Introduction
“Night” is a novel written by Elie Wiesel. The author narrates about his own experience of survival at the Nazi camps. The novel depicts the horrors and sufferings of people at the time of World War II and the life at the death camps built by Nazis in Europe. At the same time, it shows the deception, demoralization, and dehumanization spread by Nazi.
The Crime against Humanity
The actions of Nazis in Europe were called the crime against humanity. The mass killings of men, women, and children put the moral pressure on other imprisoned. The dehumanization provoked the demoralization at the camps. Eliezer, the main character of the novel and the prototype of the author, became one of the victims of the Nazi occupation in Europe.
In the novel, he depicts the horrors of that time. He and other members of his family had been taken to the ghettos in the Carpathian Transylvania. He observed the cynicism and rigidity of the Hungarian police. He told that it was the time when he started to hate them (Wiesel, 1992). Later, Eliezer and his father were sent to Auschwitz. Eliezer told that they did not know where his mother and sisters were but, after some time, they found out that they were sent to the gas camera as soon as they arrived at the camp.
The horrors observed by Eliezer and his fellows exhausted them morally. “Babies were thrown into the air, and the machine gunners used them as targets. This was in the forest of Galicia, near Kolomaye” (Wiesel, p.4). After observing this terrible scene, he started rethinking his attitude to life and moral as well as his faith in God.
Prisoners Demoralization
The life at the ghettos was the struggle for survival every day and every night. The exasperation of the prisoners became the natural outcome of their oppression caused by seeing the deaths every day.
“The passengers on our boat were amusing themselves by throwing coins to the ‘natives,’ who were diving in to get them…. I suddenly noticed that two children were engaged in a death struggle, trying to strangle each other” (Wiesel p.95).
Eliezer’s Memories
The novel is enriched with the memories of Eliezer of Nazis brutality. He and his fellows suffered from the famine and moral and physical exhaustion. At the same time, they observed the cruelty of the Nazi jailors.
“As we were not allowed to bend down, everyone took out his spoon and ate the accumulated snow off his neighbor’s back. The SS who were watching laughed at the spectacle” (Wiesel p.92).
The author describes his experience at the concentration camps as the murder of his soul, his dreams, and his God (Night. Study Guide n.d.). There are no exact figures of the deaths at the Nazi concentration camps. Some estimated the number of killed ranging from 1 885 889 to 2 045 215 casualties (Concentration Camp System 2019).
Conclusion
Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor, described his life experience at the Nazi concentration camps in Night, his famous novel. His memories depicted on the pages of his book make us think about the lessons of World War II for mankind. The Nazi deception, demoralization, and dehumanization spread at the camps produced the thousands of moral victims of the Nazi regime. We should always remember those people and do our best to avoid the repeat of the horrors of World War II.
Works Cited
Concentration camp system: in depth. (2019.). Holocaust Encyclopedia. Web.
Night. Study Guide. (n.d.). Web.
Wiesel, Elie. Night, South Melbourne, New York: Bantam Books, 1982. Print.