Introducing the Memoir. * Night begin in 1941 in Weisel’s Estern European village of Sighet. * By 1944, however, the Germans occupy Sighet and Weisel’s struggle to survive begins. * Through young Wiesel’s eyes, readers travel into the hell of Hitlers death camp and into the darkness of a long night in the history of human race. * Wiesel wrote Night nearly ten years after the end of World War II. * Night is a brief autobiographical work in which the author recounts events he has witnessed and introduces people he has known. * Since Night’s American publication in 1960, Elie Wiesel’s willingness to share his own story has helped turn the tide of world discussion. * After the end of World War II, many people – Jews and non- Jews alike – did not want to think or talk about the horrible events that had occurred.
The time and place * Night takes place in Europe during World War II (1939- 1945). * Germany’s defeat in World War I. * The Nazi party – In German NAZI stands for National Socialist German Worker Party- cam to power in the late 1920s. Its leader Adolf Hitler. * Many Germans