Night Essay

Eliezer Wiesel was an innocent 12 year old Jewish boy devoted to his faith, his God, and his family, this was before all of the chaos happened. He and his family lived in a small town in Transylvania, called Sighet. One day German troops took over the streets of Sighet and immediately separated the Jewish people from the others. Not too long after Jewish people (including Elie and his family) were deported to the first concentration camp, the worst, Auschwitz. Then were transferred to another working camp which had less severe conditions. At both camps, Wiesel struggled with self-preservation and protecting his father, these experiences severely fractured his relationship with God.

When Eliezer enters the concentration camp, he enters as an innocent child, holding his fathers hand never wanting to let go. Only moments later he loses his mother and sisters and witnesses babies being burned alive in fire, his father is all he has left. “I didnt know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I kept walking, my father holding my hand” (pg.29). Not but for spending only a few days in Auschwitz, his childhood and innocence is crushed. “I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked. I had watched and kept silent. Only yesterday, I would have dug my nails into this criminal’s flesh. Had I changed that much? So fast?” (pg.39). This quote says a lot, Eliezer has changed immensely and now basically doesn’t even flinch to the sight of his father being hit by such an evil man. His heart is starting to turn cold Like other prisoners in concentration camps usually do, Wiesel is starting to become self-focused, only concerned with his own self-preservation. In the beginning, Wiesel would do anything to protect his father, because he is family and thats what you do for family. But, he now sees himself starting to shy away from protecting his father in fear of being beaten himself.

That leads to how self-preservation was a struggle to maintain during the times in concentration camps. “We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride had all deserted us” (pg.36). Although Wiesel is starting to look out for himself more, it is still a struggle. Its a struggle for every prisoner in concentration camps to just stay alive. Now although Wiesel would like to keep himself alive for as long as he can he still has thoughts of whether it would be better if he would just die. “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live” (pg.34). When its night in the camps and Wiesel tries to sleep he has no other choice but to just think and hear all of the horrid things goes on around him. Surely that would leave a