The First Night In Elie Wiesel's Night

It is reported that over 6 million Jews were brutally murdered in the Holocaust, but there were a very few who were able to reach the liberation, and escape alive. There were many important events that occurred in Elie Wiesel’s Night, and for each and every event, I was equally, if not more disturbed than the one before. The first extremely disturbing event became a reality when Eliezer comprehended that there were trucks filled with babies that the Nazi’s were throwing the children into the crematorium. Unfortunately, the sad truth of the murdering babies was clearly presented through, “Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there, […] babies”, (Wiesel, Night, 32). This was one of the most disturbing events of the narrative for myself and truly explained the cruelty and torture of the Holocaust.

Secondly, another important event is explained by Elie just after both he and his father have made it through the first selection at Birkenau.

The importance of the first night was presented through when Elie first shifted from reality and claimed, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed”, (Wiesel, Night, 34). Elie explained that his first night in camp was the one that changed his life forever and is the one that will forever haunt

him. Finally, cruelty and the inhumane actions of Auschwitz and the Holocaust were very conspicuous as the Jews received their identification numbers. This distinct action could be understood when Eliezer explained, “The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713”, (Wiesel, Night, 42). Elie’s very disturbing, yet important, experience of being tattooed and thought of as just a number clearly express the cruelty and devastating actions that the Nazi’s preformed on the Jews. Eliezer Wiesel underwent many very traumatic and devastating experiences while he was imprisoned in the concentration camps, but the three most disturbing and important include, the realization of the burning babies, his first night at camp, and when Elie was tattooed and presumed owned by the Nazi’s.