...In 1986, Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights activism and campaigns against worldwide genocide and violence. In his acceptance speech, Wiesel said “When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe”. Wiesel found himself a target of the Nazi “Final Solution” while still only a teenager. Confined first to ghettos, Wiesel along with his whole family were then deported to the death camps at Auschwitz in 1944. The tough labor, the gruesome beatings along with the terrible conditions of Auschwitz...
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...In his memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel recalls his experiences as a young Jewish boy in a Nazi death camp. The narrative begins with Wiesel and his family living in Sighet, Romania, when the plot of the story begins to unfold. Soon afterward, the Jewish people are deported, and the horrifying events of the Holocaust are revealed. Throughout the story, Wiesel describes the atrocities that took place during this period of genocide during World War II. As the story progresses, various relationships that Wiesel holds with certain individuals evolve, and these changes contribute to his survival. Two such characters that the author relates to through his horrifying experiences are God and his father. Wiesel starts out in the story as a firm believer in God; however, his faith in and relationship with God begins to change as a result of his agonizing experiences. Despite constantly being on the verge of life and death, Wiesel is able to carry on, partially because of this correspondence with God. At the beginning of the novel, Wiesel claims that "he believes profoundly." (1) The author has a naive, yet strong, faith in God at an early age, and he is constantly studying the Talmud and spending time in the Temple with his religious mentor, Moshe the Beadle. Months later, the Jews are placed in the ghettos, and then are expelled in cattle cars soon after. During the transport, the Jewish people receive false hope of good conditions in the labor camps, so "they give thanks to God." (24)...
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... May 1, 2011 Major Works Data Sheet- Night Title: Night Author: Elie Wiesel Date of Publication: 1958 Genre: autobiography, memoir Historical information about period of publication: World War II, and the Holocaust, ended in April 1945 when the liberating Allied armies came through the conquered territories in Nazi Europe. Night describes 16 year old Elie’s loss of faith in God, humanity, family and morality in general. Elie, therefore, vowed to not speak of his experience in Auschwitz, Buna or Buchenwald (or any event between 1943 and 1945, from the beginning of the occupation of Hungary to Germany’s liberation in 1945) for ten years, until he had time to internalize this dramatic loss, and regain his faith and possession of his memory and life. In 1954, after realizing that even less than ten years after the end of the Holocaust, the world was already forgetting and Jews were abandoning their roots, the time had come to testify and justify to the world that Hitler had not succeeded. Biographical Information about the author: Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in Sighet Romania, where his memoir Night begins. In his childhood (up to the Nazi occupation of Romania) his father encouraged his study of the Torah, other Judaic texts and other literary works. As described in the beginning of Night, Elie was also curious about the realm of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism. From 1944 to 1945, Elie and his family were subjected to the Nazi terror...
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