Silence In Night Elie Wiesel

“He spoke of only what he had seen. But people not only refused to believe his tales, they refused to listen”(Wiesel, 7). The first time that the idea of silence is ever seen in the book is one of the scenes in the very beginning; where Moishe the Beadle arrives back in Sighet to tell the people of the horrors he had seen in the forest, but to no avail. The people shut him out; they say nothing to the man who has seen what nobody should ever see. It's a state of denial, the people have implemented the idea that no German army can come into their country. Their minds are set in stone, their lips are sealed, and they remain silent and unwilling. “Keep her quiet! Make that woman shut up. She's not the only one here”(Wiesel, 26). In the train to the camp, Mrs. Schachter is separated from her family and begins to have vivid hallucinations of flames and fire. After a while of shouting and screaming, she is silenced by
blows to the head and is struck over and over again. Again, the other people in the train see only the tip of the iceberg, they dismiss her as being thirsty and longing for her family. But Mrs. Schachter could see what was ahead, and the misbelieving people silenced her in fear. “Long live liberty! My curse on Germany! My curse! My-”(Wiesel, 62). At the camps Eliezer is sent to, the prisoners are also taught to be silent and without a word. When Elizeer witnesses the hanging of a young man, the only words that can be heard are the man's last. And he falls silent. The man is at death's door, and only now can he speak out against oppression without worry. It's his cry for help, but it has no meaning as the prisoners remain silent and carry on. The words linger in the air but cannot be used. “The officer came closer and shouted to him to be silent. But my father did not hear. He continued to call me”(Wiesel, 111). Eliezer is forced to listen to his father's cries for help as he is beaten by the guards, and cannot make any effort to save him for fear of being beaten. His father calls and calls, only to meet silence. Eliezer's fear drives this silence, as it does throughout the story: people are helpless if they're under fear. So he grits his teeth, turns around, and does not say a word, because he is afraid. Afraid of the future. “My hands were aching, I was clenching them so hard. To strangle the doctor and the others! To set the whole world on fire! My father's murderers! But even the cry stuck in my throat” (Wiesel, 109). By this point, he has been beaten down to such a point where he cannot even speak out against his father's mistreatment. There is so much fear instilled in him that he can't say anything, because only God knows what the SS will do to him. It was in this way that the Germans could keep the the prisoners and the world silent; with fear. “All round me death was moving in, silently, without violence.
It would seize upon some sleeping being, enter into him, and consume him bit by bit” (Wiesel, 89). This line shows how quiet death was. How eagerly the men awaited death to come and take them away, and how they didn't fight it, and instead welcomed it with opened arms. There was no triumph, no noise. The entire ordeal of the Holocaust happened in a hushed whisper, under covers, much like the book's title, Night. “Total silence in the camp. On the horizon, the sun was setting”(Wiesel, 64). In this moment, three men are hanged for their crimes, and the prisoners are forced to watch. They say nothing, and watch with sullen eyes as more and more of them are put to death like animals. It's the terror put into them from watching these constant hangings, shootings, and burnings that make the prisoners sit still and watch. Anyone worthy of calling themselves human would say something about the horrifying things happening in the camps, but these men were stripped of their humanity and simply
watched.