The Reality Behind Elie Wiesel’s Night

This book by Elie Wiesel was an excellent read. The story takes place in Germany during the Second World War, where a young Jewish boy and his family get caught up in the tragedies of life under Hitler’s reign. Wiesel recounts his time in the internment camps with such clarity that the rawness of the story shocks the reader. Wiesel strips away the illusion that people had previously had about what happened during Hitler’s dictatorship and replaces it with the ugly truth.

When Wiesel first got out of Germany he was unable to write about what he had experienced due to the deep scars that his journey had created. Ten years later he sat down and wrote Night. And as if writing the book was not hard enough, after he finished the book Wiesel had a hard time finding a publisher because of the “…depressing subject matter.” People did not want to read a story about how a cultured people turned to genocide and how the rest of the world stood by silently watching the genocide take place for months before stepping in to help. The people wanted stories they could escape into; stories that would take them to a happy place, not a very real terrible time in history. Even though many publishers turned him down Wiesel eventually found a publisher.

One of the major themes in Wiesel’s story is the struggle to keep faith in God. Throughout the book Wiesel experiences many acts that steal away his innocence and consume his faith in the God that he loved so deeply. “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.” After each terrible experience that Wiesel went through his faith in God diminished just a little bit. What kind of God would leave his people to suffer like this?  A question that was a constant under-current, never gets quite answered. The truth and history in the story tend to draw the reader in.

During the Second World War many people liked the idea of being able to distance themselves from the effects of the genocide that was occurring in Germany at the time. Wiesel forces them to be faced with the reality of what happened. “The flames that consumed my faith…” Wiesel watched both children and adults alike be burned alive by the German soldiers, and like the people his faith consumed by that fire. Experiences like these that Wiesel recalls in this novel bring the readers face to face with the reality of what the Jewish people had gone through. By tearing though the illusions that some individuals, who were not present during the genocide, have Wiesel’s story creates a deeply moving story. That is well worth the read.