The Holocaust: Night by Elie Wiesel

1644 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Night by elie wiesel imagery literary device

Six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. The Jews were persecuted, tortured and slaughtered in concentration camps (“The Holocaust” 1). Night by Elie Wiesel is the powerful memoir of his experiences during the Holocaust. Night shows the tragedy of the Holocaust through the use literary devices, including the themes of loss of faith and cruelty toward other human beings, night as a symbol of suffering and fear, and the use of first person narrative. Night allows the reader to emotionally connect with the victims of the Holocaust, encourages them to never forget the injustice of the Holocaust, and implores the reader to ensure a travesty such as the Holocaust never occurs again. Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel grew up in a small Hasidic community in Sighet, Transylvania, which is now Romania. Wiesel pursued religious studies at a yeshiva during his childhood (“Elie Wiesel-Biography” 1). Nazi Germany invaded in 1994 and brought the town of Sighet into the Holocaust. The Jewish community was identified, had their property confiscated, and was ghettoized (“Elie Wiesel (American Author)” 1). The Germans forced the Jews residing in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania to move to concentration camps in Poland. At the age of fifteen, Wiesel and his whole family were deported to Auschwitz (“Elie Wiesel (American Author)” 1). Wiesel’s mother and sister were killed at the Auschwitz camp. Wiesel and his father were separated from the rest of their family and were sent to Buna-Monowitz, which was the slave labor sector of Auschwitz (“Elie Wiesel (American Author)” 1). Wiesel and his father lived in horrible, inhumane conditions in the camp. In January 1945, they were forced on a death march to Buchenwald, located in Germany, where h... ... middle of paper ... ...curred during the Holocaust to Wiesel and allows the reader to better understand the severe tragedy of World War II and the Holocaust. Works Cited "Elie Wiesel (American Author)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. . "Elie Wiesel Biography." Academy of Achievement.N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. . "Elie Wiesel-Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. . "The Holocaust." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. . Wiesel, Elie. Night. Trans. Marion Wiesel. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Nonfiction Major Works Data Sheet Analysis

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    Elie Wiesel was a Nobel Prize winning writer, teacher, and activist known for his many writings including his memoir, Night. He was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet, Romania and grew up

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Horrifying Holocaust Experience

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Night

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Elie Wiesel’s Night, he recounts his horrifying experiences as a Jewish boy under Nazi control. His words are strong and his message clear. Wiesel uses themes such as hunger and death to vividly display his days during World War II. Wiesel’s main purpose is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a repressed Jew. His tone and diction are powerful for this subject and envelope the reader. Young readers today find the actions of Nazis almost unimaginable. This book more than sufficiently portrays the era in the words of a victim himself.

    Read More

  • Hope in Night by Elie Wiesel and Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow

    2236 Words  | 5 Pages

    Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel Dehumanization In Night

    805 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish

    Read More

  • Significant Changes in Eliezer’s Relationship With His Father

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    " N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2008. . Wiesel, Elie. Night.

    Read More

  • Dehumanization in Night

    2056 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many themes exist in Night, Elie Wiesel’s nightmarish story of his Holocaust experience. From normal life in a small town to physical abuse in concentration camps, Night chronicles the journey of Wiesel’s teenage years. Neither Wiesel nor any of the Jews in Sighet could have imagined the horrors that would befall them as their lives changed under the Nazi regime. The Jews all lived peaceful, civilized lives before the German occupation. Eliezer Wiesel was concerned with mysticism and his father was “more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin” (4).

    Read More

  • Elie Wiesel's Night

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.

    Read More

  • Conformity In Night By Elie Wiesel

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every man, woman, and child has his or her breaking point, no matter how hard they try to hold it back. In Night by Elie Wiesel the main theme of the entire book is the human living condition. The quality of human life is overwhelming because humans have the potential to make amazing discoveries that help all humans. Elie Wiesel endures some of the most cruel living conditions known to mankind. This essay describes the themes of faith, survival, and conformity in Night by Elie Wiesel.

    Read More

  • Loss of Faith and Religion in Ellie Wiesel’s Night

    1731 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said, “ There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.” The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind, consisting of the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally handicapped and many others during World War II. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the terrible proceedings of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps, and suffers a relentless “night” of terror and torture in which humans were treated as animals. Wiesel discovers the “Kingdom of Night” (118), in which the history of the Jewish people is altered. This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses his faith and his relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? (67). Throughout the Holocaust, Wiesel’s faith is not permanently shattered. Although after his father dies, his faith in god and religion is shaken to the core, and arguably gone. Wiesel, along with most prisoners, lose their faith in God. Wiesel’s loss of religion becomes the loss of identity, humanity, selfishness, and decency.

    Read More

  • Not Everyone Becomes a Brute

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • Night and Maus

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel and the graphic novels, Maus I, II, by Art Spiegelman depict the Holocaust. In Night, the scenes of the Holocaust are depicted through words and in Maus I, II they are depicted through illustration. They both display the powerful message of the Holocaust, but in two different forms. In each book, the media that is used helps define the story that is being told. Both medias are strong because they are able to tell the story of the Holocaust, but sometimes the message is more noticeable or powerful when used in a different form. Each story is able to emphasize different points through the use of different types of imagery.

    Read More

  • What Is The Differences Between Night And A Long Way Gone By Elie Wiesel

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    Some of the most fabled stories of our time come from individuals overcoming impossible odds and surviving horrific situations. This is prevalent throughout the Holocaust. People are fascinated with this event in history because the survivors had to overcome immense odds. One, of many, of the more famous stories about the Holocaust is Night by Elie Wiesel. Through this medium, Wiesel still manages to capture the horrors of the camps, despite the reader already knowing the story.

    Read More

  • Calories and Nutrition of a Teenager at the Age of 15

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • Human Injustice In Elie Wiesel's Night

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    An era of human darkness and human cruelty can all swiftly present in one cold night. Elie Wiesel, a teenager living in Sighet, Transylvania, and most importantly, a Jew, experienced this first hand when the Hungarian police rushed into his Jewish community, demanding that everyone must prepare for departure. This would start an event in human history that would portray mankind as cruel and inhumane and would end the lives of many innocent people. This portrait of human disgrace and injustice would be the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s non fiction story in “Night”, shows Elie’s adventure as he experiences the depths of human darkness in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. In “Night,” Elie Wiesel argues that the truest of evils can void a man of good, and through the sheer magnitude of evil, can wipe out all faith in a person, ending with the disappearance of human characteristic and hope.

    Read More

More about The Holocaust: Night by Elie Wiesel

Open Document