Night by Elie Wiesel: Chapter Summaries amp; Analysis

Review this content of Night by Elie Wiesel with your chapter summaries covering information in the memoir.
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel won the Nobel Prize Peace Prize in 1986. I have never won the Nobel Prize Peace Prize. So read the book first then come here for a review!




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Chapter 1: Wiesel grew up in Sighet, a smaller town in Translyvania. He is a strict Orthodox Jew who is tutored by Moshe the Beadle. When all foreign Jews are expelled, Moshe is deported. He returns to Sighet with horrific tales. Nobody believes him.
Fascists gain control in Hungary and allow the Nazis to come. The Jews of Sighet remain in denial that anything bad will happen to them. Days later the town is ordered to evacuate. Eliezer's household is part of the last group. Their former Gentile servant, Martha, warns them of impending danger and will be offering them a place of refuge. They refuse.




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Chapter 2: Eliezer and his townsmen are packed into cattle cars and suffer terribly. One woman, Madame Schacter, continually screams of a fire. She is silenced by her fellow prisoners. As the train arrives at Birkenau, they see smoke rising from chimnies and so are inundated while using horrific smell of burning flesh.
Chapter 3: The first selection occurs. Eliezer with his fantastic father lie regarding age and get away from the crematorium. As they walk to Auschwitz they pass a pit of burning babies. When they arrive in their barracks they are disinfected with gasoline, receive a tattoo, and so are dressed in prison clothes. Eliezer's father asks to venture to the bathroom and it is clobbered with a kapo. The prisoners are then escorted to Buna, a work camp four hours away.




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Analysis: Wiesel emphasizes the human being failure to comprehend just how evil humans could be. He and his family are warned more than once to flee, yet they and the city find the truth impossible. Wiesel's primary goal in publishing Night is to prevent another Holocaust from happening. He emphasizes the need to be aware of evil within the world and believe first hand accounts from it.
His recounting with the miserable conditions on the cattle cars and also the horrific events he witnesses at Birkenau are examples of quality accounts that must be taken seriously in order to prevent something as horrible from happening again.
Chapter 4: At Buna, Eliezer is summoned by the dentist to have his gold crown removed. He feigns illness. The dentist, he discovers, is hanged. Eliezer's only focus would be to eat and stay alive. He is savagely beaten with the kapo, Idek and is also consoled with a French worker, whom he meets years following the war. The prison foreman, Franek, notices Eliezer's gold crown and demands it. He refuses. Franek beats Eliezer's father and the man gives up the crown.
Eliezer catches Idek making love with a Polish girl. Idek whips him mercilessly and warns him that one word products he saw can lead to more severe punishment. During an air raid two cauldrons of soup are still unattended. A prisoner crawls for many years and is shot just before eating some. The Nazis erect a gallows at camp and hang three prisoners, the last one, a boy loved by all, causes perhaps the most jaded of prisoners to weep.
Chapter 5: It is late summer 1944 and another selection occurs. This time Eliezer's father is on the wrong side. He gives his spoon and knife to his son. Eliezer rejoices because he returns and discovers there is another selection and the father still lives. Eliezer hurts his foot and is also sent to the infirmary. He hears rumors of Russians approaching. The Nazis evacuate the camp. Eliezer assumes infirmary patients is going to be killed so he leaves. He discovers later that the patients were liberated the next day.
Chapter 6: The prisoners have to run 42 miles in one night within a blizzard. Those not able to keep up are shot. The refugees stop in a small village where Eliezer and his father keep the other awake to stop freezing to death. Rabbi Eliahu enters a tiny shack occupied by Eliezer, seeking his son. Eliezer recalls--after Eliahu's departure--seeing his son desert his father, something he prays for strength not to do. Another selection occurs. Eliezer's father is shipped to the death side. A diversion is created with his fantastic father switches lines.
Chapter 7: The survivors are packed into cattle cars and delivered to Germany. The train stops frequently to eliminate dead bodies. Eliezer recounts how German workers throw bread into the cattle Whatsapp girls numbers cars to witness the prisoners kill each other. Eliezer is nearly killed.
Analysis: Wiesel attributes his survival to luck and coincidence, two ideas that play a prominent role inside the novel. Each selection is often a matter of luck and coincidence; being assigned to easier jobs is really a matter of luck and coincidence; leaving the infirmary is a matter of luck and coincidence. Wiesel honestly portrays his feelings toward his father. He recognizes that his father gives him strength to keep; he acknowledges additionally that his father at times becomes a burden.




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Chapter 8: Upon their arrival at Buchenwald, Eliezer's father is unable to move. Eliezer brings him soup and occasional, up against the advice of other prisoners who counsel him to keep it for himself. Eliezer's father, being affected by dysentary, begs for water. An SS guard becomes annoyed and knocks him within the head. Eliezer wakes up the subsequent morning and discovers his father's empty bed. He is more relieved than sad.
Chapter 9: Eliezer is just concerned with food during his remaining months at Buchenwald. On April 5, the evacuation of Buchenwald is ordered. Nazis murder thousands daily. On April 10, Eliezer's block is ordered to evacuate, but it is cut short by air raid sirens. The next day the camping ground is liberated. Wiesel nearly dies from food poisoning. He recovers, looks inside a mirror, which is shocked by his appearance.
Analysis: Eliezer's reflection which he resembled a corpse ends the novel having a sense of hopelessness. Despite this hopelessness Wiesel dedicates his life to human rights.
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