Eliezer Wiesel's Night

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The memoir Night is a powerful read that teaches readers about the Holocaust from the perspective of a victim. Eliezer is a young Jewish boy from Sighet who was taken away from his home and sent to a ghetto, and later sent to various concentration camps. From reading this book, I was able to learn new things about the Holocaust. I learned about the dehumanization process, how victims are moved around from their homes and between camps, the jobs they have to do, faith, religion, symbolism, and lastly, familial relationships. Night taught me about how victims of the Holocaust are moved around from their homes to the ghettos, then later to the camps. In the memoir, the town of Sighet was invaded by German officers. The officers created two ghettos in the town, and Eliezer and his family were sent to live in one. He and his family lived in this ghetto for about two weeks before being expelled. The families in Sighet were torn from their homes in the ghetto and were forced to stand outside in the blazing heat without food or water. Eliezer and his family were sent to a smaller ghetto, and then later sent to Auschwitz. I also…show more content…
Reading Night taught me that ordinary things began to symbolize different ideas. Bells symbolize death to the prisoners. Eliezer says, “At six o’clock the bell rang. The death knell. The funeral” (Wiesel 84). This quote is significant because it demonstrates the fact that the Nazi’s used bells to indicate or foreshadow death inside of the camps. Soup and bread symbolize life to the prisoners. When they are on a soup and bread diet, these two things are life or death to the prisoners. I also learned from reading Night that familial relationships were a major theme during the Holocaust. This memoir presents the idea that sometimes, family is all the prisoners have inside the camps. Family is what often encourages the prisoners to stay
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