Night By Elie Wiesel: Literary Analysis

The Holocaust left forgotten victims and survivors who wished they could forget. The crimes that took place during the Holocaust showed humanity’s darkest side. People were tortured and killed. Those who survived are forever scarred by their memories. Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, writes about his ordeal in his memoir, Night. For some prisoners, the brutality that the Nazis treat them with leads to their deaths. For others, it morphs them into the animals they are believed to be.
The Nazis’ inhuman plan to exterminate the Jews starts in their towns. Soldiers deport foreign Jews, take them into Polish territory, and kill them “without passion” and “without haste” (Wiesel 4). The Nazis exterminate the foreign Jews in a way similar to exterminating …show more content…
The effects set in even before they reach the camp. On the train, Madame Schächter starts to shout, warning others of a fire. Consumed by fear, the other Jews try to control her, and they attempt to tie her up, but soon resort to violence. Wiesel witnesses, “They even struck her. People encouraged them […] They struck her several times on the head-blows that might have killed her” (24). Instead of trying to help Madame Schächter, the other Jews silence her with force so they do not have to be afraid. On arrival at Birkenau, Wiesel and his father are in the process of selection. Another prisoner confronts them and declares “What have you come here for, you sons of bitches […] You dumb bastards, don’t you understand anything?” (Wiesel 28). He blames the new arrivals because he is angered that he is powerless to the Nazis’ mercilessness actions. The prisoners avoid helping each other so they are not targeted by the soldiers. Wiesel’s father is beaten by Idek and Wiesel does not respond. He confesses, “What is more, any anger I felt at that moment was directed, not against the kapo, but against my father” (Wiesel 52). Because Wiesel does not want to be beaten, he turns his back on his father and blames him for what happened. During the death march from Buna, the prisoners travel in train cars. When they stop the soldiers tell them to cast out the dead. Some of the prisoners strip the dead of their possessions before throwing them off the train. The instinct to survive against the Nazis overpowers the prisoners and they do not feel remorse for taking from the dead and not giving them a proper burial. When the train stops some workmen decide to throw bread into the train cars. The prisoners start to fight, and even kill, over the bread. They do not consider the fact that they are fighting against other