Night

Akiba Drumer

Akiba Drumer is a religious Jew who ultimately struggles with his faith and is sentenced to death shortly thereafter.

Dr. Mengele

Dr. Mengele is a Nazi doctor who inspects people to determine if they will live or die.

"Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?" -Eliezer, Section 1

Eliezer is a pious Jew whose life revolves around prayer and study. When asked what seems like a simple question, he is unable to answer. Religion is so ingrained in him that it seems as natural as breathing.

Franek

Franek is a foreman at the warehouse in Buna, and he insists Eliezer have his gold crown removed and given to him.

Prisoner in infirmary

The prisoner in the infirmary tells Eliezer he places his faith in Hitler because Hitler has kept his promises to the Jews.

Unnamed inmate

The unnamed inmate in Section 3 advises Eliezer and his father to lie about their age in order to survive the selection.

Alphonse

Alphonse heads the musicians' block and tries to provide extra food to the young and weak.

Section 3:

As Eliezer and the others exit the cattle car, they receive instructions: "Men to the left! Women to the right." This is the last time Eliezer will ever see his mother and little sister. Eliezer and his father walk on together as the SS men (members of the paramilitary Schutzstaffel group) bark out orders. A fellow inmate tells Eliezer he should say he is 18 (not 15) years old and his father should say he is 40 (not 50). Another inmate approaches them and says, "You should have hanged yourselves rather than come here." The inmate is in shock when the Jews say they did not know about Auschwitz. He points out and explains the crematorium. Some of the younger men want to revolt, while Eliezer considers running into the electric fence. The fathers talk them out of these options. Then, Eliezer and his father go before Dr. Mengele, the Nazi physician who determines who is fit to work and who should be killed right away. Eliezer and his father are deemed fit for work, though for a moment they think they are being sent to the crematorium. Eliezer is in shock as he sees babies tossed into flaming pits; there is another pit for adults. He is angry at God and says what he sees that night will stay with him forever. The men are led into barracks where they are forced to undress and then sent to the barber to get their hair buzzed. Afterward, they look for acquaintances—happy to find someone alive. The men are given uniforms, and Eliezer notes his father looks different. He can't get over how much has happened in one day. The men are taken into another barracks. Eliezer is so exhausted he is falling asleep while standing up. However, they need to keep upright when a kapo, or head prisoner, stands up. Ultimately, an SS officer comes in and tells them about Auschwitz. He says if they don't work, they will be sent to the crematorium. When the kapos come back and start talking, Eliezer's father has a colic attack and asks to use the bathroom. Instead, he is slapped so hard that he falls, and Eliezer is so frightened he does not move. He thinks to himself, "Had I changed that much? So fast?" His father assures Eliezer he is fine and that there is no reason to worry, and the men are marched off to another camp within Auschwitz. While there, the men have numbers tattooed on their arms. A distant relative, Stein, finds Eliezer and his father and asks if they have news of his family. The relative, Stein, has been in the camps for two years. The only thing that keeps him going are thoughts of his wife and two children. When Eliezer tells him they are fine, Stein is overjoyed. He returns often, bringing a half a piece of bread and encouraging them to eat in order to avoid selection. After a transport arrives from the relative's hometown and his family is not on it, they never see him again. Some men talk about God and say they are being tested. During these conversations, Eliezer and his father occasionally talk about the rest of the family. Each one tries to believe for the other that the others are okay. After several weeks Elie, his father, and other men are marched for four hours to Buna, a work camp.

Bea

Bea is Eliezer's older sister who survives the Holocaust.

"We were the masters of nature, the masters of the world. We had transcended everything." -Eliezer, Section 6

Despite being malnourished and poorly clothed, the men are able to run for miles at a time on what has since been the death march. It seems as if they are able to overcome all the obstacles they face. Once they are given a break, many men die.

"I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a famished stomach." -Eliezer, Section 4

Eliezer and the other prisoners are malnourished. They are in the camps for work purposes only. The Nazis give the men as little as possible without starving them in order to work. The hunger gnaws at Eliezer and the other men; all they can think about is food.

Eliezer

Eliezer is a religious Jewish teen who lives in Hungary during the 1940s, and he is deported to the concentration camps by the Nazis. Read More

Mother

Eliezer's mother is sent away along with her daughters upon arriving in the concentration camp; she dies in the gas chamber.

Hilda

Hilda is Eliezer's oldest sister who survives the Holocaust.

Idek

Idek, also known as Idek the Kapo, is a kapo in the Buna warehouse, and he periodically feels fits of rage and acts violently.

"Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled." -Eliezer,Section 5

It is the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, and the men have gathered for prayer. Prior to the concentration camp experience, the holiday had great meaning and significance for Eliezer. Now, Eliezer is angry at God for what He has done and what He has allowed to happen to his people.

Juliek

Juliek is a musician whom Eliezer meets at Aushwitz and who dies during the death march after playing his violin.

Moishe Chaim Berkowitz

Moishe Chaim Berkowitz is Eliezer's friend who visits Budapest and returns to Sighet to report of anti-Semitic acts there.

Moshe the Beadle

Moshe the Beadle is a mystic who was taken away by the Nazis but was able to escape and return to Sighet, where he tries to warn the Jews of the pending disaster, to no avail.

Section 4:

Upon arrival, the men are showered, given new clothes, and sent to one of two tents while waiting for their work assignments. During roll call, the men try to find people they know to ask which work assignment is the best. They are told Buna is a good camp and to avoid the construction unit. Their tent leader is a fat German, and his assistant offers to get Eliezer into a good unit if he gives up his shoes. Eliezer refuses but loses his shoes later on anyway. During the medical examination, the dentist notices Eliezer has a gold crown. He wants to pull out the crown, but Eliezer says he is not feeling well. The dentist is eventually sentenced to hanging for stealing gold teeth. Eliezer is chosen for the orchestra block; the musicians work in a warehouse of electrical materials. He becomes friendly with some of the musicians, including Juliek. The work is not especially hard, but Idek the Kapo has occasional fits of madness. Franek is the foreman, and he arranges to have Eliezer's father work next to Eliezer. At the same time, Eliezer befriends a set of brothers, Yossi and Tibi, and the three of them talk of Palestine and dream of moving there after the war. Another inmate predicts redemption is coming in a few weeks. One day, Eliezer crosses Idek's path at a time when the kapo is angry. He severely beats Eliezer and then sends him back to work as if nothing has occurred. A French girl who works next to Eliezer and hides her Jewishness offers him some comfort. Eliezer reports seeing her after the war, when she admits she is Jewish. Another time, Idek takes his anger out on Eliezer's father. Eliezer is angry at his father for failing to avoid Idek. Franek notices Eliezer's gold crown and demands to have it, but Eliezer, after consulting with his father, refuses. As punishment, Franek beats Eliezer's father because he could not march in step. Eliezer tries to give his father lessons, but it does not go well. Eventually, Eliezer gives in and his tooth is pulled. Eliezer accidentally sees Idek having sex, and in retaliation, Idek has Eliezer severely whipped. Ultimately, Idek and Franek are transferred. Eliezer and the others are being slowly starved, so food becomes the only thing anyone thinks about. Eliezer says, "the bread, the soup—those were my entire life. I was nothing but a body." In the camp, bread is the most valuable item as people are desperate for food. Bread is used as a tool in bartering. When the Allies bomb Buna, two cauldrons of soup are left unattended, and a man risks his life to sneak to the kitchen. Eliezer and the others see the man who eventually reaches the kitchen; as he is about to eat the soup, the man is shot. Eliezer notes that the prisoners at Buna are forced to watch many public hangings, and he describes two of them. Eliezer feels sympathy for the first victim, yet his only response is "I remember that on that evening, the soup tasted better than ever." However, the second hanging that happens later involves Young Pipel, a sweet-faced boy who was helping the resistance, and the men question, "Where is God?" Eliezer has an answer for the man: "This is where—hanging here from this gallows." That day the soup tastes of corpses.

Yossi

Yossi lost his parents in the concentration camp. He and his brother Tibi befriend Eliezer, and the three of them dream of emigrating to Palestine.

Young Pipel

Young Pipel is a boy who is tortured and hanged for his involvement in sabotage; his death disturbs Eliezer.

Section 2:

Eliezer and his family are packed in a cattle car with other Jews from Sighet. Conditions are deplorable, and the inhibitions of some melt away given the cramped conditions and lack of privacy. Once they cross into Czechoslovakia, the prisoners' fears increase as they begin to recognize the gravity of their situation. The train stops and a German officer, along with a Hungarian lieutenant, enters and tells the people they must give up their possessions. They are also told if anyone goes missing, they'll all be shot. Madame Schächter is on the transport with her 10-year-old son. Her husband and two older sons have been taken in the first transport, and she is shattered. As the journey continues, Madame Schächter starts screaming out, "Fire! I see a fire! I see a fire!" The others, who are already on edge, cannot take the screaming. They look out the window, see nothing, and tell her so. When Madame Schächter persists, they try to help her. She continues and ultimately, they gag her to keep her quiet. Later on when she breaks free and starts yelling, they beat her and gag her again. The prisoners finally reach Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place they have never heard of before. The train is stopped, and two men are given permission to get water. When they return, they share news. This is their final destination: it's a work camp, conditions are good, and families are kept together. The news comforts the Jews, and they give thanks to God. Later, while still in the cattle car, Madame Schächter again starts yelling about fire and is again beaten and gagged. The others ask a German officer to take her to the infirmary, but he counsels patience. That night, the train moves slowly, and the Jews rush to the windows. They see barbed wires and "flames rising from a tall chimney into a black sky," and smell a wretched stench. The doors open at midnight, and they are abruptly taken out in Birkenau.

"I tightened my grip on my father's hand. The old, familiar fear: not to lose him." -Eliezer, Section 8

Eliezer and his father have been together throughout the time in the camps. While they are veterans by the time they enter Buchenwald, Eliezer still longs for his father's presence. Having him there provides Eliezer comfort and a reminder of a better world.

"Never shall I forget ... the first night ... that turned my life into one long night." -Eliezer,Section 3

Eliezer is overwhelmed with the horrors he sees upon first entering the camps. While he will go on to see and experience many horrific things during his time in the camp, his first experiences have already destroyed his innocence and burned themselves into his memory.

"The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me." -Eliezer, Section 9

Eliezer sees his reflection in a mirror for the first time since before he was in the camps. Due to his experiences in the camps, he does not recognize himself. The look in his eyes haunts Eliezer as they are eyes that have seen and experienced hell on Earth.

Section 9:

Eliezer spends the next few months in the children's block. He no longer thinks of anyone, including his parents. All he wants is food, and his dreams are of soup. On April 5, roll call is late, which is highly unusual. The men are told to gather at the assembly place, but Eliezer gets word the Germans are planning to kill all the prisoners and is told by his fellow inmates to go back to his block. An underground group known as the resistance, he is told, has "made the decision not to abandon the Jews and to prevent their liquidation." At roll call the next day, the Germans announce the camp will be systematically evacuated over the coming days and the men will no longer receive rations. On April 10, the remaining 20,000 prisoners are gathered and are about to be evacuated when a siren goes off and evacuation is put off until the next day. The next morning, the resistance members appear, and after a short battle, the SS flees. That evening, the American army arrives to liberate the camp. The freed men have one thought on their mind: food. The next day with their hunger satisfied, some men go to Weimar for clothes and sex. Three days after Buchenwald is liberated, Eliezer becomes deathly ill from food poisoning. While hospitalized to recover, he glances in the mirror and sees himself for the first time since he entered the ghetto. He says of the corpse he sees there, "The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me." The book ends with this sentence.

"My father had just been struck ... I ... watched and kept silent. ... Had I changed that much?" -Eliezer,Section 3

Eliezer's father is slapped by a kapo for asking a simple question. Authority is being established, and Eliezer sees it right in front of him—and does nothing. The Nazis used intimidation and caused the men to feel fear. This ultimately cowed many men to simply follow and accept.

Section 7:

Eliezer's father lies next to him in the cattle car, somewhere between life and death. When the train stops, the SS instruct the men to throw out the dead. The men take the clothes off the dead. They try to take Eliezer's father, but Eliezer "hit[s] him harder and harder" and at last his father opens his eyes. While on the transport, the men are not fed and live on eating snow. During one stop, a German worker throws bread onto the train car. A stampede erupts as the starved men are desperate. Eliezer says, "Beasts of prey unleashed, animal hate in their eyes." Observers throw more bread in as they find the spectacle of the men fighting entertaining. When a piece falls into Eliezer's car, he decides he will not fight for it. A son beats his father for a piece of bread and eventually it is taken from him; both father and son end up dead. Switching to his perspective as an adult, Wiesel relates watching a Parisian woman throw a coin to starving children after the war; the children fight over it with similar ferocity. That night, Eliezer wakes up to a man trying to strangle him. Eliezer calls out to his father who grabs the man and asks his friend Meir Katz to help him; they manage to free Eliezer. A couple of days later Meir Katz is feeling depressed over the loss of his son, who was taken from him in the first selection, and Eliezer's father tries to encourage him. The wind is blowing and the snow is falling. Someone gets up and says, "We must not remain sitting. We shall freeze to death! Let's get up and move." The men respond, but a dying man cries out like a wounded animal, and after that, all the men imitate his cry. That night they reach the end of their journey. Out of the 100 people who were on Eliezer's car, only 12 remain alive as they get off the train at Buchenwald. Meir Katz has died.

Symbols: Fire

Fire represents death, destruction, and the pure evil of the Nazis. As Eliezer and the Jews of Sighet are approaching Auschwitz, they have no idea of their fate or even what a concentration camp is. Madame Schächter, a woman whom they believe is mad, tries to warn them of their fate, crying, "Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Flames everywhere." Madame Schächter's premonition is about the crematorium, where millions of Jews, including Eliezer's mother and little sister, will lose their lives. Eliezer detects the smell of burning flesh the second he arrives at Auschwitz. Even for those who escape the crematorium upon arrival, the threat of it is ever present. To make sure the prisoners remember this, Eliezer and the others are warned, "Here, you must work. If you don't you will go straight to the chimney." Fire also symbolizes the death of Eliezer's faith and dreams; he describes "those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes."

Theme: Humanity

Humanity is largely absent in Night. Individuals treat each other with horrific cruelty, and death and disrespect are constants. There are a few exceptions, such as the inmate who helps Eliezer and his father to survive their first selection. As his father lies dying, Eliezer is given some advice by a veteran prisoner. The advice: you cannot help your father, so forget about him. In the camp, "It's every man for himself, and you cannot think of others." Relatives and friends do not exist because each prisoner lives and dies alone. He suggests that Eliezer keep his father's ration for himself as he needs it more. While the prisoner's advice makes rational sense, Eliezer recognizes it as a suggestion to give up on humanity. One of the most powerful scenes in the book—when a son kills his father for a crust of bread and is killed by another before he can eat the bread—is an example of a person who has lost his sense of humanity. The son did not see his father as a person; he saw only his own need. Despite all this, Eliezer understands the temptation as he considers the man's advice, and he never condemns Rabbi Eliahou's son for abandoning his father. However, he prays to never act like Rabbi Eliahou's son and chastises himself for considering the man's advice. While Eliezer survives his experiences, he wonders whether his sense of humanity has survived. When he looks at himself in the mirror and sees a corpse, it appears his humanity has been lost.

Section 1:

In 1941 Eliezer is nearly 12 years old. He lives in a small town, Sighet, which is located in Transylvania, Romania. Eliezer's family consists of himself, two older sisters, one younger sister, and his parents. They are religious Jews, and he studies religious texts and prays regularly. Moshe the Beadle is also a resident of Sighet. He is a poor man and an expert in Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical text. Against his father's wishes, Eliezer studies with Moshe the Beadle, who encourages him to think about new things. Shortly after the two begin studying together, Moshe and the other foreign Jews of Sighet are expelled from Sighet. The people of the town are upset at this development, but things go back to normal shortly thereafter. A few months later, Moshe the Beadle returns to Sighet and tells the Jews about Nazi atrocities in which people are forced to dig mass graves and are then shot. Moshe wants to warn everyone, but the Jews think he is crazy. Life goes on as before. Eliezer asks his father to move to Palestine, but his father says he is too old. In the spring of 1944 the Fascists gain control of Hungary. The Fascist political movement has appeared in many countries during World War II and shares some common characteristics, such as extreme militaristic nationalism and the belief that an individual's interests should be subordinated to the good of the nation. Shortly thereafter, the Nazis are in Sighet, and conditions become progressively worse for the Jews. They face harsh laws, their valuables are taken, and they are forced into ghettos. Finally, they are ordered to be deported via cattle cars to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. They are given one day to prepare. Eliezer and his family are part of the last contingent deported to the main Auschwitz camp.

Theme: Family

Just off the train at Auschwitz, Eliezer is separated from his mother and sisters. He will never see his mother again. The horror he sees that night is so terrible, Eliezer thinks he must be having a nightmare. He notes, "I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake?" The relationship with his father takes on greater significance for Eliezer. While in Sighet, Eliezer's father was a respected community leader, and he was sought out for advice on both public and private matters. However, Eliezer's father was not particularly sentimental and only infrequently displayed his feelings toward Eliezer and the family. Yet when Eliezer and his father are left on their own, Eliezer reaches for his father's hand and grasps it for fear of being lost. Other father-son relationships in the book fragment. Rabbi Eliahu's son abandons his father after three years together. He does so when he sees his father getting weaker; he is leery of having to take care of him. Eliezer recognizes this struggle and prays, "Give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu's son has done." In another father-son incident, Eliezer sees a son murder his father for a piece of bread. In contrast, Eliezer counts on his father's support, and his mere presence encourages him. When his father is held back for selection, Eliezer sleepwalks through the day and feels "sick at heart." During the death march, Eliezer contemplates suicide. However, his father's presence inspires him to go on. He doesn't want to let his father down. While taking a break during the death march, Eliezer and his father take turns resting. As Eliezer's father becomes weaker and weaker, and his death a question of when and not if, Eliezer can no longer be the child reaching for his father's hand. His father is in great need: "He had become childlike: weak, frightened, and vulnerable." Eliezer tries to help his father in whatever way he can, but at times he does so begrudgingly. When his father dies, Eliezer says deep inside his conscience he might have had the words, "Free at last!" Yet with his father gone, Eliezer says nothing matters anymore.

Madame Schächter

Madame Schächter is sent on the same train as Eliezer and his family to the concentration camps. She goes crazy and has a premonition of the crematoriums.

Martha

Maria is a non-Jew who worked for the Wiesels in Hungary as a maid, and she offers to hide them.

Meir Katz

Meir Katz is a friend of Eliezer's father who helps save Eliezer from an attacker in the cattle car before losing hope and dying.

Meir

Meir is one of the starving and freezing men in the open-air train, and kills his father for a crust of bread.

Rabbi Eliahu

Rabbi Eliahu, who is respected by all, is left behind by his son during the death march after going through the camps with him for four years.

Shlomo

Shlomo is Eliezer's father, and he, too, is sent to the concentration camps by the Nazis. Read More

Symbols: Silence

Silence represents the fate of the Jews, their powerlessness, and the absence of God. Elie Wieselwrote Night after breaking his personal vow of silence about the Holocaust. One of the reasons he did so was to be a voice for those who died. In addition, he felt the story needed to be told to encourage people to speak up in the face of evil. As Wiesel said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." In the book, Eliezer wonders, "How was it ... that men, women, and children were being burned ... [and] the world kept silent?" While Eliezer and the Jews of Sighet had some warning of the concentration camps, the information was not clear or from believable sources. Preoccupied by war, the world did little to stop the Holocaust. Eliezer silences himself as a form of self-preservation. After his father slaps him so hard he falls over, Eliezer says, "I had watched and kept silent ... All I could think was: I shall never forgive them for this." To humanity's silence Eliezer adds God's, asking, "What are You, my God?" With no satisfying response, Eliezer concludes God has gone silent and left the people to suffer their terrible fate.

"Meir, my little Meir! Don't you recognize me ... You're killing your father ... I have bread." -Eliezer, Section 7

Starvation has caused the prisoners to act in horrible ways. A father addresses his son in a loving way, but the son kills him for a piece of bread.

Stein

Stein is a relative of the Wiesels and comes to Eliezer and his father in desperate straits as he is hoping for news of his family.

Blockälteste

The Blockälteste is Eliezer's prison block leader at Buna; he advises the men to run during the selection to show their strength.

Section 5:

The Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah (New Year) has come and the men gather for prayer. Eliezer is angry at God and feels God does not deserve his praise. The words, "All the earth and universe are God's!" particularly goad Eliezer as he cannot fathom why the people, who are still praising God's name, are being treated so horrifically. He thinks, "Look at these men whom You have betrayed ... They pray before You ... praise Your name!" When Eliezer sees his father after the service, they share a tear. The moment brings the two of them together as Eliezer reflects, "Never before had we understood each other so clearly." The following week is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. It's a fast day but Eliezer decides not to fast. He sees this as an act of rebellion, but it comes with a price: "Deep inside me, I felt a great void opening." Eliezer is transferred to the construction block that he's been warned about, and he and his father are no longer working together. For 12 hours each day, Eliezer hauls heavy slabs of stone. At this point, the Nazis decide to hold a selection: those who are deemed unfit will be taken to the crematorium. Eliezer feels concern when it comes to his father. "How would he pass selection? He had aged so much," he worries. The men are told about the process and encouraged to run as they pass Dr. Mengele. Eliezer's friends, Tibi and Yossi, tell him he ran so fast no one could judge him. Eliezer goes to his father and learns he has passed the test as well. A few days later, however, 10 men are called out, including Eliezer's father. They are to go through another selection. Eliezer's father gives him a knife and spoon, his inheritance. "He felt time was running out. ... His speech became confused, his voice was choked." When the workday is over, Eliezer runs toward his father's block and feels relief when he finds his father has survived. Akiba Drumer, a fellow inmate who has lost his faith, is selected for death. Eliezer says, "If only he could have kept his faith ... he would not have been swept away." It's winter and the men are suffering from the frigid temperatures. Eliezer's foot swells, and he goes to the infirmary for surgery. While he is recovering, the Russian army approaches and the Germans decide to evacuate Buna. After discussing their options, Eliezer and his father choose to be evacuated, though Eliezer has not fully recovered. Eliezer learns after the war that the people who stayed behind in the infirmary were freed when the Russians arrived two days later. The men are marched out of Buna during a snowstorm.

"The yellow star? So what? It's not lethal." -Shlomo, Section 1

The Jews of Sighet have deluded themselves that they are safe. They hear rumors and even direct warnings from Moshe the Beadle. Yet, they cannot imagine what would happen even as it's happening.

"The race toward death had begun." -Eliezer, Section 1

The Nazis have entered Sighet after the Jews were certain they never would and that they would remain safe. Upon first arrival, the Nazis did not do much or impose laws. But ultimately, everything changed for the Jews of Sighet.

Theme: Cruelty

The Nazis performed terrible acts of cruelty that seemed to defy explanation. In a controversial experiment in the early 1960s, social psychologist Stanley Milgram sought to explain the cruelty of the Nazis. He theorized that subordinates merge psychologically with authority figures and thereby enter a kind of agent-like state. In this state, a person ordered by the authority figure to engage in inhumane acts is able to do so without guilt. However, Milgram's theory was undercut by the fact that 60 percent of his subjects acted independently of orders to apply electric shock therapy to a man they believed to be in pain. The disparities in the study fails to answer the question of whether or not a potential Nazi resides in the psyche of all humankind. The element missing from Milgram's study may have been war. In addition to enforced labor and genocide, the cruelty and atrocities the Nazis committed against the Jews included using babies for target practice, forcing the Jews to march miles in the cold, and slowly starving them. The Jews were treated so poorly that some of them began emulating the ways of their tormentors, particularly as they became more and more desperate; sons killed their fathers for crusts of bread. These acts of cruelty among Jews seems to bother Wiesel even more than the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. If the Jews had remained decent toward each other, Wiesel implies, the horror under which they lived would have been more tolerable. Eliezer, who as a young boy saw God's influence in everything, comes out of the war thinking that all men can be cruel.

Symbols: Night

The book's title also serves as a symbol. The worst things that happen to Eliezer occur at night. Eliezer learns that the Jews of Sighet are to be deported at night. The death march begins at night. Eliezer's father is presumed dead and taken away at night. Most significantly, Eliezer first enters a concentration camp around midnight. His first moments in the camp overwhelm him, and the impact is one he will never forget. He says the nighttime experience "turned my life into one long night seven times sealed"; night comes to symbolize death and despair. Night also symbolizes the absence of God. Eliezer once had great faith in God. However, as his experiences of the Holocaust drag on, his faith wavers regarding the existence and power of God. One of God's first acts was the creation of light and with light came life. About his loss of faith Eliezer says, "My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man." Hope has been lost and the darkness has prevailed.

Section 8:

The men arrive in Buchenwald utterly exhausted. Before being allowed to sleep they must take showers, but they are so weak that it's difficult to move. The guards try to force them, but some men simply sit down on the snow, and Eliezer's father wants to join them. He says to Eliezer, "I can't anymore ... it's over ... I shall die right here." Eliezer is angry his father is ready to give up after all they have gone through. A siren goes off, and the guards chase the men away, including Eliezer. The men are so exhausted that they choose sleep over soup. The next morning, Eliezer remembers he left his father and goes to look for him. Eliezer's father spots him and asks for some coffee. His father is burning with fever and is especially grateful when Eliezer gets him coffee. When it comes to feeding time, Eliezer's father does not receive any because he is so sick—the Nazis do not want to feed those who are about to die. Eliezer grudgingly shares his food with his father. Eliezer's father is suffering from dysentery. His condition continues to worsen, and he is losing his sanity. He tries to tell Eliezer where the family gold is hidden. Eliezer trades a ration of bread in order to exchange cots and be next to his father, and he brings him to a doctor who says he is a surgeon and can't help someone with dysentery. When another doctor curses the patients and says they are lazy, Eliezer is livid. He wants to "strangle the doctor ...! To set the whole world on fire! My father's murderers!" When Eliezer next sees his father, he learns that the other inmates have beat him. They say it is because his father was unable to go to the bathroom and instead is soiling his bedding. Later, they take his bread. When Eliezer's father begs him to bring him water, Eliezer is torn. He knows water is like poison for dysentery, but his father asks Eliezer to pity him. This situation continues on for a week. A veteran prisoner advises Eliezer to let his father go and worry about himself. When he learns Eliezer is sharing his rations with his father, he says, "You cannot help him anymore ... you should be getting his rations." Eliezer knows the man is right and feels guilty but continues to help his father, whose condition continues to worsen. Eliezer wakes up on January 29 and finds that his father has been removed, presumably to the crematorium, and another sick inmate has taken his place. His father's last call in the night was "Eliezer." All Eliezer can feel is relief.

Section 6:

The prisoners run for miles through the snow dressed in layers of clothing. Those who fall behind are shot like "[a] filthy dog." Eliezer describes himself and the others as automatons. Eliezer tries to encourage the young man next to him, Zalman, but Zalman falls and is crushed by the others. In excruciating pain from his injured foot, Eliezer dreams of and is fascinated by death but is inspired to keep on because of his father's presence. After 42 miles, they get to take a break at an abandoned village. Eliezer and his father agree to take turns sleeping. They know too much sleep will mean death. When Eliezer wakes his father, he says, "Then he smiled. I shall always remember that smile. What world did it come from?" A man beloved and respected by everyone, Rabbi Eliahu, comes by, looking for his son. They have endured three years together and now are separated. Realizing that the son deliberately parted from his father when he saw him slowing down, Eliezer prays to a "God in whom I no longer believed" that he would never abandon his own father. The men arrive at their destination, Gleiwitz. As a mass of prisoners pile into a barrack, Juliek, whom Eliezer knows, is nearly crushed. Juliek has his violin with him and is worried that it will be broken. Later that night, Juliek plays his violin. "Never before had I heard such a beautiful sound," says Eliezer of Juliek's concert. When Eliezer awakens the next morning, he sees Juliek dead with his violin next to him. They stay in Gleiwitz for three days without food or drink. The men are kept in the barracks and can hear cannon blasts; they are moved again after a selection. Eliezer's father is selected for extermination, but Eliezer creates a distraction and is able to bring his father to the side of those considered healthy enough to be allowed to continue on. After marching out of the camp, the men are given a ration of bread and start eating snow off each other as a way to quench their thirst. Eventually, the men are loaded onto an open cattle car for transport.

Tibi

Tibi lost his parents in the concentration camp. He and his brother Yossi befriend Eliezer, and the three of them dream of emigrating to Palestine.

Tzipora

Tzipora is Eliezer's youngest sister who dies in the gas chamber along with their mother.

Theme: Faith

When Eliezer enters the concentration camp, he is 15 years old. In Sighet, Eliezer is preoccupied with the synagogue and yeshiva, and his only priority is studying. He describes himself as deeply observant and says, "By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue." Prayer and religion are so ingrained within him, he asks, "Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?" He cannot imagine life without religion. Eliezer's time in the camps eradicates his faith. He becomes a skeptic and cannot fathom how God could allow such atrocities to occur. During the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which once had great meaning for Eliezer, he says, "Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled." While the holiday represents God's judgment of the people, Eliezer feels God deserves judgment. And in Eliezer's judgment, God comes up woefully short. He says, "And I, the former mystic, was thinking: Yes, man is stronger, greater than God." When Young Pipel is hanged, someone asks, "Where is God?" Eliezer's response: "Hanging here from this gallows." The Nazis and his experience in the Holocaust have killed Eliezer's faith in God. Eliezer is not the only one who suffers a crisis of faith. One inmate declares he only has faith in Hitler because he is the only one who has fulfilled all his promises to the Jews. Akiba Drumer, a young man of great faith, keeps up his belief in God throughout his experiences in the camp. When Akiba Drumer's faith begins to wane, "[h]e lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death." Maintaining faith in horrific circumstances proves impossible for many.

"A few more days and all of us would have started to scream." -Eliezer, Section 2

While on the train, the Jews are stressed and scared. They have no idea where they are being taken and for what purpose. All the dreadful rumors they have heard are starting to seem possible. Madame Schächter, who has been screaming the whole trip, has nearly pushed them over the edge.

Zalman

Zalman focuses on religion to help him escape the reality of the camps, but he feels stomach pains during the death march and falls to his death.