Oppression In Night

During 1944, Elie Wiesel was forced from his home to undertake a great trial, known by many as the Holocaust. After the grueling meat grinder, known by some as the Shoah, he had survived, and was able to write his experiences years after the event. In short, Wiesel wrote Night to remind people of the horrors and conditions he had experienced within the concentration camps. Years after the Holocaust occurs, Wiesel shows the harsh treatment on him and his peers, enforced by the Schutzstaffel, such as working with great starvation and tiredness. The writing reveals the feelings of oppressed; starved; weakening men under the rule of fascist Nazis. It also reveals the trials he had endured on the mind and body, releasing those negative thoughts

For example, he mentions a ‘‘notorious’’ figure of the camp, being Dr. Mengele. This man is known for inhumane human experiments (such as mustard gas exposure for medical purposes), and was a reputable Schutzstaffel member. While Mengele is shown, other Schutzstaffel are often unknown; indeed, their proxy commanders are in the figure of Kapos. Throughout the Night passage, the “favoured” (in the way that they are kept healthier than the others, as seen in the selection) Kapos direct the other workers. The German enforcers themselves are not mentioned beyond what they order and when they stand alongside Mengele. This may be an effect of how he saw life within the camps, where the Germans were often unknown, negative embodiments that forced them to labour. Wiesel also speaks of his distaste for the Schutzstaffel by revealing hate for the morning bell that rings when there is work to be done. By using the bell as symbolism, he shows that the Schutzstaffel are hated for what they force the prisoners to do.This exemplifies the poor state of Wiesel’s group, the

This is explicitly displayed in 93-94, where those noted down by the Germans depart from the others and resign themselves to possible death. There is even a name for those starved; exhausted; and accepting of the death that will come to them as they resign to it. The “muselmen” are known in a derogatory manner as those who solemnly embrace death. These parts of the passage paint a picture of a desperate, sorrowful people that wish to survive, but come to the realization that death may be the answer to release. Even the block leaders are frustrated and pitiful. The Kapos are shown to be somewhat sympathetic to their fellow prisoners by assuring that they will live another day, but ones like the Blockalteste don’t know how to keep the wider populace calmed when they know death may come. The block leader shuts them out in his office when men beg him not to be killed(140), and fails to keep spirits high when a man says he may be taken for whatever experimental horrors to torture him (100). With all these negative things, it is hard to imagine that Wiesel could live with these perpetually in his head. Indeed, He may be using literacy as an emotional outlet to share with others. Not only is he reminding people