Loss Of Survival In Night By Elie Wiesel

“The world would never tolerate such crimes”(33). This was a thought that Elie Wiesel had as he was greeted by the cruel reality of death, torture, and barbaric treatment that awaited him in the Nazi concentration camps. He was surrounded by death, witnessing the murder of children, losing his mother and sister, and watching his father die. Eleven million people died, yet he lived. Elie Wiesel went on to write the memoir Night. In this narrative, he tells his story - from the ghettos to his liberation. Throughout his time there, Elie relied on his father, insistent on staying by his side through life and death. A recurring and important theme in his narrative is the incredible effect that support and camaraderie has on one’s survival. Elie

There are quite a few examples of this in the memoir, Night. One of these times is in the beginning of the narrative when Elie and his father are about to enter the camps. A random inmate, unnamed and never seen again, saves Elie and his father with a bit of stern advice. “Not fifty. You’re forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty” (30). If they had not been told to lie, they would have been sorted to die immediately upon arriving. Working together increases the odds of survival for everyone involved. Another time we see this is when Elie fell asleep in the snow. If he had been left there, he likely would have died. However, his father urges him to get up as the people around them silently met their end. "Don't let yourself be overcome by sleep, Eliezer. It's dangerous to fall asleep in snow. One falls asleep forever. Come, my son, come... Get up" (88). Later, Elie does something similar for his father when they were on a train. The Nazis gave the order to throw the dead off of the train. People were quick to follow orders as it would give them more space and they could divy up the clothes. When they approached Elie’s father he was cold and still. Elie was panicked, insisting he was still alive and resorting to hitting him, desperately trying whatever he could to wake him. “And I started to hit him harder and harder. At last, my father half opened his eyes. They were glassy. He was breathing faintly” (99). Elie and his father relied on each other many times. WIthout helping each other, they both would have died quite early on, exhibiting the vitality of this type of