Night' Elie Wiesel: the Life During Holocaust
In the years following the Holocaust, there have been many different portrayals of the horrors that Jews faced in the ghettos and concentration camps. Whether it be film or a piece of literature, the affect that these works leave on individuals is thought provoking and lasting. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel used written word to share his first hand experiences of being forced into a ghetto and eventually taken to a concentration camp. This is Night Elie Wiesel summary paper where the plot of the book is reviewed.
The book Night allows the reader to place themselves in his shoes and truly imagine what it would have been like in the camp. Steven Spielberg, on the other hand, used film to depict the story of Oskar Schindler, a businessman who owned a factory in Krakow who is said to have saved more then one-thousand Jews during World War II. Both of these works display the horrific aspects of the Holocaust, but they tell the stories and capture the emotions of the individuals within them in incredibly different ways.
In Night, Elie Wiesel tells his personal account of what his life was like when he was a thirteen year old boy thrown into a ghetto. He spoke about the ghetto by saying that “the ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion”. In the beginning, the Jews were taken out of their homes and thrown into these deplorable ghettos, and at first many of them felt untouchable and safe from those on the outside of the ghetto. This quote confirms, through Wiesel’s first hand experience, that people were delusional at this time because none of them could even fathom the thought of what would actually happen to them. Eventually Wiesel and the other Jews were forced to abandon their belongings, forced onto trains, and taken to Auschwitz. Through his written word, Elie Wiesel is able to bring the reader into his life and truly understand the horrors he was forced to endure. There is one quote in particular that provides confirmation to the true emotional impact that written first hand narratives of Holocaust survivors have on those who read their stories. Elie Wiesel wrote “never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky” After Wiesel and his father realize that they survived the first selection at the camp, this quote occurs. He is questioning his faith, questioning why this is happening to him and the individuals around him, and questioning if he would survive the next section. The emotions and fears that he felt in that moment can truly be felt through the page. First-hand written experiences of the Holocaust provide something that Holocaust films could never give; they provide a personal connection to the individual witting their story. A movie is a dramatization of an event, for the most part there is no immediate connection to a real person, but written narratives include events and actions that actually happened to someone.
Elie Wiesel once asked the question, “Does there exist another way, another language, to say what is unsayable?” Famed director Steven Spielberg believes that the other language in which the history of the Holocaust can be documented effectively is through the language of film. The medium of film provides a new option of language that brings with it the power to depict the unimaginable pain and suffering that the Holocaust inflicted on the Jews. One of the most important and distinguished Holocaust films is Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg. Schindler’s List tells the story of a businessman named Oskar Schindler who came to Krakow to make a fortune from the war. He owned a factory and staffed it with primarily Jewish workers. When the SS began killing the Jews he made arrangements to protect his workers in order to keep his factory open, and in doing so, he saved an estimated one thousand lives. This movie received massive amounts of praise, but it also received massive amounts of disapproval. It was praised for its historical accuracy, of which the films writers, producers, and director placed the utmost importance on. Many of the films featuring stories about the Holocaust were negatively critiqued because of how much they are Hollywoodized. They were more focused on appealing to a large audience rather than truly making sure the historical material within the film was accurate. With Holocaust films, there is also the issue of oversimplification of the topic. Just as movies tend to oversimplify novels, Holocaust films tend to oversimplify the true complexities and horrors of what Hitler did. Steven Spielberg argued that the slight simplification of the movie, with the obvious good guys, bad guys, and victims, made it so the film was accessible to everyone. He wanted the movie to be understood by younger audiences, such as high schoolers, in order to educate as many people as possible. The film is one that shocked audiences everywhere with its graphic nature, real storyline, and uncensored scenes, but that is also what made it such an effective way to keep the memories of the Holocaust alive.
In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel shares his exposure of humanity’s potential to be evil during the Holocaust. He proves this first by sharing Moishe the Beadles experiences and then his own within the concentration camps. By sharing this part of his life in a memoir, Wiesel can continue to remind society of the horrific evils of the past. Even though the Holocaust was 74 years ago, the impact of this tragic event is still felt today.
