two men and a child. The child especially affected him, and it disheartened Elie even more so that the child was tortured for an action he did not commit. Both of these events were two of many which quickly caused Elie to lose his

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1013 Words | 5 Pages

As cruel as this horrid heinous act may be, the true crime against humanity can be viewed with a little examination. Under the surface was Elie’s mention to the fact he was changed. Shockingly, he displayed his surprise to the fact, and how he was different. This was his way to strengthen the fact that he was being changed by this place. Of course, the change was towards his priorities, that being survival.

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