Night by Elie Wiesel

The ground is frozen, parents weep over their children, stomachs void, rigid bodies huddle together to stay warm. This was a reoccurring scene during the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s Night describes the horror of what the Holocaust did, not only to the Jews, but to humanity. The disturbing neglect the Nazi party had for human beings, and the human body itself, still to this day, intensifies the fear in the hearts of many. Men, woman, and children alike witnessed selfish, dehumanizing acts, the deaths of their friends and family, and not only the loss of faith in God, but in everything.
The Nazi’s were ruthless executioners, although, when the Nazi’s first came to Sighet they were rather reassuring. They were housed in local homes and were welcomed into the Kahn’s, Elie’s neighbor, home. The Germans were seemingly polite and charming to their hosts, and, on some occasions, smiled at them. Then on the 7th day of Passover, the German’s turned on the Jews and arrested the Jewish leaders of their community. They forced the remaining people in the community to stay in their homes for three days. If they left, the penalty was death. Moishe the Beadle had warned the town’s people of this. He had told them stories about the horrors the Germans had committed, of being taken away into a forest and barely escaping death. Yet, when he came back to Sighet, no one believed him and disregarded his warnings. He had come running to Elie’s house and reminded them that he had warned them, and then left without a response. That same day, the Hungarian police burst unexpectedly into every Jewish home. They were told that Jewish people could no longer possess gold, jewelry, or any valuables. In the following days their merciless attacks on children, women, and the elderly fueled everyone’s anger. They were promptly forced to leave their ghetto to go to the small ghetto, and from there they were herded into cattle cars. There were at least 80 people per car, and the conditions of the cars