The Role Of The Holocaust In Elie Wiesel's Night

Is it not perplexing to think about what the Holocaust was like? Elie Wiesel knows from first hand experience. He survived in a concentration camp and was freed by American troops after about a year. Wiesel recounted his experiences in his memoir Night. Students should continue to read Night because the anecdote shows what the Holocaust was like, it shows many of the historical events of World War II as they relate to the concentration camps and many important aspects of Jewish culture. First of all, the memoir is a detailed recount of the Holocaust, from a primary witness. This amount of detail is shown when Wiesel writes, "As the train stopped, this time we saw flames rising from a tall chimney, into a black sky" (Wiesel 28). This quote

The next reason students should read Night is that it tells about the history of the Nazi concentration camps in World War II and its effect on the Jewish people. When many people think of the Holocaust, they also think of the yellow stars that the Nazis required the Jews to wear. This is demonstrated when Elie 's father says, "The yellow star? So what? It 's not lethal" (Wiesel 11). The quote shows how the Nazis did not seem so bad at first, as they started out with smaller methods to isolate the Jewish population. However, their efforts heavily progressed as time went on. This is again exemplified when Wiesel writes, "The wheels began to grind. We were on our way" (Wiesel 22). Once more, it is well known, that hundreds of thousands of Jews were stuffed into small cattle cars and shipped off to concentration camps. When Elie 's time at the concentration camps is about to end, Wiesel notes, in regard to the American troops that liberated his camp, "It was decided they would evacuate us all at once" (Wiesel 114). The concentration camp is about to be liquidated, and they want everyone out. The troops also wanted to get to as many camps as possible and not waste time as they swept through Germany. Many of the occurrences in the anecdote are important in the history of World War II, as well as that of the concentration camps, and the memoir will inform readers on this topic as they study Wiesel 's