Chapter Summary Of Night By Elie Wiesel

“The three ‘veteran’ prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name” (Wiesel 42). 1. Wiesel describes to the reader how he is tattooed with an identification number by the “veteran” prisoners the morning after he and his father have arrived at their new camp: Auschwitz.
2. Wiesel says that once he is tattooed with the characters A-7713 by three of the veteran prisoners in camp, he becomes known by nothing other than that number.
3. Wiesel discusses this event in Night to show that in addition to stripping away their homes, belongings, and memories, the Nazis are beginning to strip away the humanity of the Jewish prisoners. To be known not by a name, but by a number, which demonstrates

Wiesel writes about this event in Night so that he can demonstrate how being a prisoner in the camp has made him lose his faith in God, and also to demonstrate his transformation from a spiritual young boy to an older boy who ceased to believe in the existence of God. Wiesel has written about the destruction of his faith several other times in Night, such as when he writes, “I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice” (Wiesel 45), and, “Blessed be God’s name? ¶ Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including the Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou…” (Wiesel

The death knell. The funeral. The procession was beginning its march. ¶ Night had fallen” (Wiesel 84). 1. Wiesel describes to the reader the beginning of his & his fellow prisoners’ evacuation from Buna, which comes when the Red Army gets too close to the camp, and the prisoners must be transported to another camp so that they are not liberated. Wiesel compares their march to a funeral procession.
2. The author says that at six o’clock p.m., the bell rang, signifying the bells of a church ringing to announce a death. Subsequently, the prisoners started to march – what the author compared to marching towards death. The darkness, the author wrote, had fallen.
3. Wiesel’s comparison of the prisoners’ long march from Buna to a funeral procession helps to emphasize to the reader that the prisoners were being forced to leave freedom behind – literally – and march even closer towards near-certain death at the hands of both the extreme weather and the SS. Earlier in Night, Wiesel discusses how the prisoners were commonly lured into false hopes that liberation was imminent. Imagine how the prisoners must have felt when they learned and observed that liberation was imminent – but that they would be forced to march away from it. In addition, Wiesel uses this quote to introduce and support the title of the book – Night. Even though Wiesel writes about his true experiences, and therefore, it most likely was nighttime when they were evacuated, he writes that