Night by Elie Weisel
Pre-read
Printable to go along with Oprah's interview
Oprah's interview with Elie Weisel (introduction)
Elie Weisel in his own words - interview
Prestwick House pre-read packet (see pages 5-9)
Story Summary
Night is a terse, terrifying account of the experiences of a young Jewish boy at
Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. The book opens in 1941 in his hometown of Sighet,
a small isolated community tucked away in the mountains of Transylvania, then
under Hungarian rule. Eliezer, the narrator, begins with a description of Jewish life
in the town. He also draws a vivid picture of himself and his family. He focuses in
particular on his fascination with his religion, particularly the mystical aspects of his
faith.
In 1941, Europe is in its third year of war. By this time it has become more and
more dangerous to be a European Jew. Yet, despite the news from other countries,
the Jews of Sighet refuse to believe that they are at risk. They dismiss the stories of
Moshe the Beadle, a foreign Jew who was deported to German-occupied Poland in
1941 along with thousands of other Jews who held foreign passports. After escaping
from the Germans, Moshe returns to Sighet to alert the Jews to the danger and finds
no one is willing to even imagine that he is telling the truth.
People prefer to be optimistic. Their optimism lingers even after German sol-
diers enter the town in the spring of 1944, force the Jews into ghettos, and, eventu-
ally, into cattle cars for deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. Among those
Jews are fifteen-year-old Eliezer, his parents, and his sisters. Only when the trains
pull into Auschwitz do they begin to realize the horror that lies before them. The
women—including Eliezer’s mother and sisters—are immediately separated from
the men. It was the last time that Eliezer would see his mother and youngest sister.
In the weeks that follow, Eliezer and his father are stripped of their clothing,
their hair, and ultimately their names. Each is now identified by a number tattooed
on his arm. In the months that follow, they endure hunger, humiliation, and a vio-
lence beyond cruelty in the various camps that make up Auschwitz-Birkenau,
including Buna, a slave labor camp. Then in the winter of 1945, as the Allies close in
on the German army, the camp is evacuated. Eliezer, his father, and the other pris-
oners are forced to travel in winter on foot and in open cattle cars to yet another
prison camp, this time Buchenwald in Germany. Not long after they arrive, Eliezer’s
father develops dysentery and slowly dies. Three months later, the camp is liberated.
After several weeks in a hospital, hovering between life and death, Eliezer gathers the
strength to look at himself in a mirror. He writes, “From the depths of the mirror, a
corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left
me.” (page 109)