Night Introduction

Publication - for ten years following his release from Buchenwald, Wiesel kept his story to himself - then, in 1954, he wrote a 862 page manuscript title And the World Remained Silent - originally published in France in published in the USA in 1960

Elie Wiesel - at sixteen, Wiesel and his family were forced to live in the Sighet ghetto (where Nazis confined “undesirables”) and then the entire Jewish community was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau - separated from his mother and three sisters, he and his father were sent to the work camp at Buna - he was at Buchenwald when the camp was liberated in April 1945

Memoir - a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation; an account of one’s personal life and experiences - creates an intensely personal, subjective, and intimate tone

Memoir - Night is not meant to be an all inclusive history of the experience of the Holocaust; instead it details the harrowing personal tragedy, pain, and effect the experience created for one single victim

Contrasts to Memoir - Wiesel however prefers to describe the work as “testimony” and is not the book’s protagonist - the narrator is a boy named Eliezer who represents Wiesel but there are differences in details - for instance, Eliezer wounds his foot in the concentration camp, while Wiesel hurt his knee - allows Wiesel to distance himself from the experience

Purpose - Wiesel is interested in documenting the historical truth of events that took place as well as the emotional truth of Eliezer’s journey from a believing Orthodox Jew to a deeply disillusioned young man who questions the existence of God

Moshe the Beadle - though he disappears after the first few pages, Moshe is central to understanding Eliezer’s struggle - he sets forth the key values that God is everywhere, even within every individual, and that faith is about asking questions, not receiving answers, concepts that Eliezer’s experience sorely tests

Theme subjects - the struggle to maintain faith in a loving God in the face of ultimate evil - silence - man’s inhumanity to his fellow man - the importance of father-son bonds

Symbols - fire - night